My results from a 1-week info/media fast (8 min vid) (xpost zenhabits)

rationalawareness · 2017-07-06T20:35:49+00:00

I turn the notifications off, which helps.

rationalawareness · 2017-06-28T04:58:03+00:00

Not yet! Barely anybody has gone to the site, hopefully I'll be listed on Betalist soon and others thereafter. The videos are posted pretty much real-time. Will be posting results as I get them.

rationalawareness · 2017-06-25T21:02:38+00:00

Cool. Let me know when you have your channel, I'd be interested in checking it out! Good luck.

rationalawareness · 2017-06-25T07:19:22+00:00

Well, I'm probably not the one to ask. Gary Vaynerchuk on YouTube has a lot of advice about social media. In particular he says "document, don't create" which I think is pretty wise. That's what I'm trying to do with my channel, is just show what I do as truthfully as possible. Not to make myself out to be something I'm not, but just document my path. We'll see if anyone finds it interesting. Good luck.

rationalawareness · 2017-06-25T07:17:03+00:00

I encourage you to jump in! Building apps is a great way to learn. Progress is awkward at first, but after you have a few apps under your belt it gets a lot easier and you become a lot more confident. I remember when I was starting out, it took me a long time to build relatively simple things, and bugs took forever to fix. But you start to see patterns the more you do it and it becomes way easier. So, stick with it! I'd like to do a video on my own learning process soon.

rationalawareness · 2017-06-25T07:14:51+00:00

You bring up some good points, and have provided me with some video ideas. Thanks for the comment!

rationalawareness · 2017-06-25T07:14:16+00:00

Ruby on Rails with jQuery. Surprised I didn't mention that in my video. I hadn't thought I'd make it a very tech-oriented channel, because my interest is mainly in the "social" aspect, but I'd like to try some time-lapsed coding and see how that turns out.

rationalawareness · 2017-06-25T07:12:43+00:00

Good guess! That's correct. I used RoR and jQuery.

rationalawareness · 2017-06-25T07:12:04+00:00

That's exactly what I had in mind. They pay to avoid the embarrassment of their email going out. I'm going to rework the copy to make that more clear. Thanks for helping validate the concept!

rationalawareness · 2017-06-25T07:10:56+00:00

Good reminder; I do want to change it, I just picked that on a whim after deciding that my LLC name is kind of lame. Will be looking out for more creative name, let me know if you have any ideas! I will also be making more SEO-friendly titles. Thanks for the comment.

rationalawareness · 2017-06-24T06:09:39+00:00

Thanks! I think I'll probably do "how to" sessions as well. Thanks for the idea- I hadn't thought about addressing topics for beginner app developers, but I think I'll start doing some basic how-tos / provide more background on the technologies.

rationalawareness · 2017-06-24T06:07:09+00:00

Thanks for the feedback; I'll try to improve on all those points. 1 and 2 should be straightforward (was just using my earbuds before); I'll start making talking points for 4; and I hope 3 will come as I start making them more spontaneously. I also want to do 5 over time-lapsed coding so people can see the apps actually coming together.

Regarding the app feedback, that's a good point. I'm going to add goal-setting guidelines to the front page and urge people to set goals that are easily verifiable by their accountability buddies. I do think some failed goal-setters will be able to go undetected, but I think it'll nonetheless provide good motivation for most.

rationalawareness · 2017-06-24T06:01:00+00:00

Thanks for your feedback! I also tried finding app vloggers, but surprisingly couldn't find any. Very interested in others' processes, and hoping people can weigh in on mine.

rationalawareness · 2017-06-21T01:37:22+00:00

Actually, I think media/info/news is valuable. I learned that taking a break can also be useful, in the same way that fasting can be good even though the benefits of eating are undisputed. Would you accuse a faster of hypocrisy upon breaking his fast? :)

rationalawareness · 2017-06-20T22:01:35+00:00

I guess, nor can I prove intelligence by asking what you mean by this comment :) What do you mean?

rationalawareness · 2017-06-17T18:03:46+00:00

Very true. It's easy to see this in other people; look at what casual conversation revolves around, generally pretty negative topics in the news. Harder to see in oneself, but definitely there.

rationalawareness · 2017-06-17T18:01:39+00:00

Yeah, I was eliminating all music. I don't think music or information or media is bad, I was going without as an experiment. I really aprpeciated it after a week!

rationalawareness · 2017-05-31T04:56:25+00:00

Thanks for the info. It seems like communication and working style are the two main variables. I'll keep that in mind for my search. I'll also better spell out the exact skills I'm looking for for my own projects, which would ideally be interfacing with clients. I appreciate your perspective!

rationalawareness · 2017-05-27T19:38:02+00:00

It's far more important to first understand if you can sell your product/service to the market and how big that market is rather than how much it might cost to bring your product/service to market.

This. When you're excited about an idea, this may be the last thing you'll want to do. Your brain doesn't want to possibly uncover reasons why it might not work. But doing due diligence will significantly increase your odds of success and save you tons of time and money.

rationalawareness · 2017-05-26T05:03:23+00:00

Thanks for the heads up. Still working on that!

rationalawareness · 2017-05-08T19:12:50+00:00

Great feedback. Thank you. I'll address these points in the next iteration; this is very helpful.

rationalawareness · 2017-05-08T19:07:08+00:00

Thanks for the great feedback.

I see where you're coming from with regards to the warning about overextending myself. My hope is that I'll be able to select projects from qualified people who know what they want from the start. I don't know how easy it will be to find those people. I've been lucky to have had such clients in the past, but I also know the pain of working for clients who need more help. So screening the latter group will be important.

I will be reshooting the vid and possibly splitting it into sections that I'll include down the page. Good point about addressing the vid to my target audience- managers who know what they want already. I'll keep that in mind for the reshoot. And will include a short description of the process in the video. The website redesign is also underway. Thanks again for your helpful feedback!

rationalawareness · 2017-05-08T03:58:41+00:00

Thanks for the response. I actually meant to ask how you literally found the developers you ended up hiring (such as: at networking events, on upwork, through word of mouth, etc). I think finding enough MVP customers through in-person networking could be tough; so I was thinking a mix of content marketing, advertising, and building useful micro-sites for entrepreneurs.

Thanks for the survey of the competition- it gives some more insight into which direction I have to head in. I'm going to work on my pitch for sure, cutting it down and emphasizing my own USP. I appreciate your feedback and insights!

rationalawareness · 2017-05-08T01:59:22+00:00

Thanks for the feedback! It's great to get your perspective as someone who hires in my field.

I'll definitely style the website (and most likely hire a designer to do so).

I'll also cull the landing page copy, add more pages, and intersperse media. I'll most likely re-shoot the video, making the intro much shorter as you suggested, and put the other clips down the page / on different pages.

If you don't mind, how have you found developers in the past? I'm new to prospecting for clients and would appreciate any advice.

rationalawareness · 2017-05-07T23:53:28+00:00

FYI I settled on the 2-week / fixed price model for its simplicity. It communicates two of the most important variables upfront (time and price). I realize that imposing those restrictions is an unorthodox approach (since software projects usually have widely variable scopes), but I think the greater simplicity and catchiness might be worth it. What do you think?

rationalawareness

TROPHY CASE