On Monday I finished reading
“The Mom Test” book and finally had all the insights I needed to interview my audience properly. However for some reason I was feeling uncomfortable and couldn’t understand why. I started asking questions to myself trying to figure out what’s wrong:
“What should be my next step now? Should I start reading a new book? Should I pick an idea and start validating it?”
Sell something tiny to an audience you already belong to.
Most folks wanna get fancy. They read all the books, buy all courses, sign up for all of the software, test out off of the tools.
But getting fancy without foundations will get in the way of you understanding the basic rules of why business works: why people buy, who buys, how to reach them, and how to do it all over and over.
Every single successful business owner I know can tell you the turning point when they made their first sale to a stranger on the internet, and for most of them, it was something very, very small.
Going through the entire experience of selling something very small isn’t about the money you’ll earn from that tiny thing, it’s about seeing the reality of every step of the experience, and learning how it feels.
I realized that my main focus should be on sales and customer development. This wasn’t something new to me as I was already doing it with some of my weekly UX feedback sessions. The main point was that I had to get more serious with it. I needed to find companies that make a profit and find expensive problems to solve for them. Not just fellow indiehackers. The UX feedback sessions was my comfort zone and a small first step but it wasn’t enough. I needed to start contacting more people outside of the indiehacking community and figure out a way to make them give me the feedback I needed.
On top of that I also realized that reading books and articles all the time is the perfect excuse to procrastinate. It’s an easy way for me to avoid getting out of my comfort zone. I fool myself by saying “I am studying and preparing myself to do it the right way”. “But when am I ready enough to go for it?” Truth is that I will never be 100% ready. At some point I just have to find the courage and learn by doing. Reading is good but only when there is balance. Real life experience always provides way more insights.