Squares TV
Tools and inspiration for live streaming & video production
I started 2022 with a resolution not to work on the backend of Squares TV and focus on content. I'd created a simple tool that I thought people would find useful so I created a couple of videos and blog posts showing people how to use it.
It wasn't as polished as I would usually like but it was functional. I made it "members-only" so that people had to create an account to use it, and I shared it in some Reddit and Facebook communities.
https://squares.tv/posts/the-easiest-way-to-sync-mic-audio-in-obs
It was, by my standards, a hit! For the first time I started seeing daily mailing list sign-ups and my audience was slowly starting to grow.
The second interview I published was with streaming DJ Paul Dakeyne. https://squares.tv/posts/djdakeyne
This time I built an interactive "Rig Explorer" which I hoped would function as a lead magnet. I spent some time integrating Amazon Affiliate links and suchlike but ultimately nobody was interested. People enjoyed the interview but they weren't joining my list.
Squares TV is built on Elixir/Phoenix. Before I could release my first video I needed the ability to publish blog posts lay things out on the homepage and capture email addresses.
I followed a free Pat Flynn workshop to help focus the initial content and kicked things off with an interview with variety streamer Jofamo.
I was talking to my users each week, finding them via a quiz I'd built into Shoot.
I had been working, along with a graphic designer, on Changes (https://goodtohear.co.uk/changes) for two years by June 2021.
I knew what I wanted in terms of UX and I was trying to play Apple's game ("make something that uses features of the newest iOS so we can sell more phones"), but the more I learned about sales and marketing, the more I realised that I had set myself up for failure. It was hard to talk to users (it's a very private app), it relied on a consistent self-tracking behaviour that is untenable for most people (I was blind to this as I find it easy) and it asks people to do something very scary - make changes in their life (again, something I am relatively fearless about). Its release was poorly-timed - an app to foster voluntary change at the moment everybody in the world was forced to make major changes as the pandemic hit in March 2020. And I just didn't enjoy talking to my users that much.
Meanwhile another (to me, very minor) app had taken off and was paying my bills. But I wanted to do due diligence on Changes before jumping onto something else.
After 2 years, I called it.
At some point in a product's life, if you can see it's not working, you have to call it a failure.
This was a tough decision but after a few days I was overflowing with ideas for a new direction, all based around Squares TV and set to work, ready to apply everything I'd learned so far as a solopreneur.
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