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Zack Gilbert

Zack Gilbert

@zackgilbert

Work from home dad. Fractional CTO by day. Building custom @bullettrainco and Rails tools for small operator-owned businesses. Prev: @abledotcom @foursquare
4
Joined February 2024

Could consider opening it up to the public. I was thinking of a private one like Brian Casel's ripple.fm allows you to do (private is probably a bad name for it, but more invite only?).

Haven't read it but familiar with the concept. Definitely hear what you're saying. Appreciate the suggestions and conversation.

Yeah, definitely considering doing it in a blog-style but I've historically had a hard time being consistent with that. Actually considering doing a private podcast and just going for walks and tackling "chapters" one at a time just by talking it out and then cleaning up (maybe using AI). We'll see. Just exploring options and seeing what worked for others.

Talking it out and then cleaning up with AI is exactly what is my #speechzap project for 😄

And about consistency - that's why I'm trying to convince you to find meaning and joy in doing it. #slowtracker gave me a sense of what is motivating me.

I wouldn't do it private, but actually open it for others. Share with people. Some of them might be two steps behind you and would love to learn more about how you dealt with problems they're encountering right now.

Have you ever read a book called Show Your Work, by Austing Kleon? I highly recommend this approach: selling your byproducts: lessons learned and stories. I've started a couple of months ago and it has already accumulated into blog with almost hundred posts.

Anyway, wish you luck, but more importantly, consistency and joy along the way!

Could consider opening it up to the public. I was thinking of a private one like Brian Casel's ripple.fm allows you to do (private is probably a bad name for it, but more invite only?).

Haven't read it but familiar with the concept. Definitely hear what you're saying. Appreciate the suggestions and conversation.

@michalkukla I think it'd be a nice project to tackle. I've been building things on the web for 20+ years. It'll help me reflect and summarize (and possibly get closure) for specific chunks of time and projects. I also think it'll be nice to have this to share with others (including my son).

Just because something is daunting doesn't mean it's not worth doing. We can do hard things.

Sure we can do hard things. I meant that if you derive some satisfaction from doing it, it will be much easier.

I recommend writing a blog in the first place. That's what we've been doing with my wife while traveling in Asia for 5 months. The purpose was to let know our families what going on and keep some memories for longer.

Although, I can't read it now, because of this immediate urge to go again is arising ;-)

You can write one lesson every day and keep it short and vivid, so it will stay in your reader's mind for longer.

You can write the book piece by piece. Anyway, writing a book is all about writing. Built a habit first, then it will be much easier.

Yeah, definitely considering doing it in a blog-style but I've historically had a hard time being consistent with that. Actually considering doing a private podcast and just going for walks and tackling "chapters" one at a time just by talking it out and then cleaning up (maybe using AI). We'll see. Just exploring options and seeing what worked for others.

Talking it out and then cleaning up with AI is exactly what is my #speechzap project for 😄

And about consistency - that's why I'm trying to convince you to find meaning and joy in doing it. #slowtracker gave me a sense of what is motivating me.

I wouldn't do it private, but actually open it for others. Share with people. Some of them might be two steps behind you and would love to learn more about how you dealt with problems they're encountering right now.

Have you ever read a book called Show Your Work, by Austing Kleon? I highly recommend this approach: selling your byproducts: lessons learned and stories. I've started a couple of months ago and it has already accumulated into blog with almost hundred posts.

Anyway, wish you luck, but more importantly, consistency and joy along the way!

Could consider opening it up to the public. I was thinking of a private one like Brian Casel's ripple.fm allows you to do (private is probably a bad name for it, but more invite only?).

Haven't read it but familiar with the concept. Definitely hear what you're saying. Appreciate the suggestions and conversation.

Very cool, @dpashutskii! This mirrored what I had in my head initially, so helpful to see that someone else was able to make it work.

This is absolutely AMAZING @cat! Thank you!

You're welcome!! Sorry for the weird number mix-up. I promise I wrote the different numbers there 😹

I'm glad it's helpful for you!

Could you allow them to connect their account via OAuth/Stripe Connect? Or do an actual Stripe App?

Actual Stripe App sounds nice. I didn’t know that such apps even exist. Thanks)

Definitely appreciate this, Cat! Would love to chat and get more info about your services. I think I need to do a bit more initial work first (hoping to do that this week) just to be able to come to any chats with some direction and not waste everyone's time.

Sure! Here's my calendar link for whenever you're ready: calendly.com/scalewithwords/c…

I have way more availability than that, but I'm protective with my time publicly. If none of those work for you, let me know and I bet we can figure out something else. I work around the clock anyway 🤣

If you need someone to make sense of and organize your thoughts and make a plan forward to get the foundations created, the offer is there to take.

For strategy, I've worked with people who only had an idea and nothing else. Those tend to be really intensive, long-term projects since we're doing market research + validating, brand strategy (brand core, messaging, positioning, voice, etc), GTM (go-to-market) strategy, and ongoing marketing strategy -- plus the execution and iterations of everything.

Typically if people come with solid research, a validated idea, or even a first iteration (however shitty it performed), we can build a lot quicker on that since we're mostly refining.

I've been a freelance writer since 2008 and fCMO since 2017, so clients also usually have me write their copy and set up their systems, but I'm guessing you're pretty well-versed with those being a fCTO :)

(The only thing I don't do is visual branding because, trust me, you don't want me to do that. I partner with a lot of agencies and have a pretty decent referral list, so I'd be happy to share my people with you. Brand design is the last stage in brand strategy, though, so there's time.)

Yeah, this is what I did initially with the current version. Definitely not a must have, so maybe this is more just procrastination? Probably better to just focus on monetization and other improvements first. The design overall was bugging me (just felt so cheap/clunky) and if I was going to redo the overall site design anyways, figured I'd start with doing proper branding.

Yeah, this is what I general do too, and what I currently have. Exploring next step options to clean it up a bit more.