project_log: 019

Yo.

Last week I shared my quarterly update. It included my revenue/profit, recent wins, and what's next for the business (you can read it here). It felt good to celebrate some of the success I've had recently.

But I realised pretty quickly that although success can be a great motivator, relatability is how you get through the hard shit. So let's agree to be more relatable.

This week I want to talk about a concept called the Dip (and how to get through it in your business).

Theres a moment in every hard journey known as the dip. It's that time when you feel like nothing is working. And all your effort seems to produce to ZERO results.

The problem is, social media never talks about this. It's all "how this 17 year old is making 2 million a year" or people romanticising about working for themselves.

These stories doing nothing for me. Except make me feel behind.

What does a dip look like?

Here's what my freelance business journey has looked like so far. See if you can spot the dip.

You can see that my experience of "working for myself" has not been as romantic as social media made it out to be. It's been fucking tough.

In that low point, I'd just moved to Canada where my living costs doubled from living in Bali. I only had a visitor visa which meant I couldn't work for a company inside the country. And to top it all off, I had one month's living costs left before I was making the call to the bank of mum and dad.

It was shit.

This led to:

• Sleepless nights from stress.

• Being forced to take on projects that were outside my scope of services.

• Taking on projects at rates well below the market rate just to pay bills.

• And an overall feeling of failure.

But I was determined to make it work because of the embarrassment I'd go through calling my Dad to pay my rent.

Why push through?

Before I share how to survive it, here's what I experienced on the other side:

• Able to go to the gym at 10:30am when it's quiet.

• Making more than double what I would in a job here in New Zealand.

• Working with some epic global companies.

• My dad didn't have to pay my rent (probably the biggest win. Ego saved)

So what do we do when the inevitable dip hits?

Unfortunately, there is no silver bullet when it comes to getting through a low point. Not for me anyway. It's an array of small changes and reminders that keep you pushing.

I've compiled 14 tips that help me get through:

1. Stop looking at success porn. It's designed to make you feel inadequate.

2. Expect it to be hard.

3. Expect it to take longer than you think. Double whatever timeline you've set.

4. Lower your standards. Take work on that isn't ideal.

5. Lower your prices. One client is always better than zero clients.

6. Be flexible with services. More opportunities = more chances to get through.

7. Having a Plan B is cool. I disagree with the advice of burning the boats.

8. Understand it's just a season. It's not forever.

9. If you are lost, double down on improving your skills.

10. Go on phone-less walks. Clear your head regularly.

11. Sauna + Exercise as often as possible.

12. Plan ahead with your partner. Tell them you are going through a hard time. They'll have more empathy when you skip spending time together. Remind them it's not forever.

13. Hunt people online going through the same thing with you. It's easier when you realise you're not special. Everyone has the same problems.

14. Focus on daily inputs, not outputs. Control what you can control.

I love this quote from Alex Hormozi on this topic: "This is just what hard feels like."

If it were easy, everyone would do it. Keep pushing friend.

For those of you who have pushed through the shit, what worked for you? I'm always looking for ways to push through tough times because I know they're always coming.

Ballpark update

(For context, Ballpark is an estimation widget I’m building that plugs directly in to your website)

Client work has ramped up recently which means I'm spending less time on the product. I set an internal deadline to get it live on my site for March 31st.

I failed.

I can't expect to make progress in every direction at once. The client side of the business is thriving and the product side is slow. It's just how it is for now.

But today I did the first full run through of the product and everything worked. Just need to test then you’ll be seeing this live on my site.

Let's talk about AI inside of Ballpark

The idea for Ballpark came from a design studio site I built a year ago. There was a simple quote calculator where you could fill in details about your project and it sent out an estimation. It was super successful. Did something like 200 estimations in the first 6 months.

The problem was, it felt too rigid. It only worked with numbers and checkboxes, but creative projects need context.

That's where AI inside of Ballpark comes in.

Ballpark analyses your past projects and matches them with new prospect information. Your clients can explain their project in any format and the system understands it.

The AI then creates an estimation based on similar projects you've already completed. Every new project you add makes your pricing more accurate.

Pretty dope IMO.

That's all for this week. Keep crushing. Talk soon.

Will.