project_log: 021

Yo.

3 months ago, I decided to go against societal norms.

I chose to stay independent rather than growing a team, despite external pressure tell me this was the wrong path.

You see, the world wants you to grow. It wants you to scale. It wants you to want more. Whether it's the "how many people you got working for you?" comment from a high school friend checking your status, or the constant pressure to keep up with luxury goods to show you've "made it."

Society makes you feel lazy and unambitious if you don't chase their version of success.

All of this is bullshit.

This week I want to talk about an alternative approach I'm taking.

If you're in the "scale at all costs" mindset, this might not be for you. And that's okay. You can make your own decisions. It's your life. I respect you for that.

But for those who value flexibility and freedom above everything else, you might like my approach.

It acts as a guide for internet solopreneurs who have ambition and drive but are happy doing it solo.

There are 3 phases:

1. You're employed and want to chase independence.

2. You're a freelancer/coach/consultant and want to chase higher leverage opportunities (I'm here).

3. Higher leverage opportunities replace everything.

Here's how it works:

You're employed and want to chase independence

Goal: Replace employed income with a freelance/coaching/consulting service.

How to achieve the goal: Find 60 minutes a day to work on replacing employment with an independent service offering (freelancing, consulting, coaching, etc.). Build a skill, build your name, get a few clients.

Personal experience: I was interested in crypto and web3 when I wanted to leave my job. I saw an opportunity in web3 development. From 5:30am - 7:30am (before my 9-5 agency job), I taught myself everything I needed to know to start freelancing. I spent my evenings in Discord servers talking to people and letting them know I'm a developer open to work. Turns out the market was super hot and web3 developers were in high demand.

Avoid these mistakes: Don't quit and then start. Start then quit. Generic, I know. But it's true. People will tell you to burn the boats. Which is fine. But don't burn the boats if you've got no idea what you're going to do. You'll end up burning yourself.

You have an independent service offering and want to chase higher leverage opportunities (I'm here).

Goal: Break the direct link between your inputs (time/effort) and outputs (income/results) by working on higher leverage opportunities.

How to achieve the goal: Leverage for independents is best built around code and media (media being courses, videos, newsletters, etc.). If you don't code, choose media. If you code, choose both.

Factor in these two things when making a decision on what to work on:

1. Think about who you like talking to and helping. You'll be spending a lot of time with these people, so don't create something for people you hate.

2. Solve problems you experience.

Personal experience: I spend the first 2 hours of the day writing this newsletter or building a software product. I know how to code, so I chose both code and media. Media being this newsletter, code being the software product.

I knew I liked talking to people about business, especially internet solopreneurs. It's enjoyable writing about my experience, knowing I'm helping people just like me solve their problems.

The product I'm building is an embeddable estimation widget that is solving a problem I experience. Meaning I understand the problem it solves, because I have that problem.

I'm using my freelance income to pay me while I build these higher leverage opportunities.

Avoid these mistakes: Shiny object syndrome will be most potent at this stage. You have the flexibility to work on anything, just not everything. Choose wisely.

Higher leverage opportunities replace everything (I'd like to be here in 3 years)

This final step is a hypothetical. I can't give you concrete advice because I've never been here. Instead, I'll share what I'm chasing and then give you a glimpse at what others have been able to achieve independently.

What I'm chasing: Time.

Higher leverage opportunities + no one relying on you = free time to do whatever you want.

I want to be able to drop everything, go surf the Maldives for a month, come home and build things on the internet with my friends. I'm happy to sacrifice scale and having a team to be able to do this.

Justin is proof that you can go independent and still create an epic life for yourself:

To recap:

If you feel the pressure to tell your friends you have employees for the sake of telling your friends you have employees, the independent approach might work for you.

Find 60 minutes a day to build your skill, build your name online, and get your first few clients.

Once you've got a few clients under your belt, make the leap and go full time.

When you start getting the urge to chase higher leverage opportunities, remember:

1. Independent leverage is best in the form of media and code. If you can't code, choose media. If you can code, choose both.

2. Create and build for people you enjoy spending time with.

3. Solve your own problems.

This will give you a frame for where to spend your attention.

Use the cash flow from your service business to fund your higher leverage opportunities. Build these to get your time back.

Then do whatever you want.

P.S. I've written 2 articles recently that help increase cashflow so you can spend more time on higher leverage opportunities:

1. How I 3x’d my business with pricing

2. How I generate more leads than I can handle

Thanks for reading. Keep crushing. Talk soon.

- Will

Ballpark update coming later this week. Stay tuned..