Weekly Progress: What will you get done this week?

[Len_1590]

Curious if you got a portfolio up or not? I have hesitated contacting customers yet without mine up.

I don't - I was considering waiting to get one up, but I did a Udemy course and built the website from that so I'm just using that if people ask if I have an example.
I did consider waiting until I got a portfolio ready, but my cold emailing/calling and selling skills are so far behind my coding skills that I decided to treat all my contacting customers as learning opportunities for those skills rather than being the "end goal" and desperately wanting that sale.
I hope that makes sense? This could be the wrong approach, but it's how I made sense of doing something I was uncomfortable towards

 

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[Andy Black]

s learning opportunities for those skills rather than being the "end goal" and desperately wanting that sale.

Make it an opportunity to learn how you can help people, even if it's to direct them elsewhere. Funnily enough that will help you make sales anyway.

 

[WJK]

Week Commencing Monday 26-Jun-23

1. What wil make you happy with progress this week?
2. What are you doing to make a sale this week?
3. What are you not doing but should be?

I must recommit to my program or change directions. Out of the blue this last week, I had a huge offer on one of my rental properties from a major syndicator. After some negotiations, they decided to pass and the deal died as fast as it had arrived. But that event and process sure have made me think about what I wanna be when I grow up...

 

[Guest-5ty5s4]

I must recommit to my program or change directions. Out of the blue this last week, I had a huge offer on one of my rental properties from a major syndicator. After some negotiations, they decided to pass and the deal died as fast as it had arrived. But that event and process sure have made me think about what I wanna be when I grow up...

A low cap rate seller!! Right? ;-)

 

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[WJK]

A low cap rate seller!! Right? ;-)

They made a handsome offer so the amount of the offer was no problem for me. I'm in rural Alaska so our property management tasks and issues are different from most of the Lower 48.

Like me owning a small community water district with a Class A well to supply the potable water -- what? no city water???? And I bragged to them that I had just pumped the 21 septic tanks on that property -- they should be good until the fall of 2024. what? no city sewers???? And it went on from there about the private roads that must be plowed at least 6 to 8 months out of the year...

They are a national investment company, but totally out of their comfort zone.

 

[Guest-5ty5s4]

They made a handsome offer so the amount of the offer was no problem for me. I'm in rural Alaska so our property management tasks and issues are different from most of the Lower 48.

Like me owning a small community water district with a Class A well to supply the potable water -- what? no city water???? And I bragged to them that I had just pumped the 21 septic tanks on that property -- they should be good until the fall of 2024. what? no city sewers???? And it went on from there about the private roads that must be plowed at least 6 to 8 months out of the year...

They are a national investment company, but totally out of their comfort zone.

Like the monopoly player who owns the utility cards. You’ve done a great job. It would honestly be a shame for you to sell. If you can manage not to sell, it would be better to keep those things in good families rather than huge investment companies with their political goals and biases. Off the record. (But very much on the record - here, on the internet, for all eyes to see.)

 

[WJK]

Like the monopoly player who owns the utility cards. You’ve done a great job. It would honestly be a shame for you to sell. If you can manage not to sell, it would be better to keep those things in good families rather than huge investment companies with their political goals and biases. Off the record. (But very much on the record - here, on the internet, for all eyes to see.)

I thought about that. I'm a senior citizen and sometimes I just get tired. I have done a lot for my community.

 

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[Guest-5ty5s4]

I thought about that. I'm a senior citizen and sometimes I just get tired. I have done a lot for my community.

Thank you so much for your contributions to your community and the world!! (And this forum)

 

[Andy Black]

Thank you so much for your contributions to your community and the world!! (And this forum)

I second that.

 

[OMDA]

Done in mornings/evenings before after work:

• Finished one of the several books I've got open for refreshing my memory on web design/coding. Have a few left to finish. I'm not doing every single exercise but am doing essentials and anything that I know I need to do. Still have great problem solving/debugging skills from before but needed to brush up on my chops
• Still have basic backend/frontend for an app idea of mine. Bought a domain name for it
• App idea is to leverage social media for a spread of related hobbies to help share gear/tuning info. I know of several potential users and have a small outreach that I can use through IG/youtube. Would leverage those and help those social media posters without being dependent on them.
• Learning basics of Figma to get the app workflow/graphics/design up to snuff because going from bare html/css/js/php takes a lot longer to prototype than something with drag and drop. It should integrate easily with wordpress/others and I know the overall technical shape but the devil is in the details

Trying to hustle through and work as much as possible before I go on vacation in a bit. Learning some Figma seems like a great lever to really get to something that looks nice, much quicker than otherwise, and experiment with a few things so that I know it'll be user friendly.

Going to try to document the overall development in some way so that I can leverage that as part of a portfolio if I need to. If app starts making money then that won't be as much of an issue. I have a couple ideas on how to monetize.

 

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[Andy Black]

Week Commencing Monday 03-Jul-23

From the book "The ONE Thing":

• What ONE Thing can you do that will make everything else redundant or easier to do?
• If you don't know what your ONE Thing is, then figuring it out is your ONE Thing.

 

[Len_1590]

Week Commencing Monday 03-Jul-23

From the book "The ONE Thing":

• What ONE Thing can you do that will make everything else redundant or easier to do?
• If you don't know what your ONE Thing is, then figuring it out is your ONE Thing.

The ONE thing for me today, is hand my notice in at work.
Then the rest of the week is then made up of the following 3 things:

1. contacting my network,
2. contacting recruiters in my industry, and
3. formulating a plan (and acting on it) for marketing myself in the self-employed space within the industry.

This is a huge step out of my comfort zone and scares the living daylights out of me, but the potential for personal growth by doing this is so large I have to keep this in focus.

 

[Andy Black]

Week Commencing Monday 10-Jul-23

What will you do to make a sale this week?

 

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[Len_1590]

Week Commencing Monday 10-Jul-23

What will you do to make a sale this week?

I've finally had people get back in touch about portfolio projects for my website design business.
So this week I want to focus on getting a conversation with them to figure out how I can best help them with their business through web design. This isn't a sale given I'm not charging, but getting these first projects done and delivering was the next part of my Critical Path.

 

[WJK]

Week Commencing Monday 10-Jul-23

What will you do to make a sale this week?

I think I'll personally rest a lot. I'm fried at the edges right now and I need a break. Summers in Alaska are busy, busy, busy. It is light just about 24/7 and we do everything to get ready for the next winter. It is a very brief window of harried activities. Also, I sleep less during the summer since it's light for so many hours. I just need to slow down and enjoy the summer more.

I decided last night to change my schedule around some. I've been trying to do some bookkeeping every day. Instead, my assistant and I are going to do all the week's accounting/bookwork on Wednesday afternoons. We'll see how it goes. I don't know how many hours it is going to take us on average.

 

[OMDA]

Week Commencing Monday 10-Jul-23

What will you do to make a sale this week?

Going on a long vacation.

My laptop is in for repairs too but I got an app so I can finish doing some design of my project on my ipad while on the plane/in dead time. Keep writing down more ideas for sites/small business to try. Need to focus on the first 1 though.

 

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[Private Witt]

First vacation on a plane in two years. Rest, recharge and get a break from the city that has been a much larger nut to crack than I thought it would be.

 

[Andy Black]

Week Commencing Monday 17-Jul-23

1. What will make you happy with progress this week?
2. What are you doing to make a sale this week?
3. What are you not doing but should be?

 

[WJK]

Week Commencing Monday 17-Jul-23

1. What will make you happy with progress this week?
2. What are you doing to make a sale this week?
3. What are you not doing but should be?

Last week a got a lot done. I only have 1 thing left on that list - catching up on all the bookkeeping/paperwork. And since last week all those papers have had babies -- the stacks have magically doubled. So, I'll try that one again this week. Some of it I'll delegate to my assistant.

My biggest win for last week was starting to use the dictation feature in MS Word. It works great and it's 3 times as fast as typing. I'm a really fast typist, but going at this speed is a game-changer for me. This week I'll continue with it and catch up on all my notes on my maintenance and construction jobs.

This week I want to think of one more thing I can change or upgrade that will make my work and life faster and/or better. That's 51 changes/upgrades per year to dream up and implement.

I have a couple of invoices/statements for work completed to compile and submit on some contracts.

 

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[Len_1590]

Week Commencing Monday 17-Jul-23

1. What will make you happy with progress this week?
2. What are you doing to make a sale this week?
3. What are you not doing but should be?

Late to the party this week.
The first two are the same for me.
I received feedback on a free proposal I sent to a local businessman following a sales call. The feedback was positive!
The focus shifts to delivery.

I should improve my knowledge so I can demonstrate how I add value to clients better. I noticed several holes in my knowledge during a sales meeting I had earlier this week that I will close.

 

[Brandonistaken]

Week Commencing Monday 17-Jul-23

1. What will make you happy with progress this week?
2. What are you doing to make a sale this week?
3. What are you not doing but should be?

-Open my e-commerce store because i have been taking too
long doing unnecessary complicated stuff with the site and procrastinating.

But before that..

-Publish 1 more product ( Got 4 up already )
-Understand how google ads are ran so i can run ads to it ( Will watch your 5min video )
-Check the whole back end of the site to make sure there is no errors

Initially i just need to get the ads running thats the main thing and then i start testing how the
market is reacting to it then make changes accordingly.

What im not but should be doing is again prioritizing my website development.

 

[Andy Black]

Week Commencing Monday 24-Jul-23

From the book "The ONE Thing":

What ONE Thing can you do that will make everything else redundant or easier to do?

If you don't know what your ONE Thing is, then figuring it out is your ONE Thing.

 

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[Len_1590]

What ONE Thing can you do that will make everything else redundant or easier to do?

If you don't know what your ONE Thing is, then figuring it out is your ONE Thing.

The ONE thing is change my mindset.
I'm still a consumer and not solving problems. I am positioning myself as best as possible to be a producer, moving to self-employed, helping businesses through web design and actively listening to people, but my mindset isn't there yet.

Are there any threads, books, articles that others on the forum have found helpful?

 

[Andy Black]

The ONE thing is change my mindset.
I'm still a consumer and not solving problems. I am positioning myself as best as possible to be a producer, moving to self-employed, helping businesses through web design and actively listening to people, but my mindset isn't there yet.

Are there any threads, books, articles that others on the forum have found helpful?

Be careful trying to consume your way onto team producer.

A recent post by @BizyDad:

... action beats mindset. Mindset might be holding you back, but you don't need perfect mindset to get going.

You need to get going to get going.

If you still need a bit more direction then maybe check out the first row of links in my signature. Don't make it your goal to consume all of them before starting. Just enough for it to click and for you to get going.

 

[Len_1590]

Be careful trying to consume your way onto team producer.

Yeah this is very me.
I'm often reminded of Jim Kwik's saying
"Knowledge isn't power, it's potential power. It only becomes power when you use it."

I feel like I've got started, the move to self-employed contracting is a start (though I am still running down my notice period at work) and putting myself in uncomfortable situations on sales calls for websites, but it still feels like something is missing.

I'll give it more time.

 

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[Andy Black]

Yeah this is very me.
I'm often reminded of Jim Kwik's saying
"Knowledge isn't power, it's potential power. It only becomes power when you use it."

I feel like I've got started, the move to self-employed contracting is a start (though I am still running down my notice period at work) and putting myself in uncomfortable situations on sales calls for websites, but it still feels like something is missing.

I'll give it more time.

Maybe this might help:

HOT! - MINDSET - You don't need to be an expert

You don't need to be an expert People typically underestimate the value they can add. Often they feel they need to be an expert to help someone. That's not the case. In this video I talk about how I got started in my current business, before I'd even heard of AdWords. (Transcription below.)

www.thefastlaneforum.com

 

[DCG]

Week Commencing Monday 24-Jul-23

From the book "The ONE Thing":

What ONE Thing can you do that will make everything else redundant or easier to do?

If you don't know what your ONE Thing is, then figuring it out is your ONE Thing.

I'm going to learn React to make learning software and websites easier for me

 

[OMDA]

Going on a long vacation.

My laptop is in for repairs too but I got an app so I can finish doing some design of my project on my ipad while on the plane/in dead time. Keep writing down more ideas for sites/small business to try. Need to focus on the first 1 though.

Been back for a few days and had to go straight to work at my normal job, heavily jetlagged. All I brought on the trip was a phone and iPad.

After two weeks not working on this project and with work taking a priority, my momentum and remembering details of what I was going to work on was very fuzzy. I even have a task list. However, diagramming out an app on the plane ride to europe on my iPad saved me. This morning I got back immediately to turning those sketches into a real mockup so I can start building. Seeing that sketch->product put more confidence in what I was doing back together.

I'm just glad that I did that little bit of work on the plane ride otherwise I think I really would have been a bit lost. It's not even that involved or detailed it just really helped me to have some visual sketches that I made to jog my memory. I'll have to remember to think on paper/screen more visually.

 

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[GoldFibre]

Week Commencing Monday 24-Jul-23

From the book "The ONE Thing":

What ONE Thing can you do that will make everything else redundant or easier to do?

Minimize the chance of getting my Amazon seller account shut down again

 

[Andy Black]

Week Commencing Monday 31-Jul-23

1. What will make you happy with progress this week?
2. What are you doing to make a sale this week?
3. What are you not doing but should be?