When momentum drops
I had my first zero-sales day since the product launched for softwareideas.io, which really put me into a bad mood. It's funny how quickly I got used to seeing sales come in each day and how accustomed I got to the feeling. A single day where momentum stopped and I felt like a failure.
It's a big lesson in that I need to detach my self-worth from my project. I imagined that I would be more emotionally resilient to something like that happening.
Part of it is also that yesterday was a release day, where I get the opportunity to email everyone on my email list a preview of the newsletter. With 500 people I expected at least one to convert, so it was something of a double whammy.
It's how the human brain works, you get addicted to that stat...
The easiest way around could be to focus on another stat.
So seperate the results from the work/progress and only attach yourself to the thing you can actually control, a thing that has no 3rd party attached, just you, have you practiced your craft today or not?while it gets a bit iffy between reality results and seemingly being busy, try to figure out if it makes sense as leading vs lagging stats.
Thanks for this!
Great advice, thanks
I had my first zero–sales day in a month a couple days ago so I feel you! Basically every day until I get a sale I'm thinking "welp, looks like it was just a flash in the pan, I had a nice run." It's tough but you gotta remind yourself that even though this feels so acute now, in a year you'll barely even remember it.
This is exactly what I was feeling yesterday. Thanks for putting it into words. And it's so true, you know that it's an over-reaction, but it's so hard to fight.
Like anything, it takes practice. The more ups and downs you go through, the more emotionally resilient you will become. It will require more and more to break you. Take a deep breath and get back to work :)
Thanks for this man! Much needed read for me today!
This is a challenge many of us face. I know I do with my newsletter.
My solution has been using several measurements to rate success.
For example, maybe I don’t get a new subscriber after a newsletter post I spent a lot of time on. So I instead focus on other metrics such as the open rate.
It also helps to “zoom out”sometimes. By that I mean try to only assess performance once per month Or week instead of once per day. When you step back and look at the bigger picture/ trajectory of your product, this sometimes helps put small setbacks into perspective.
Thanks Casey. It's been a while since this post and I've definitely had time to reflect on it. I think now I have a much more accurate picture of how I emotionally feel during times where results are unexpectedly bad. I know that I tend to feel worse than the situation requires, so that helps.
I also feel that some part of it is inevitable with what we're trying to do. We're exposed to the raw up AND down swings of our businesses, and I think that, for me, accepting that fact has made it easier to deal with. Yep, I'm going to feel down when things are doing worse than expected, of course I will. That's the game we've signed up for, same as we expect to be able to fly high when things are going great.
Anyway, thanks for your thoughts, I hadn't thought about this post in a while and I think you've helped me summarize my mindset since then!
Thanks for the reply and update! Glad to hear it!
If it makes you feel better I just discovered you and signed up to the newsletter :)
In a world where success stories are the norm it's great to hear about the struggles too. Thanks for sharing and I hope things pick up for you. After all, where all here to support each other.
Thanks!
It picked up literally the next day, which I think is kinda why I wrote the post. Because I was on such a high ($2,000 in sales in three weeks), a single day without a sale hit me really hard. I let myself treat the highs like the new normal, so when a bad day came around it hit me as if it was a bad month.
@Kevcon80 why don’t you turn this into a blog and run ads to get some revenue?
Hey, not sure if I wasn’t clear in the post. The product is doing exceptionally well. Almost $700 MRR in about three weeks. The problem was actually that it was doing so well that I let myself get used to it, and when I had a bad day it hurt a lot worse. It’s not something I’d experienced before so I wanted to share with others as a warning.
It sounds like you live in the same city as me, realized that when signing up for your newsletter. What are the odds.
Haha small world :) I'm actually moving in a couple months, but I've loved it here and will miss it.
Cool where are you moving to?
Boca Raton, Florida.
Absolutely horrible time to be moving there though
Just signed up for the free sample. Could always use a couple new ideas. I'll sign up for a paid account if it seems decent.
Thanks, let me know your thoughts!
I went through it and think I might be interested, but I'm already working on a couple of ideas right now so don't have a need to sign up yet, but will keep it in mind for the future! I can see the value there, glad that's working out for you!
Thanks! The price is definitely aimed towards people actively looking for their next business idea, so it makes sense that it isn’t right for you right now. Thanks for checking it out!
I gave the site to a couple coder friends
Thanks for sharing it around!
I personally like to go through things that other people put out on topics I already know about just because I feel like there might be 1 or 2 nuggets of information in there, that is new and things I didn't think about or know about before. That being said, Pat Flynn has a couple of resources out there for free right now you might want to grab and go through when you have time if you haven't already (I haven't yet just due to time). He's giving them away right now for free because of COVID and he has a book and a course both that normally cost money and are free right now. The Will It Fly book of his and his video course Smart From Scratch are probably both really good since all of his stuff is good. I'm not sure when he will start charging for them again but you can grab them now for free: https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/online-business-toolkit/