Swizec Teller
PRO
@swizec
Do the steps needed to get to the next level well defined, or are they only ideas?
Depends on what you mean by well defined.
Do I know which specific action will guarantee the results I want? Of course not.
Do I have a pretty solid understanding of what needs to happen to have a good chance of getting the results? Yep.
Do I know which specific action will guarantee the results I want? Of course not.
I don't mean this.
Do I have a pretty solid understanding of what needs to happen to have a good chance of getting the results? Yep.
Ok, it seems the kind of zone that I mentioned before, now, what's the first step? e.g. Making the first 5 episode as "pilot" for learn while pooping? Make the landing page? Pooping with a stopwatch to understand what will be your limit constraint? Whatever is, just do it ® .
If you don't know exactly what the first step, this is probably the real problem, you didn't seriously wrap your head around this idea...
Being more stressed at dayjob.exe than I used to be. That's probably the biggest effect.
And on the sidehustle side, I spend a lot of time shipping things that maintain the status quo or aren't working as well as they used to (in part because I'm no longer as productive at them as I used to).
Ultimately I don't spend enough time shipping things that would get me to the next level. And maybe I don't even know what those are. It's hard to tell.
It's a hard spot to be in, having a day job and trying to ship. Perhaps you need a week off from shipping (and the day job?); or perhaps you can reset expectations to 30 minutes before or after day job for shipping for a few months while focusing on de-stressing the day job? Sorry if this seems preachy... just some things that came to mind. I've been there and it's not fun.
Are the steps needed to get to the next level well defined, or are they only ideas? I tend to think a lot about things but until I spend some time putting down some actionable steps I don’t do nothing if not thinking about the same thoughts again and again
Having actionable steps help me jump quickly in the work and this often help getting in the zone and “unlock” situations where I feel blocked.
I don’t know, probably it is just me, but keeping an idea “vague” it leaves me in this strangely comfortable zone where I think: “I have this great idea that when I want to do and will change things for me”, but in the end I never start doing it...
Do the steps needed to get to the next level well defined, or are they only ideas?
Depends on what you mean by well defined.
Do I know which specific action will guarantee the results I want? Of course not.
Do I have a pretty solid understanding of what needs to happen to have a good chance of getting the results? Yep.
Do I know which specific action will guarantee the results I want? Of course not.
I don't mean this.
Do I have a pretty solid understanding of what needs to happen to have a good chance of getting the results? Yep.
Ok, it seems the kind of zone that I mentioned before, now, what's the first step? e.g. Making the first 5 episode as "pilot" for learn while pooping? Make the landing page? Pooping with a stopwatch to understand what will be your limit constraint? Whatever is, just do it ® .
If you don't know exactly what the first step, this is probably the real problem, you didn't seriously wrap your head around this idea...
"gigs" from your mouth to god's ears. It's 1 gig so far :P
But think about it this way: A salaried job is also a gig. I'm in SF. Salaried for 3 years now. That's a $340k gig right there.
Consultancy = 70hrs every month * $50/hr = $3500
Don't sell yourself short my man.
And I have actually bought & read that ebook as well, but it didn't hit me that hard until you talked about your $100K gigs. I never would have thought 1 person can pull that off without a team.
"gigs" from your mouth to god's ears. It's 1 gig so far :P
But think about it this way: A salaried job is also a gig. I'm in SF. Salaried for 3 years now. That's a $340k gig right there.
This reminds me of the Lion hunting mice metaphor
"A lion is fully capable of capturing, killing, and eating a field mouse. But it turns out that the energy required to do so exceeds the caloric content of the mouse itself. So a lion that spent its day hunting and eating field mice would slowly starve to death. A lion can't live on field mice. A lion needs antelope. Antelope are big animals. They take more speed and strength to capture and kill, and once killed, they provide a feast for the lion and her pride. ... So ask yourself at the end of the day, 'Did I spend today chasing mice or hunting antelope?'"
One thing products have over consulting work and job work is that they [can] scale nonlinearly. Once you figure out the right formula you can get disproportionate results for the same amount of work. That can't happen if you're selling time.
At least that's what keeps me going, but hot damn does it often feel like it would be easy to just say fuck it and live a normie life.
Perfectly put 👏
Products can scale nonlinearly. I agree, however for me, I have just been wanting to figure out a recurring source of income which doesn't require work from me on a continuous basis. And I just wanna make $3.5K a month. Don't really want to make more. Hence why I focussed on very niche down and ideas that can be completely automated.
But if making less money is equally hard, might as well make more, I am just going to shoot for the stars (antelope) & have a feast. I enjoy working & learning like this, so it's not a poor decision at all, but definitely, a question that pops up in my head from time to time.
Consultancy = 70hrs every month * $50/hr = $3500
Products = Tons of work before something takes off -> First cents and then dollars & then dollllaaaars.
Consultancy = 70hrs every month * $50/hr = $3500
Don't sell yourself short my man.
And I have actually bought & read that ebook as well, but it didn't hit me that hard until you talked about your $100K gigs. I never would have thought 1 person can pull that off without a team.
"gigs" from your mouth to god's ears. It's 1 gig so far :P
But think about it this way: A salaried job is also a gig. I'm in SF. Salaried for 3 years now. That's a $340k gig right there.
Thanks @swizec & @Ashfame! Great thread, great answers. It's so good to see we all kind of sit in the same boat and have the similar thoughts.
I feel like it's too much hassle a lot lately - especially when I have to focus hard on selling / marketing instead of creating / coding. I guess it's because there is hardly any instant gratification in it. I know that "making stuff" is what I really like but apparently marketing is not my most preferred part of it (even though this is what I studied)
Whenever I feel like it's too much hustle though I try to put myself back to the reason(s) why I started this in the first place: being independent, working on something that matters (to me). Also it's nice to focus on the alternative for a while: do I really want to do code for clients? Or sell other peoples shit(dreams)? Hell no! I'm sure I would start to hate coding after about 1 month and get totally bored after about two....
Also, I think that the "it's just too much" thought crawls in when you don't have enough success inputs to weigh out the pain. If this continues for a longtime it might be worth re evaluating your current project and maybe start something new...
Does directly without further distractions mean people wouldn't go into the link itself and subscribe and stuff?
In a way, yes. If I could rephrase it I would mean that YT is more focused on the video content. Facebook/Twitter tend to be focused on getting you to click on other links and feeds. I might be completely off, tho!
Ah that. The "genius" of my current approach is that my videos are short enough to be tweetable directly :P
I'll do youtube thanks