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31 Comments

Let's get it! Monday's Daily Stand Up!

Why?

That extra nudge of accountability to achieve even a small step on your IH journey each day.

To join in:

01 COMMENT on AT LEAST ONE fellow hacker's progress and give them an IH Point for their check in. Let's get in there with the encouragement/feedback! (Changing the order, because I know we can do better!)

02 Share your epic (a big chunk of work with a meaty objective) you'd like to complete by the end of August.

03 Share what you accomplished yesterday.

04 Share what you commit to accomplishing today.

Optional:

05 Share your Work In Progress to underscore your accomplishments.

Then tune in the tomorrow to share how you did on your own tasks!

#daily-stand-up

on August 12, 2019
  1. 4

    EPIC

    Launch Premium subscriptions for GG|

    OVER THE WEEKEND

    TODAY

    • Complete at least 5 Laracast videos (learning PHP for some contract work)
    • Make a "Subscribe" modal for features that are only available on certain plans
    • Push all of my latest code to production (desktop site and API)
    • Write the profile background feature on mobile
    • Start the list background feature for desktop

    UPDATE:
    3:45pm Pacific Time - Just hit a revenue milestone! $10 MRR :D
    5:45pm Pacific Time - $15 MRR

    1. 2

      Still stoked about the writeup, Charles! Very nice progress. I also think the investment into learning Laravel will be worthwhile. A great community there.

    2. 1

      Just signed 2 people up for early access to the top premium tier 🙌

      just went from
      MRR: $2 -> $8

      1. 1

        VC level growth right there!

        (Congrats!)💰

        1. 1

          hahaha right after I posted that it went up again! :P

    3. 1

      Just shipped the profile backdrop feature for desktop. Gunna be working on the mobile version now.

      • Complete at least 5 Laracast videos (learning PHP for some contract work)
      • Make a "Subscribe" modal for features that are only available on certain plans
      • Push all of my latest code to production (desktop site and API)
      • Write the profile background feature on mobile
      • Start the list background feature for desktop
  2. 4

    By end of August, I'll have proven whether my online course was a one hit wonder or is a source of recurring revenue.

    EPIC
    Launch evergreen course and sales funnel, earning 5K in revenues.

    BREAKDOWN

    • Week 1: Complete scripts. [5 of 5 completed]
    • Week 2: Complete filming and email funnels. [8 of 8 completed]
    • Week 3: Complete website.
    • Week 4: Launch and respond to queries.

    YESTERDAY

    • Make free training pages tablet-view friendly.
    • Review three scripts.

    TODAY

    • Review all scripts.
    • Try on wardrobe.
    • Prep assets and artifacts for videographer.
    • Confirm videographer, MUA and venue for shoot tomorrow.
    • Test email funnels.
    • Fix coaching image on Firefox.
    • Create resource page.

    KUDOS

    To the return of @Aadhi! You've been missed!

    1. 2

      Mind me asking how you're driving people to the site?

      1. 3

        Not at all.

        From my first course attempt, I've a wait list of 229. That'll likely be my bread and butter.

        From a prior career, I've a list of 20K. Lots of deadweight. But with ConvertKit, I'll gradually start culling cold leads.

        And then, just to see how I do with an audience that doesn't know me, I'm going to spend $100 on targeted FB ads.

        You?

        Still not ready for prime time, but here's the landing page for my free training.

        And here's my premium course page.

        Love suggestions/feedback if you've the time!

        1. 2

          From a prior career, I've a list of 20K. Lots of deadweight. But with ConvertKit, I'll gradually start culling cold leads.

          Wow, that's handy! :D

          You?

          I have an email list of about ~6k, but not directly for the course.

          On the waitlist for the course directly are about ~300 at the moment. I need to push that number way up.

          Mainly focussed on word of mouth and podcasts/interviews right now, but will add in some FB soon too.

          Will check out those landing pages tomorrow and give feedback. Please remind me if I don't!

          1. 2

            If you have any favorite resources for FB ads, I'd love to "borrow 'em"!

            1. 2

              This webinar was surprisingly good. Aimed definitely more towards beginners, but high value density around FB/Insta adverts for sure!

              You could also check out some of Mojca's stuff on FB ads. She knows what she is doing :)

              1. 1

                Awesome! Thank you!

        2. 2

          This comment was deleted 3 years ago

          1. 2

            Wow. Thank you!

            I spend way too long on my sales artifacts. (Laughing!) I always hear @csallen in my head, citing examples of simple sales pages generating millions!

            1. 1

              This comment was deleted 3 years ago

              1. 1

                Nope. But I like where your mind is at! @csallen?

  3. 3

    EPIC
    I'd like to get https://repobox.io published by the end of the month with full composer/npm support for premium packages. I'm trying to get the audience segmentation and messaging right to make it clear that I'm not trying to compete with packagist's offerings.

    Yesterday's Work

    • I worked on adding npm support. This wasn't in the original plan, but the npm vertical really doesn't have any way for users to offer premium packages and distribute them to users using the standard NPM registry, so I woke up, read through the registry specification and implemented the first version into my application.
    • Landing page updates (added logos)

    Today's work

    • Working on finishing NPM support and integrating the NPM package publication into github/ci so that users' packages are auto published to the repobox registry when they release a new version.
    • Adding a demo to the site so you can see a real repository page and how things look, and optionally order a test package to show you the integration with composer/npm.
    1. 1

      Nice @jimmylipham, this is pretty similar to my project https://sugarkubes.io and https://ligit.dev How has finding seller's been for you? I've mostly been blogging, but traction has been slow.

      1. 2

        Ah yeah, big fan of SugarKubes and what you're after there! I was going to do the github repository route but saw that you were already making waves in that space and decided to change direction.

        Finding sellers has indeed been tough, but I think I've got a way to approach that. I'm also working on some strategic partnerships that could put us as the host for some fairly widely used packages.

        1. 1

          Yeah the partnerships are probably the right way to approach this.

          1. 1

            Maybe, maybe not. I see you're really killing that quora game though. I think that's a good approach for educating your target audience that maybe doesn't know something like this is out there.

            If you want to discuss further, I'm open. You can always DM me on twitter or email.

            1. 1

              Will do, Yeah I'm not sold on the Quora thing. I got 1200 views on those answers and a grand total of 8 referrals 🤷‍♀️

  4. 2

    EPIC

    Reach MVP

    BREAKDOWN

    -Week 1: Tools week - I've got several additional tools in mind, I'm going to try to get at least two of them completed by the 8th. I'm also going to be fixing a couple of issues I've noticed with the current tools. I'll also add client side input validation, I'm only doing server side validation right now.-

    Week 2: Writing Week: Troubleshooting flow-chart and/or checklist, a couple of articles for the notes section

    Week 3: Do some basic SEO, keywords, sitemaps, etc. More tools work or writing as time allows.

    Week 4: Finalize the look and feel of the website, any design changes should be minor at this point. Explore some of the paid ideas I've been kicking around.

    YESTERDAY

    I'm considering the tools section done for now, I do plan on adding more to it in the future, but I'm not going to consider it a priority for the time being.

    • Started working on an article about how LISP works (the protocol, not the language)
    • Began adding a discourse forum to the site

    TONIGHT

    • Work on the discourse integration
    • Work on the LISP article

    KUDOS

    @sircharleswatson congrats on the writeup, that's awesome.

    1. 1

      thanks @bjames! :D

  5. 2

    EPIC

    1. 2019
      • $6400 EOY - Nov & Dec excluded
    2. Aug
      • 1st Pilot Customer
      • $1600 in Revenue
    3. Objective
      • Double down on the sales problem to understand the customers better it.
      • Then make/test a quick MVP solution.

    YESTERDAY

    TODAY

    • Define tasks for the week.
    • Revise Aug-Sept OKRs & KPIs
    • Confirm meetings for the week.
    • Assess & document customer behavior, data, and feedback.

    BREAKDOWN
    WEEK 1:
    1. Set my Aug KPIs. Pick my primary & secondary metrics.
    2. Define a practical non-tech MVP solution to test w/ prospect.
    3. Do lead generation to prepare for week 2.

    WEEK 2
    1. Do cold calls and emails.
    2. Revised landing page copy.
    3. Ship: updated website.
    4. Lead generation.
    5. Nurture folks in my pipeline.

    WEEK 3:

    1. Follow up w/ folks in my pipeline.
    2. Daily outreach (warm/cold calls/emails).
    3. Review & Documentation (customer problems & progress w/ customers).
    4. Revised & center my value proposition and message on the problem.
    5. Get feedback on MVP potential value.
    6. Iterate my pitch, emails, and call scripts.

    WEEK 4:

    1. Iterate my MVP & website from feedback & objections.
    2. Daily outreach (warm/cold calls/emails).
    3. Ship again.
    4. Revised sell sheet.

    WEEK 5:
    TBA

    WIP: Envoy

    KUDOS
    @sircharleswatson on getting press for his app! Good luck on shipping code and videos today.
    @jimmylipham on meeting a need and adding npm support. Also, welcome to the group!

    1. 2

      Thanks @helengriffinjr! I actually just shipped the profile backdrop feature for desktop! :D Gettin some good momentum today :)

  6. 2

    By end of August, I'll have launched early access to my Sales For Founders course, and generate $20k in presales.

    I'll also have finally decided whether I want to say 'enrollment' or 'enrolment'.

    EPIC:

    Launch 'early access' version of course. Generate >$20k in prelaunch revenue.

    BREAKDOWN:

    Week 1: Redo landing page, record testimonial videos/welcome video, write funnel emails

    Week 2: Set up either free webinars or free video course

    Week 3: Redo course content

    Week 4: Redo course content and launch

    YESTERDAY

    • Nothing on this

    TODAY

    • Put podcast episode live
    • Answer interview questions
    • Reach out to final list of course experts
    1. 2

      Which way have you decided to go? Webinar or free video course?

      1. 2

        Free course but it's on the backburner until September I think.

        The scope of the course has changed so much since I decided to bring on external experts to create content. It's more work and I need to focus on that before worrying about growth too much.

        I see you've gone for a free course too - any insights?

        1. 2

          No insights. Just lazy. (Smiling) I'm all about the evergreen for this round!

  7. 1

    EPIC
    50 subs for my personal blog

    YESTERDAY
    Oh so much catching up on life

    TODAY
    Yet more catching up on life :(

    KUDOS
    @sircharleswatson for defaulting to transparency - keep it up!

    OTHER NOTES
    It's been rough catching up on things since I got back from camping. Between orientation (starting my MBA) and getting situated in Hanover, I have little to no time. But I'm not letting that stop me from shipping.

    I'm going to plan on getting the blog post I teed up shipped by tomorrow. Beyond that, I actually heard about a great problem today related to continuous feedback that I'd like to explore.

    1. 2

      Thanks so much! It's a bit strange being so open. Usually I just hide in my little corner and don't share things until they're done but I've been trying to show work in progress a lot more :)