Hunger in the eyes of a 24-year-old: the diary of my entrepreneurial journey

[BlackLands]

Hello everyone! This will be a slightly longer post than usual, as I will discuss my goals for 2023, what I've achieved and haven't achieved and why, the current state of affairs, and my objectives for 2024.

# What were my goals for 2023?
## Achieve at least €25,000 in my bank account.

• Why this goal?
  • This amount allows me to support myself for at least 2 years if I decide to stay in Barcelona or anywhere else in Europe (except for countries with a very high cost of living, such as Switzerland), and thus pay for rent, or for more than 2 years if I decide to return home to my parents, where my expenses would be nil. In Barcelona, my monthly costs including rent and groceries are about €1,000-€1,200, and I have a saving power of over 30%. I track all my earnings and expenses, and having studied personal and behavioral finance, I feel quite robust in this regard.
• Achieved?
  • Yes, I'm slightly above the goal and very happy about it. You can't understand the freedom I feel in having this amount of money and not having to submit to anyone. If I want, I can resign; otherwise, I stay. Clearly, it's not a vast sum that allows me to stop working, but it's still a small portion of freedom.

## Develop a SaaS and have at least one buyer.

• Why this goal?
  • I have a bachelor's degree in computer science and a master's in Data Science, and have always been ambitious entrepreneurially. The SaaS business model aligns well with my technical background, and I find it very appealing due to its scalability advantages.
  • Working on a SaaS project not only allows me to build a side-business but also to learn marketable skills that enable me to increase my salary year by year. Two birds with one stone: I develop something of my own that could potentially earn me money and, simultaneously, I acquire technical and soft skills that are valuable in the job market. The salary I earn will finance my entrepreneurial climb.
  • I enjoy building, sharing with others, and improving my product.
• Achieved?
  • Unfortunately, no, for the following reasons:
    • Despite my background in computer science, the skills I had at the beginning of the year were insufficient for developing a SaaS MVP, and no-code programs provide me with few real and marketable skills and are not suitable for my needs. I am now developing these skills, but to summarize, it's more challenging than I thought. However, I am learning many new things. My progress after work has been very slow. Of course, the start is slow, but then I'm sure my next MVP will be super fast, as I'll already know the whole technology stack needed and I realize I'm much faster than before. I need to have patience and focus on the process.
    • Sometimes I preferred to invest time in learning Spanish and networking by attending events with other entrepreneurs. I have acquired a good level of Spanish and met strong entrepreneurial individuals, which I don't regret.
    • I moved to a new country and I needed to invest time in understanding how the healthy system and all the burocratic things works.
    • I invested a lot of time in making video for my YouTube channel.

In summary, other things more important than the MVP have occurred. A new job in a new country, stress to handle and so on. But I've improved as a person and I feel stronger than before and with far more experience.

# Unexpected successes of 2023

• I was invited to give a lecture on networking at a private business school where I explained how I managed to interview millionaires and famous people on a podcast that started with a zero budget. This allowed me to come into contact with the school's director and discuss with him the problems schools have and how to solve them.
• I have reached a level of Spanish that allows me to live comfortably in Spain and Spanish-speaking countries, listen to, and understand everyone and everything. Clearly, I'm not a native speaker, but thinking that I can now talk to a couple million more people is pretty great.
• I received several job offers that literally doubled my salary after just under two years of work experience (I graduated in 2022 on schedule) and considering that with each job change, my salary increased and currently, I definitely earn well above the Spanish average.
  • What does this mean?
    • The skills I have are valuable, I'm good at selling myself in job interviews, and the improvements to my personal branding on LinkedIn are having their effects; recruiters appreciate it. If I fail as an entrepreneur, I can find another job.
• I reached a thousand subscribers on my YouTube channel, and many young people contact me asking for advice and more. I could think of selling them consultancy on how to get into a FAANG company and increase the chances of passing a technical interview. I've undoubtedly improved my communication skills.

# Current Status
Currently I work full-time as a Data Scientist, have a YouTube channel, and am working on the MVP of my SaaS that facilitates the job application process.

## Career

• After the first 5 months, work started to get boring. The upside is that I manage my own time as I want and have a lot of freedom; the downside is that I feel like I'm dying inside doing the same stupid tasks every day (no, they can't be automated as they require a lot of human interaction), and I feel like I can do more. I've talked to my managers, but until the end of 2024, they can't give me other tasks because business plans must be respected.
  • Positive aspects
    • Saved money that will pay for any months without work that may come in the future if I decide to fully dedicate myself to entrepreneurship.
    • Benefits: a private insurance that allowed me to have free medical checks, free shoes, and a GoPro received as a prize for winning a hackathon. I will use this GoPro to shoot videos for my YouTube channel; currently, I use the company phone, which I will return when changing jobs.
    • I've learned a lot about A/B testing; this will serve me for my future projects, as A/B tests are essential for measuring the effects on a certain metric of a change to one's product.
    • Several very strong colleagues who I'm sure will make a career in the future.
    • I've learned a lot about myself, how to manage priorities and anxieties, how to talk with bosses, how to sell my ideas.
    • They did the paperwork for me to be able to work legally in Spain. This means that I can now work in two countries (Italy and Spain) without any problem. In case I can't find another job in Spain, I'm covered.
    • I've already developed a plan to become an ML Engineer so as to change roles (a bit more technical) and companies (I need fresh air and lively people around, perhaps a startup).

## YouTube Channel

• With 1k subscribers, I tried to sell consultations on how to use Obsidian (a note-taking program) but had little success, and I suppose the reasons are as follows:
  • The problem is not felt; people don't care about creating a digital archive that allows them to connect information. The majority are too lazy and want the magic formula. Obviously, I don't take it personally; 99% will never achieve anything, and the methods I teach allow me to study better and faster, always having an advantage over them.
  • The target has little money; my target audience would be broke college students.
• I've learned a couple of things about business, anyway, I haven't spent money, and I've gained contacts since many of these people work in large tech companies and if they don't work there, they will in the future as they are very intelligent and ambitious people.
• Currently, I do weekly live streams in which I work on my MVP, so not only do I create content, but I also work on my side business.

## MVP

• The idea is to solve a personal problem: finding a job faster. My SaaS allows having a single space in which to converge different jobs uploaded on platforms like LinkedIn, then handle showing the user the jobs they are most likely to be selected for and automatically write a cover letter and contact the recruiter via email.
• My web development skills are limited; I've been programming in Python for 6 years but know nothing about Django. I'm learning Django, React, GraphQL, and other useful stuff. I am very happy because I'm learning new and marketable skills, and they will also facilitate my future entrepreneurial rise, allowing me to rapidly develop what I want on my own.

# Goals for 2024
## Career
I need to find a job as an ML Engineer as it will allow me to learn skills such as deploying an ML model to production and monitoring it, etc. This skill, in my opinion, will gain increasing value in the job market, allowing me to have high salaries but also helping me in entrepreneurship as AI models already solve many problems and will solve many more in the future. Therefore, being able to implement AI in one's digital products will be a considerable advantage.

## Side business
Develop MVP and have at least one buyer. One is enough for now to live the sensation of being able to create something useful for people. Once the spark happens, the rise will be unstoppable. Just the first customer, only one for now.

## Mindset
Understand what my fundamental personal values are. Sometimes I feel like I am constantly running and doing things but never stopping to consider if I am satisfied with what I am doing. I took inspiration from THIS THREAD and intend to dedicate more time to myself to understand what is important to me so that I can know in advance whether a particular life or business choice is aligned with these values and whether it will make me feel good or bad. I understand that as MJ says, one needs to be altruistic in a world of egoists, but living miserably every day doing things completely outside your values, I'd say no. I seek balance.

Of course, I have already proceeded to divide these goals into measurable sub-goals, don't worry.

# Goal for next week?

• I don't work, so I will have plenty of time. First and foremost, I need to send out at least 21 well-written CVs per week.
• I need to implement features for my SaaS, specifically developing the task that will synchronously and independently find new job offers and update the database.
• I will take different personality tests and compare them to understand some of my characteristics. Additionally, I will dedicate time to ask myself what my goals are and understand the real motivation that drives me to pursue them.

---

Thank you for making it this far; I hope I've been thorough. A special thanks to @MJ DeMarco , @Spenny and @fx.lukasx

If you're wondering about my goal for 10 years from now, I invite you to read my first post in THIS THREAD. **My mother passed away a few years ago, and the least I can do is establish a foundation in her name.**

I will update this thread weekly, keeping you posted on what I have done, what I will do, and any thoughts I might have about it.

See you soon, guys— seize life!

 

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[BlackLands]

As I described in my last post, I'm focusing on improvement in three areas: Career (Job), Side Business, and Mindset.

My Goals for the Past Week​

Career

• Sent at least 3 well-written resumes with cover letters to land my first ML Engineer role. This role not only boosts my salary but also enhances skills crucial for my side business. It allows me to develop products involving AI, beyond just a ChatGPT API WRAPPER (which is no longer a feasible business IMO).

Side Business

• Implemented features for my SaaS, specifically developing tasks for synchronously and independently finding new job offers and updating the database.

Mindset

• Took various personality tests to compare and understand my characteristics. Also, dedicated time to ponder my goals and grasp the real motivation driving my pursuit.

What I Did & Results​

Career

• Sent over 30 applications, completed 1 home assessment, and scheduled calls with HR for the upcoming weeks. Expecting more responses post the holiday season in Spain.

Side Business

• Completely overhauled the tech stack for simplicity, transitioning to a lighter stack that fits my needs better.
• Explored tutorials on setting up backend and frontend, aiming to create a reusable structure for future SaaS MVP/MLP.
• Built the base of my backend and frontend.

Mindset

• Daily removal of 5 core values from a list of 100, aiming to retain only 5 core values in the future.
• Set aside time for personality tests and introspection on values. Gained insights on areas of improvement and potential success in various environments.

Results of the tests:

• Preference for Rationality and Logic:
  • 16 Personalities (INTJ-A): Tends to dismiss emotions in favor of rationality.
  • Strengths Finder (Focus Expert): Prefers concrete goals and dislikes distractions.
  • Take Flight Learning Profile: Emphasizes a business-focused, decisive problem-solving approach.
• Drive for Learning and Knowledge:
  • 16 Personalities (INTJ-A): Highly imaginative, open-minded, and curious.
  • Strengths Finder (Philomath, Coach): Enjoys learning and supporting growth.
  • Take Flight Learning Profile: Capable of driving innovation and taking calculated risks.
• Decision-Making and Assertiveness:
  • 16 Personalities (INTJ-A): Highly organized, decisive, and assertive.
  • Strengths Finder (Commander, Catalyst): Comfortable with conflict and assertive in views.
  • Take Flight Learning Profile: Emphasizes decisiveness and quick problem-solving.
• Areas for Improvement:
  • Communication Skills: Indicated in both the Strengths Finder and Take Flight Learning profiles.
  • Balancing Perfectionism with Timely Results: Identified in both the Strengths Finder and Take Flight Learning profiles.
  • Handling Pressure and Prioritization: Recognized in the Take Flight Learning Profile.

What I've Learned?​

• The need to be more empathetic with people.
• Flourishing in environments offering freedom for innovation and extensive learning.
• Working on improving prioritization skills by being mindful of tasks in my to-do list and their importance.

Goals for Next Week​

Career

• Sending a minimum of 3 applications daily, totaling 21 per week. Organizing interviews with HRs and maintaining the momentum.

Side Business

• Finalize deployment of the user authentication system.
• Populate PostgresSQL with necessary data.
• Understand how to send data from the backend to the frontend (I'm learning NextJS since some of my frontend friends told me that it's easy to create beautiful interface with it, for now I agree with them).

Mindset

• Complete the Enneagram test and compare results with prior tests.
• Daily removal of 5 core values and contemplation of goals by asking "why" thrice.

 

[BlackLands]

My goals for the previous week

• Career
  
  • Sending a minimum of 3 applications daily, totaling 21 per week. Organizing interviews with HRs and maintaining the momentum.
• Side business
  • Finalize deployment of the user authentication system.
  • Populate PostgresSQL with necessary data.
  • Understand how to send data from the backend to the frontend (I'm learning NextJS since some of my frontend friends told me that it's easy to create beautiful interface with it, for now I agree with them)
• Mindset
  
  • Complete the Enneagram test and compare results with prior tests.
  • Daily removal of 5 core values and contemplation of goals by asking "why" thrice.

What I accomplished

• Career
  
  • I've sent at least 3 CVs each day in the last week. I'm looking for companies that are growing fast (startups where VC founds are investing) and where I can learn the skills that will enable me to don't be substited by AI in 10 years.
  • I did one home assignment (almost 1h:30, crazy) for a company.
  • I've two calls next weeks with two HR of two different companies. Good to know that my skills are requested and that my year of experience in my current job is giving me results. It's true that to do what you like, sometimes you need to do what bore you.
• Side business
  
  • Priorities here have changed compared to the last week but:
    • Authentication system deployed!
    • I designed the DB architecture and implemented it. I spent most of my times here since as it was more difficult than I thought, but now it's working.
• Mindset
  
  • Each day I removed 5 core values from a list containing more than 100. Good to notice that each days become more difficult to remove values, this means that I'm reaching my TRUE CORE VALUES step by step.
  • I did the Enneagram test
    
    • Results:
      • Strong in leadership, confidence, and strategic thinking.
      • Ambitious, strategic, and visionary.
      • Working on over-controlling tendencies, building trust, and understanding the importance of vulnerability and open-heartedness.
    • What I'm learning:
      
      • I need to be less rational in my relationship with others and be more confident in showing my vulnerabilities instead of acting as a robot.
• Other
  
  • I have always been a goal oriented person and I've always studied how to beat procrastination, how to be more productive and so on. But my productivity system was a bit unorganized.
  • I've improved my productivity system, now for each area in which I want to improve, I can see all the tasks that I need to accomplish instead of having everything in one bucket.
  • Thanks to an article published by @MJ DeMarco , I tried to set for each task a minimum standard that I need to accomplish that it's based on my energy level or time I've that day. For example I've a minimum number of CVs to send each day, such that when I feel really tired I just do the minimum amount of work (send 3 CVs), otherwise I do more (I sent more than 6 CVs, believe it's not a low number if you take in account that I write the cover letter, I check who is working in the company and the level of seniority and so on.
  • I'm also trying GoalSumo.com and writing a list of feedbacks that I hope will be useful to improve the platform, thanks to @Dean Irwin and @MJ DeMarco for this wonrderful product.

Goals for the next week

• Career
  
  • Continue sending at least 3 CVs each day.
  • Do the interviews and if I don't pass them, ask for feedback in order to create a list of skills to acquire.
  • Contact Senior ML Engineer to receive feedback on the best resources and shortcut to get this position.
• Side business
  
  • I need to fix the tests for the DBs.
  • I need to create the connection between the frontend and the backend in order to understand how to show to users the data I've in the DB.
• Mindset
  
  • Finish to read this article about how to pick a career that resonates with me, really interesing and taking notes and reflect: How to Pick a Career (That Actually Fits You) — Wait But Why
  • Set time to think about what are my goals and ask why I want to reach them and continuing asking the why for other 3 times at least. Self reflection baby.

 

[BlackLands]

Hello, below is the update for the 14/01/2024.

My Goals for the Past Week

Career:

• Continue sending at least 3 CVs each day.
• Conduct interviews; if unsuccessful, seek feedback to create a list of skills to acquire.
• Contact a Senior ML Engineer for feedback on the best resources and shortcuts to secure a position.

Side business:

• Fix tests for the DBs.
• Establish a connection between the frontend and backend to understand how to display data to users.

Mindset:

• Finish reading an article about how to pick a career that resonates with me, take notes, and reflect.
• Set aside time to think about my goals, questioning why I want to reach them, and continue asking "why" at least three more times for self-reflection.

What I Accomplished

Career:

• Sent more than 21 CVs and had a successful interview for a position in the USA, with two more interviews pending.
• Discussed work with a Senior ML Engineer, gaining insights and book recommendations for implementing an ML System for my SaaS.

Side business:

• Skipped fixes for DB tests as they were not a priority.
• Implemented the skeleton of the interface for my SaaS, making it easy to add pages and design as needed.
• Learning TypeScript, Javascript, and React for frontend development.
• Understood how to retrieve data from the DB and present it to users.

Mindset:

• Finished reading the article, now reworking the notes and contemplating its impact on my career.
• Removed five core values from my list daily, helping define what truly matters.

Goals for the Next Week

Career:

• Continue sending 3 CVs daily and organize additional calls with HRs.
• Invest more time in a work project to enhance ML System development skills.
• Begin reading the book recommended by the Senior ML Engineer.

Side business:

• Find a way to schedule and automatically run jobs that scrape job descriptions from various websites and update my DB every X minutes with the latest jobs.

Mindset:

• Rework the article read last week.
• Reflect and write about why I want to achieve my goals, discerning if it's truly my desire or influenced by others.

 

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[BlackLands]

My Goals for the Past Week
Career:

• Continue sending 3 CVs daily and organize additional calls with HRs.
• Invest more time in a work project to enhance ML System development skills.
• Begin reading the book recommended by the Senior ML Engineer.

Side business:

• Find a way to schedule and automatically run jobs that scrape job descriptions from various websites and update my DB every X minutes with the latest jobs.

Mindset:

• Rework the article read last week.
• Reflect and write about why I want to achieve my goals, discerning if it's truly my desire or influenced by others.

What I Accomplished

Career:

• I've sent over 3 CVs each day and I've organised 3 interviews as ML Engineer for the next week.
• I've start reading the book about ML System that I'll use to implement a new system in my SaaS in the future.

Side business:

• I've setup the job scheduler and I'm able to get the new jobs posted on multiple websites. The only problem is I'm facing a bug difficult to solve. So this goal is reached at 70%.

Mindset:

• Didn't have the time to think about the why behind my goals.

Goals for the Next Week

Career:

• Do the interviews and continue sending 3 CVs every day.

Side business:

• Be able to automatically update the DB after I fetch the new job info from multiple sources.

Mindset:

• Put aside 1h to ask myself the why behind my goals.

 

[BlackLands]

Hello! Below my update for this week (28th of January). I spent the entire week at my friend's home in Zurich, so I didn't have the time to fully work on my goals. I'll start at full rhythm from Monday!

My Goals for the Past Week
Career:

• Do the interviews and continue sending 3 CVs every day.

Side business:

• Be able to automatically update the DB after I fetch the new job info from multiple sources.

Mindset:

• Put aside 1h to ask myself the why behind my goals.

What I Accomplished

Career:

• I did 3 interviews and I sent 3 CV every day. Next week I've to continue with some steps of interviews I've done in the past weeks.

Side business:

• Didn't work on my Side Business.

Mindset:

• Didn't work on my Mindset.

Goals for the Next Week

Career:

• Do the interviews and continue sending 3 CVs every day.

Side business:

• Be able to automatically update the DB after I fetch the new job info from multiple sources.

Mindset:

• Put aside 1h to ask myself the why behind my goals.

 

[BlackLands]

My Goals for the Past Week
Career:

• Do the interviews and continue sending 3 CVs every day.

Side business:

• Be able to automatically update the DB after I fetch the new job info from multiple sources.

Mindset:

• Put aside 1h to ask myself the why behind my goals

What I Accomplished

Career:

• I've two important interviews in the following weeks. When I say "important" I mean: very huge increase in the salary and a role that will help my gain a lot of industrial experience on AI systems development.
• I also received a job offer from an ex-CEO of a company that he was able to sell for more than 100 millions of euros. I need to evaluate the offer because the job will be shitty, but it is counterbalanced with the opportunity to work in a startup founded by experienced people.

Side business:

• I was able to develop the processes that automatically fetch new data around the web and keep my DB updated. Very happy about this!

Mindset:

• Worked on it. The reason behind my goal is that I want to be able to manage my time as I prefer. I want to be free from financial constraints, free from having to find a job and free from any laws or politicians' stupidity.
• I'm removing 5 core values from a list of more than 100 core values every day. I'm almost reaching my top 5 core values.

Goals for the Next Week

Career:

• Study hard for the interviews. The good thing is that in the worst case if I don't pass the interviews, I'm studying topics that I can and I'll apply in my side project.

Side business:

• Put it on idle. I want to be fully focused on the interview.

Mindset:

• Continue removing 5 core values each day from the list.
• In my spare time I'm reading a book about Buddism. I always wanted to learn more about it. For now I didn't get any new important and practical teachings to apply in my life, but let's see.

 

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[BlackLands]

My Goals for the Past Week
Career:

• Study hard for the interviews. The good thing is that in the worst case if I don't pass the interviews, I'm studying topics that I can and I'll apply in my side project.

Side business:

• Put it on idle. I want to be fully focused on the interview.

Mindset:

• Continue removing 5 core values each day from the list.
• In my spare time I'm reading a book about Buddism. I always wanted to learn more about it. For now I didn't get any new important and practical teachings to apply in my life, but let's see.

What I Accomplished

Career:

• The interviews went really well and I was invited to the final step of the process called "culture fit" from 3 different companies. I'm quite confortable in saying that I'll receive an offer at least!
• I'm very happy guys, this mean that not only I'll get a job that will teach my some high-value and complex skills that are almost impossible to learn by your own watching tutorials on YT, but it will also increase by a lot my salary (more savings = more money to invest on my side-gigs)!

Side business:

• I put it on idle in order to be fully focused on preparing the interviews.

Mindset:

• Removed 5 personal values from the list.

Goals for the Next Week
Career:

• Close all the hiring processes, evaluate all the job offers and used the weighted matrix to choose my next job.
• Send the resignation letter to my current company.

Side business:

• Understand how run concurrently multiple processes that will update my DB with new jobs from different sources.
• Implement the following features:
  • each user must be able to upload his/her own CV
  • the system must give an affinity score to each job based on the CV of the user

Mindset:

• Remove each day 5 personal values from the list.
• Start reading a new book about Buddhism that seems to be more practical.

 

[BlackLands]

My Goals for the Past Week
Career:

• Close all the hiring processes, evaluate all the job offers and used the weighted matrix to choose my next job.
• Send the resignation letter to my current company.

Side business:

• Understand how run concurrently multiple processes that will update my DB with new jobs from different sources.
• Implement the following features:
  • each user must be able to upload his/her own CV
  • the system must give an affinity score to each job based on the CV of the user

Mindset:

• Remove each day 5 personal values from the list.
• Start reading a new book about Buddhism that seems to be more practical.

What I Accomplished

Career:

• I did few interviews and all of them went well. Next week I'll receive all the offers and I'll evaluate with one is the best ones. My salary will increase by 25% at least.
• I've received an offer from a company in the USA, so maybe there is the chance to start working there and put the first step in the new continent. But before starting all the papers work, I want to be sure about some aspects of the contract. In the worst case, I've two other offers to chose from.

Side business:

• Last week's estimates were too good, I spent all my time studying and doing interviews so I didn't work on my side project.

Mindset:

• Each day I removed 5 personal values from the list.
• I've started reading a book about self-acceptance (that doesn't mean find an excuse to become lazy) and self-love and I think that I'm improve my emotional intelligence. I notice good feedback when I talk to people, they feel understood with me.

Goals for the Next Week
Career:

• Decide with job take next and finally send the resignation letter to my current company.
• Do more researches about USA and all the papers to have to start working there, the cost of life, etc.

Side business:

• The amount of time I'll invest here really depends on what will happens on the career side since now it has more prio for me.
• In my spare time I'll try to:
  • Understand how run concurrently multiple processes that will update my DB with new jobs from different sources.

Mindset:

• Continue reading the book about self-love and self-acceptance.
• Continuing the search for my personal core values.

 

[BlackLands]

My Goals for the Past Week
Career:

• Decide with job take next and finally send the resignation letter to my current company.
• Do more researches about USA and all the papers to have to start working there, the cost of life, etc.

Side business:

• The amount of time I'll invest here really depends on what will happens on the career side since now it has more prio for me.
• In my spare time I'll try to:
  • Understand how run concurrently multiple processes that will update my DB with new jobs from different sources.

Mindset:

• Continue reading the book about self-love and self-acceptance.
• Continuing the search for my personal core values.

What I Accomplished
Career:

• I have achieved one of my goals for 2024 - now I'm a ML Engineer!
  
  • I have accepted a job as an ML Engineer with a salary increase of +42% compared to my previous job.
  • This role will allow me to learn many new hard skills, save more money, and start learning more about a new industry (previously I was working in mobile gaming, now in food delivery) and its challenges.

Side business:

• I didn't have time to work on it because I spent most of it analyzing the different job offers I received and deciding which one to accept.

Mindset:

• Each day I removed 5 personal values from the list.
• In these weeks, I've reflected a lot on what motivates me, and I've come to the conclusion that a job must have the following characteristics to keep me motivated: professional and personal growth (I must always be in a learning phase) and it must align with my long-term goals (like creating something of my own). If I analyze my previous jobs, when one of these two elements were missing, problems begin.
  
  
• Furthermore, I've realized that to stay motivated, having a to-do list and being able to check off tasks makes me happy and disciplined. The most challenging periods for me are those in which I feel without a clear direction. However, in such moments, I understand that it's important to remember why I made those sacrifices and that I am the captain of my destiny. When I feel lost, I take a step back to understand that I have a direction and that the journey may be difficult, but it's part of it.
  

Goals for the Next Week
Career:

• Currently, I could say that I've accomplished my goal for 2024 in the "career" category. I will give my best at work in order to learn as much as possible and understand the problems of the industry so that I can offer solutions.
• In the worst case scenario, if I don't enjoy the job, I will continue to work on this aspect of my life by setting new goals.

Side business:

• I have a list of tasks to accomplish, and I want to implement at least two features this week.

Mindset:

• Try to increase myr eading progress of a book about Buddhism by 5% each day.

 

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[BlackLands]

My Goals for the Past Week
Career:

• Currently, I could say that I've accomplished my goal for 2024 in the "career" category. I will give my best at work in order to learn as much as possible and understand the problems of the industry so that I can offer solutions.
• In the worst case scenario, if I don't enjoy the job, I will continue to work on this aspect of my life by setting new goals.

Side business:

• I have a list of tasks to accomplish, and I want to implement at least two features this week.

Mindset:

• Try to increase my reading progress of a book about Buddhism by 5% each day.

What I Accomplished
Career:

• Finally I quit my job but I didn't burn any bridges (99% of times it is stupid to burn bridges) with my previous company since there work a lot of brilliant people that will reach the TOP within the next 10 years. Always keep talented people in your social network.
• They told me to call if I need a job, so I've plan B in case.
• When I was deciding which job take, I spent 1h our on google in order to learn how to negotiate my salary and thanks to these tips I increase my salary of 42%. As always thanks @MJ DeMarco to enable me to think in terms of TIME/VALUE RETURNED. Always negotiate, always!

Side business:

• I've implemented one feature and I plan to have an MVP in the next 2 months. I'm building everything from scratch since I want to have the full control over my product and I want to learn the skills required to build a SAAS from scratch. I know, it requires more times but what I'm building will be use as a base for my next projects if it fails as business idea. Then the plan is to use all my failed business ideas as something to leverage during the hiring process to increase my salary (as plan B).

Mindset:

• Every day I try to read at least for 25 minutes. I'm reading multiple books at the same time in order to never get bored and to adapt the difficulty of reading based on my mood and mental energy.
• The 4 books that I'm currently reading are providing me with new knowledge on how to improve my social skills and how to live an happier life in general.

Goals for the Next Week
Side business:

• I've to fixes few bugs and implement some essentials features. I don't know how much time the development need but I've a lot of free time to invest on my side business.

Mindset:

• I'll continue to read each day in order to acquire the habit. I'm really motivated since when I start studying how to negotiate and this allow me to increase my salary and earning 2 times the average salary in Spain. Read, apply, assess, adjust is the key, thanks @MJ DeMarco for creating this framework.

 

[BlackLands]

My Goals for the Past Week
Side business:

• I've to fixes few bugs and implement some essentials features. I don't know how much time the development need but I've a lot of free time to invest on my side business.

Mindset:

• I'll continue to read each day in order to acquire the habit. I'm really motivated since when I start studying how to negotiate and this allow me to increase my salary and earning 2 times the average salary in Spain. Read, apply, assess, adjust is the key, thanks @MJ DeMarco for creating this framework.

What I Accomplished
Side business:

• I fixed some bugs and implemented a new feature that allows users to upload their CV and receive suggestions on how to improve it based on the job they want to apply for.

Mindset:

• Every day last week, I spent at least 20 minutes reading something. I'm currently reading a book about Buddhism, but honestly, it's not providing me with any new practical knowledge to apply in my life. Therefore, I think I'll set it aside and start reading a book about insomnia and how to solve it. One of my problems is that I go to sleep very late, and as a result, some days I wake up late and feel stressed and rushed trying to finish all my tasks for the day.
  
  
• Ask yourself, "What are my current problems?" and then read a book about how to solve them. It's also important to have something to read (not too complex) just for fun. This ensures that even when you're too tired to read something serious, you won't break your habit chain.

Goals for the Next Week
Next week, I'll be on vacation for one week in London, but I've already planned my next goals for the week after.

Side business:

• I want to start conducting marketing research to learn how to use Google Ads, create an effective landing page, and assess the demand for the SaaS I'm building. I'll share the landing page here on the forum once it's ready and before starting the Google Ads campaign.
• I understand that ideally, I should have done this before starting, but my intention is to build a skeleton of the SaaS to use for future projects, reducing development time, regardless of the success of my current idea. It's a win-win situation for me either way but yes, next time I'll spend more time on validating the idea.

Mindset:

• Stop reading books that aren't providing practical knowledge and replace them with something more useful.

 

[BlackLands]

I'm currently in London for holidays so I didn't have too much time to work on the business but before leaving, I started working a new strategy.

I followed all the videos of @Andy Black on Google ADS, and I'm planning to test my ideas in South America. I already did an analysis of the competitors and of the demand of the service I'm offering and I'll test few landing pages. Let's see how it goes.

 

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[BlackLands]

What I Accomplished
Side business:

• I've studied some of the most important videos and posts of @Andy Black about Google ADS and I've a set of matching terms to bid.
• I've studied and wrote a document about my target audience and my competitors in a specific region of the world and in a specific industry and I think there is space for my product.
• I've started building my landing page and there are some errors to fix, especially for the mobile version.

Goals for the Next Week
Side business:

• I want to finish building the landing page of my MVP and this means:
  • Fix all the graphical errors and animations in the page
  • Add the email form where visitors can put their emails in order to be texted when the product is ready
  • Add the analytics on the landing page to be able to monitor what visitors do on the landing page
• If I'll be able to accompished all the tasks above before the end of the week (I've never done this before so I'm not able to estimate the time I need to set up everything), I'll start sending traffic to the landing page through Google ADS (love you Andy)!

Good news: at my current job the office is opened 24h/7 weekend included, so this mean I can go there to work on my own things (I prefer to work in the office since I'm automatically more productive than what I'm at home).

 

[BlackLands]

What I Accomplished
Side business:

• The landing page is ready:
  • All the graphics error were fixed
  • I bought the domain
  • I set up and tested the analytics (Google Analytics + Google Tag) to track clicks on the CTA button for studying visitor behavior.
• The list of keywords to bid on Google Ads is ready.
• A person contacted me through my YouTube channel seeking consultancy on how to study better. Despite being unable to assist him at present, I declined to charge him. However, my honesty was rewarded when he expressed his intention to contact me for assistance two months before beginning university.

Goals for the Next Week
Side business:

• Initiate a Google Ads campaign for one week and monitor the number of signups to your product. Aim to achieve a minimum of 20 to 30 signups, understanding that the outcome will be influenced by the volume of traffic directed to your landing page.
  • As a beginner in marketing, if the Google Ads campaign fails to meet the sign-up goal, consider making adjustments such as refining the copy of the landing page, modifying the ad content, or revising the keywords in your Google Ads. Alternatively, you could explore testing a new advertising platform like LinkedIn, particularly since your target audience consists of individuals in the IT field.

In the coming weeks, my primary objective is to establish an MVP Factory to swiftly and affordably test ideas, allocating a maximum budget of €300 or less. To achieve this goal, I will compare various no-code tools for creating landing pages, waiting lists, and other necessary components.

Why? I understood to have wasted a lot of time on building product without check if there was a real need. It's a common error I'd say, but I learned the lesson. ACT, ASSESS, ADJUST!

 

[BlackLands]

What I Accomplished
Side business:

• Over the past week, I launched my first Google ADS campaign with a daily budget of 10€ and acquired 23 emails (see dashboard screenshot below). I am pleased with the results, but I feel that I could have obtained more emails if I had more expertise in Google ADS and optimized the keyword research phase.
• To improve my skills, I have started reading @Andy Black posts on LinkedIn to learn how to properly analyze a Google ADS dashboard and gain valuable insights.
• I have enrolled in a Google ADS course and am focusing on acquiring as much practical knowledge as possible to apply to my campaign.
  
  

Goals for the Next Week
Side business:

• Continue with the Google ADS course and immediately start applying the new knowledge to my campaign and landing page.
• Continue reading Andy's series on LinkedIn.
• Send an email to some users on my waiting list to ask them questions (in the style of "The Mom Test") to better understand their problems and improve the product and landing page.

 

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[Andy Black]

What I Accomplished
Side business:

• Over the past week, I launched my first Google ADS campaign with a daily budget of 10€ and acquired 23 emails (see dashboard screenshot below). I am pleased with the results, but I feel that I could have obtained more emails if I had more expertise in Google ADS and optimized the keyword research phase.
• To improve my skills, I have started reading @Andy Black posts on LinkedIn to learn how to properly analyze a Google ADS dashboard and gain valuable insights.
• I have enrolled in a Google ADS course and am focusing on acquiring as much practical knowledge as possible to apply to my campaign.
  
  View attachment 55242

Goals for the Next Week
Side business:

• Continue with the Google ADS course and aim to finish it before the end of May and start applying the new knowledge to my campaign and landing page.
• Continue reading Andy's series on LinkedIn.
• Send an email to some users on my waiting list to ask them questions (in the style of "The Mom Test") to better understand their problems and improve the product and landing page.

If you're sticking to a budget then drop your bids. You're losing impression share due to budget, and you seem to be in an overly high ad position given you're still dialing this in.

What course are you doing?

Did you say you aim to complete it by end of May, and *then* apply what you learned?

Why not apply what you learn as you go, or learn by solving the problem right in front of you?

Have you been through this:

MARKETING - The Shortest Google Ads Tutorial Ever

It took me HOURS to create this. Let me know if you have any feedback or suggestions. Hope it helps! View: https://youtu.be/7z7kx3kJC4M EDIT: Once you're running watch these two short videos to make sense of the metrics...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

 

[BlackLands]

Hey @Andy Black , thanks for your answer.
First of all, maybe I expressed myself badly but I wanted to finish the course by the end of May and in the meantime apply what I'm learning. I'm not planning to wait two months to improve my campaigns.

The course I've enrolled to it's called: Ultimate Google Ads Training 2021: Profit with Pay Per Click on Udemy. A lot of people suggested me this course if you're a beginner.

About your video tutorial I followed it in order to launch my first ad campaign.

The only problem I'm facing now is that I don't know how much impressions I can expect from a Google ADS campaign and what is a good conversion ratio. How many emails I should collect in order to validate my idea? In these days I'm trying to answer to this question.

 

[BlackLands]

What I Accomplished
Side business:

• I paused the Google Ads campaign and, as a result after a week, obtained 36 emails. I contacted some of these individuals, asking how they found my landing page and what they were searching for. I discovered that my Google Ads campaign had targeted the wrong audience, as some search terms were too broad. Fortunately, a significant portion of these individuals seem interested in my offering. I contacted them, offering to be beta testers in exchange for early access to new features and discounts on the product. My goal is to assemble a group of 2-3 people who will assist me in building the product.

• I launched a new Google Ads campaign, incorporating the new knowledge gained from carefully selected lessons in the Google Ads course I am attending and from all the posts written by @Andy Black on this forum and on LinkedIn. This time, I conducted thorough research on search terms and negative keywords and made efforts to enhance the copy of my headlines. I created a new waiting list, with the goal of assessing how many users in my target demographic (IT professionals) will sign up.

Goals for the Next Week
Side business:

• I'll keep monitoring the results of the new Google Ads campaign I launched. I've started with a very low daily budget in order to check how many impressions I get and how many impressions I could get if I bid more (impression share). I'll see how things evolve and I'll act accordingly. Once I start receiving some emails, I'll contact them and ask to become beta testers, as I already did.

• The goal for the next week really depends on the answers I receive from the users I've contacted who signed up for my first mailing list.
  • If some of them accept to be my beta testers, then I'll start building the MVP using a no-code tool and I'll iterate on it by asking for and implementing feedback.
  • If I don't receive any answers:
    • I'll try to contact them directly on LinkedIn in order to assess why they didn't respond. I'll check if they are not interested (and if so, why), or if my email was classified as spam, or if they haven't answered for other reasons.
    • I'll run my last Google ADS campaign in different countries where it make sense and my relative value is high.
    • I'll start looking for a new idea and iterate on the process I followed over the past week: Building a Landing Page (maybe this time with a fake buy button) --> Sending traffic through Google Ads --> Analyzing the results and deciding if it is worth investing time in the development of the product.

 

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