This last week has been a doozy - feeling like I can barely keep my head above water. It’s the gift and curse of being busy and having lots of good fun rewarding stuff to work on and then having little time to sit down and just… think.
It’s been an exciting week here at ALF for a few reasons
I’m just feeling like I’ve gotten into a groove and the writing has become easier
The “Exchanges of Curiosity” that I started are finished and the first one with Allison Jackson got posted yesterday. I think it turned out great. Experimenting on new formats and ideas and seeing them come to fruition is so satisfying
I spent some time this week cloning my own voice and learning ElevenLabs so that I can create audio easily after writing my posts and adding that to them for those that want to listen to them on-demand. I got the idea from my Wife - who currently struggles to read them on her screens due to visual issues stemming from a Traumatic Brain Injury. It’s a little wonky still and definitely NOT great but I love having this quick option. You can listen to a few versions below!
A Letter For Zig Zag Zig:
Exchange of Curiosity with Allison Jackson:
Thoughts / Ideas / Reflections
I don’t have a lot of new thoughts this week for the project. I’m mainly conceptualizing and thinking through what I presented last week still - how can I create a physical medium from this to use as promotion.
Right now this is where I’m at:
I should use the typewriter to execute this, but it has to be efficient
I need to just scope out the 10 closest places with community bulletin boards to distribute to
I need to create a process for executing and delivering them
It’s a problem set that’s certainly doable but I haven’t had the time to really think hard enough about yet to get some good solutions.
Stats
Percentage to goal: 51% to 100 day goal
I’m over the halfway mark and on the other side of the hill!
I also had my highest view day ever (300 views!) and consistently averaged higher view counts all last week. I promoted about 4 of the 7 posts on reddit and discord in various subs/channels that I though the posts would resonate.
It only got my 2 more subs, but for now it’s a good start to learning to promote it in other places and growing the views.
I also picked up a new paid subscriber, which puts me at 6 total paid subs and $153 in ARR. #Winning!
Biggest Learning
At the Borderlands 5K trail run and live podcast that my friend Josh did with Billy Yang I learned a ton. Billy in particular had some incredible nuggets of wisdom and just great perspective.
My favorite nugget of gold was the idea that we only have 1 shot at life, so playing it conservatively just isn’t that interesting. We should take big swings at stuff that could be hugely rewarding. Why not?
Biggest Win
My wife is a hyper-empath. When other people have it rough she feels for them deeply. The fires in LA hit close to home with our own personal experience from living there and nearly having to evacuate our home in 2017. In response she has been going around our village and gathering up clothes and supplies to ship and recruiting the kids to help her package it all up and send it out to various aid organizers. She’s got a gift and superpower for these things that I’m so grateful for and she’s passing it along to the next generation!
Highest Level of Resonance This Week:
Whoa - especially that last line.
With love and deep appreciation,
-Andrew