Idea → Validation + $27 in sales. All within 21h

I was reaching 1,000 followers soon.

I made a post on Apr 24 that I'm aiming to go from 180 → 1,000 followers in < 1mo. And that I'm documenting this, so I can post my journey+lessons on IndieHackers (will make this post soon).

I was at about 965 followers, and thought it'd be great to make a video recording about it, since:

• All the courses are made by 'finished results' e.g. 'I have 50k followers and here's how you can start'
• Like how can I listen to 100% of what you say, since you're at 50k now?
• What about selective memory, biases, etc?

I thought: if I ever get to a big number, I want there to be a milestone-by-milestone progress documented:

• 1,000 followers
• 2,500 followers
• 10,000 followers etc

So I wanted to make the 1k milestone immortal. But at the same time, I didn't want to make a 'full-blown course', or anything where the input was super high.

It's just my journey, so I wasn't planning to do something HUGE. Just to strike the max ratio of input/outpiut.

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Testing the waters

I've documented the journey with more details and more story elements here, if you're curious about the thought process. But for now, I'll just keep it short(er)

On the day I thought of this video, I wanted to go to bed with a 'peaceful' mindset.

What do I mean by that: I hate having a huge lag between the idea and actually doing it: I would hate myself if I'd take months to plan, re-evalute, overthink etc. Done that before, then made a promise to myself that I'll make a habit out of not doing it.

So I just posted this tweet, but I had nothing ready to show:

I thought I'll just improvise if there's interest. That way, I'd 'hedge' my bets. If it doesn't go well, nothing lost.

To keep the rest of the story short:

• Some interest came up, but I wanted to go bed in 20 min. So I was naturally 'boxed' my time.
• Quickly wrote an outline of what I'd talk about in the video (time spent: 10 min). That was the early access I promised ppl.
• Went to bed, got some more interest in the morning (accumulated overnight)
• Started sending the outline to 5 more ppl, but realised that if I do the video after all, there's no one to send this to. I needed an email list → I made a quick Gumroad product
• Took me 5 min to make the product, 15 min to make the image
• On a whim, as I made the product, I said 'Yeah sure, let's allow ppl to pay. Why not'. Added a "$9 for pre-orders" option

But then a problem came up: I love giving more and more to people. I love products which get better over time — they're a fairer deal for the buyer. On day 1, I loosely thought about:

A. People who buy this early should get a better deal, as early adopters. That, in turn, makes me more likely to get to the next milestone faster
B. There needs to be some urgency to buy this

That materialized in the following 'deal', which became apparent to me as I made the Gumroad page:

• Any purchase gives you lifetime access to all the future videos I'll make, if/when I make them: at 1k followers, 2.5k followers, 5k followers, 10k followers, etc
• I'll make a video at every milestone, if/when I get there
• The earlier you buy, the better price you get. So prices increase as I get to the next milestone.

READ: "As I made". I'm pretty sure I couldn't think of this if I was just planning and not doing.

It materialised into this:

(thinking of increasing these prices of future milestones btw. Thoughts?)

And then...

Once the page was done, I resumed DM'ing people this Gumroad page

And then....

$9 came through!

Then, as I was writing the tweet that described the full journey, with more details and more story elements:

Two more orders came through! $27 in total, after 30 min of 'working/planning', all within 21 hours.

So the video is definitely happening now, since I... without setting out to do it, validated the need of the product

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Lessons learned and shared

• Always leave your door open. If I had 'planned this properly', I most def wouldn't have added the $9 paid option. I could've rationalised by saying 'well why would they pay $9 now, if it's gonna be $9 when it's done'. That's not a perfect deal for ppl
• You don't know. You might think you know, but the market decides.
• A reminder that echoing your success
• If you've created a wave for yourself... ride it
• If not, see how you can create it
• Twitter is a slot machine. You have infinite 'slots' (posting is free). You just need to find the machines that, for you, work.
• Fast pace >>> planning and doing. Not all the time, but most of the time.

Open to any question!

P.S: If you wanna know how this goes, I send out a (free) monthly 'investors' update on this, but also how my other projects are going (my $15k/mo business, a new product I'm building in public, etc) in "Dear Mom/Investors"