Weekly Update #4

Some important news! I quit my job.

I am now working on starting my Solo Engineer career full-time. I will spend quite a bit of time building content to attract my ideal buyers and doing freelance work.

My ideal customer is a medium to large enterprise that needs a web app or SaaS application built or updated. If this is you, please get in touch!

Twitter Analytics

• I will play with some Twitter tools next week to make my tweets more efficient. However, it's pretty clear that the more you tweet, the more followers you get.
• Still, genuine relationships > followers. The quality matters a lot.
• Numbers still matter.

Consulting

• I've almost got all the information I need to finish phase 1 of my contract with a local organization. That will be $3000 in revenue. Once that's complete, we will move on to phase two, around $25,000 of revenue.
• The organization moves a lot slower than I do. That's okay, but I could still use some more work!
• I was introduced to my ex-boss's new company, but that went nowhere. He sent an email, and I waited a few days and responded. Nothing.
• Remember, I'm doing this full-time and thinking about it constantly. Most other people are like, "Ehhhh, I'll circle back to this in 2 weeks when my project is over."
• I don't have a strong pipeline of work yet, so still looking for more through my network. Once February starts, I'll branch out my strategy more if I still don't have anything suitable.
• I pinged a contact at my old company to try and get some movement on my contract there.
• Moments after I sent the email, they reached out to me! Entirely coincidental I'm told, but it sounds like they have a project they're interested in having me tackle. I'll get the details soon. I'm very excited!
• I went to lunch with my old CEO from Virtyx (previous startup) and he also had a connection who was looking for some consulting work. I told him to put me in touch. You miss every shot you never take.

Content

• I created my very first YouTube video!
• I'm iterating over how to create the best content and understand what excites me. I really enjoyed the process of making the video! It took over 10 takes, but I finally got something half decent.
• If you have feedback, please let me know! And please subscribe. I think that's the YouTube thing to do.
• I read Ship 30 for 30, which gives a guideline for how to write content and who you should be writing for.
• Not all the advice is actionable, but it was a quick read with good thoughts.
• The most important part of writing and content is to give yourself the time to do it. Many people make excuses about not having enough time. Once you force yourself to have time (Sacred Hours; time dedicated), you realize you have other problems.
• I read Derek Sivers' Anything You Want, which had many lessons about his company, CD Baby. A quick read (1 hour), but lots of good advice.
• I finished Tony Fadell's Build, which covered various topics on building and running a company. Probably worth talking more about that later.

That's all for this week!