June 2022 Retro

In the previous retro , I built a pre-launch email list for AdSlicer using Facebook Ads. I was quite happy to collect 101 emails from strangers that were seemingly interested in ecommerce sales attributions.

The next steps were pretty clear: build the tool and blast an email to promote it.

None of that happened.

My lack of external progress was a result of my internal state.

As you might know, I work about 50/50 on freelance dev & this shit (i.e. indie hacking).

The past month I spent a lot of my time just staring at my screen, feeling inadequate, incapable of solving problems. Both my freelancing tasks & AdSlicer tasks seemed way over my head, insurmountable. My confidence in my own abilities were shot.

This kind of retro seems to be a regular occurrence for me, one that comes around every now and then, and I hate repeatedly falling into the same trap. I think that these issues go beyond “the average struggles of an entrepreneur” and has more to do with how I approach life. I think I’m making it worse than it needs to be.

Perhaps somewhat related, this past month was also my 12th month of being unemployed 🤷‍♂️

One year ago today was my first day of being unemployed.

I quit my job to make internet money and since then I've made $0 from selling a product I've built.

I'm thankful to have survived this past year on freelance dev work and savings.

Both the best & worst year yet 🥂

— Jason Wallace (@jdeanwallace) July 1, 2022

The longer I stick with this goal of earning money independently, the more I believe that it’s less about quick-wins (at all cost) and more about finding a comfortable pace that I can maintain (indefinitely). If I’m not going to give up then it doesn’t matter when it happens, it matters how it happens. For example, do I want to earn money just for the sake of earning money or do I want to become the type of person who could do it. That “becoming” is the hard part. I purposely don’t want to postpone my life until after I reach my financial goals. I want my life to co-exist with my money making journey and I’m grateful that my current setup allows me to do just that.

Last month’s goals

1. Build a new MVP of AdSlicer.

   Final grade: D

2. Tease the launch of AdSlicer to my email list.

   Final grade: F

3. Launch AdSlicer to my email list.

   Final grade: F

Main events

Partially building a new MVP

Like I said, the majority of the month it felt like I was drowning. Thank goodness for caring partners. Near the end of the month my partner helped me find some clarity on my next steps by putting together a surprisingly detailed Gantt chart of outstanding tasks.

A Gantt chart for AdSlicer tasks.

I’m apparently 5 months behind schedule 🥲.

Even though the estimates are a bit off, her help gave me a foothold for continuing AdSlicer. Thanks Sheena ❤️

Time

This is my lowest total time allocation yet. When I felt like I was making no progress, I stopped the timer.

A breakdown of how I spent my time last month (via Toggl ).

This month’s goals

• Read a fiction book or part thereof.

  My Twitter timeline is making me nauseous with all the “7 tips to become rich” type of threads.

• Integrate AdSlicer with a live Shopify store.

  My partner runs Facebook ads for a few ecommerce stores, so it’s the perfect opportunity test AdSlicer.

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Thanks for listening to me stumble through life. If you're interested in what happens next, I'll email it to you next month.