This Week:
- An update on my health metrics that were in the dumpster this week.
- Where and how I spent my final days camping in Arizona.
- An authentic glimpse into my thoughts and uncertainty.
December 2024
| Su | M | T | W | Th | F | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12/1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| 29 | 30 | 31 | 1/1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
Where In The World Was I?
- 🇺🇸 Phoenix area, Arizona
- 🇺🇸 Albuquerque, New Mexico
Health Update
So towards the end of last week my recovery scores started tanking and I just generally felt slower to wake up. Something kind of felt off.
I drove back into the Phoenix area and things didn’t go the direction I wanted them to. Except for Monday, I thought Monday might be the start of the uptrend but it was just a fake-out 😅
I started getting pretty bad headaches and a fever in the evenings ~5-8pm, sweats overnight, but then I started waking up feeling fine and not really having any symptoms during the day. It was weird.
Then the next evening came around and like clockwork, fever, headache, crappy sleep, then wake up feeling fine.
Towards the end of the week (Thurs, Fri) I started feeling better. The fevers and headaches went away, I was left with an infrequent cough, and felt pretty fresh again, but my metrics didn’t agree with how I felt. That is, until Saturday (and Sunday, today) finally rolled around and things started to recover!
I feel like I’m pretty much back to normal, no fevers/headaches, no night sweats, decent sleep, and barely a cough.
From my GPT-ing it sounded like either a mild viral infection or something called Valley Fever, only found in the dry desert Arizona area and commonly caught from dust that’s kicked up. But even then, I didn’t match all the symptoms.
So, not entirely sure what happened, but glad to be feeling better and finally see that reflected in my data! Nothing some good sleep can’t fix 😏
Metrics From The Week
Business Progress Update
Last week I started my shift into focusing more on content/personal branding.
I tweaked a bit of my first 3 video plan, but this week I finished scripting the first two videos and recorded my first 2 videos! Exciting stuff.
I’m realizing that I still need to figure out my “style” and my voice with this new more intentional content, but I figure I just need to start with something, then I’ll iterate once I’ve started.
And I officially closed out my Season 4 of DailyVs this week My plan to level up my YouTube videos (And my last DailyV 😢) It’s been a fun ride so far, but I’m excited for what’s next!
Other than content, I onboarded my first paying user this week! Well, he started his free trial and put in his credit card info, but hasn’t actually paid yet. Still, very excited to see some validation through putting in credit card details! That was the goal of moving to paid users.
Back At It
Last Sunday I came back to the Phoenix area for a day, but decided to head straight back out to find a camp spot because I wanted to record at least one video while I was camping.
I went back to Saddle Mountain. This place is unbelievably beautiful.
I spent 3 nights out there, then headed back into the city to get some final errands done and do one last camp before heading east.
But, I underestimated how long I spent in the city, so I stayed the night in Scottsdale and did a bit of a pivot. I spent the morning in a coffee shop, got my phone re-repaired, got some work done in the parking lot, then finally started my drive up into the mountains and found an unbelievable camp spot.
It’s this duality of this lifestyle that I think makes it so interesting to live. Sometimes you’re sleeping in the parking lot of a Walmart or working from the parking lot of a shopping mall, and sometimes you’re fully off-grid camping in an unbelievable part of the country. And the constant novelty is what counterbalances spending days doing the same thing over and over, leaning into work and routine.
I recorded this day as a sort of day in the life type of video, let’s see how it turns out!
My final proper evening and morning of true van life. It was a special one.
🚐 Heading East
Albuquerque, NM
Here to do some final preparations before 🛫
Reflecting On This Arizona Chapter
I was down in Arizona for about 4 weeks on the dot with the motivation to get some more grinding out in warm weather before the holiday season and the next chapter of my life.
Did it end up as I wanted or expected?
Progress
My initial thought is that I felt like I wanted to do more.
I just feel like things are (still) going slower with my business venture than I think they could be. I hear people say they come up with an idea and pre-sell 1,000 people, or they launch and make $10,000 off the launch, etc. And here I am sending 7 DMs in a week 😅
There was a video that I made to myself (I didn’t post it, though maybe this came through in my DailyVs too) on October 6th that I had coincidentally rewatched this week. I said something like (paraphrase) “I just had to finish this feature/scale up of my software, then it’s just about getting user feedback and dialing in on the most valuable part of the software.” As if that was all I had to do.
My first thought (while watching this back) was “you say ‘it’s just about getting user feedback,’ yeah, but where do these users come from though? 😂 They don’t just appear out of nowhere!”
I’ve vastly underestimated how much marketing and sales plays a role in launching something new. It’s like, my software could cure cancer, but if no one knows about it, then it’s as good as a sack of bricks!
Assuming you have something valuable, that you’ve identified a pain point and solved it well, how do you actually get people aware of it, how do you actually get in contact and talk to the people who have the same problem? Like… actually…
That, I’m realizing is either harder than I thought, or I don’t know the best way of doing this (… or uh, both 😂). You can’t just send a message to someone saying “hey I solved this problem, you should buy it” because literally everyone is ALSO doing that (well, maybe with enough volume you could get like 1% to respond). So then, messages and conversations become a lot more nuanced, there’s more discussion and warming up that needs to happen. But this takes a lot more time than just sending a boilerplate message to 1,000 people.
This is partially why I like the idea of moving more into personal branding, where I can make one video that gets 500, 1,000, 10,000 views etc. But at the same time I don’t think my best strategy is to go directly into pitching my software, because I don’t think I can sustain that very long. So, I’d rather share my life and include my software in that. That’s something I can actually sustain.
But this strategy will also take a while to get to a point where I can make a video and actually convert 5, 10, or 100 new users because of it.
“There are no shortcuts” as they say. “The shortcut is to take the long way.” – Someone wise
So I question if I’m directing my focus towards the right things or if I’m missing a path. I question if I’m being swallowed by too much shallow work, or too much low leverage work that doesn’t move the needle.
Life Admin
Then you layer into this a reminder of just how much time and mental effort it takes to live this life that I’m living.
I feel like I need to remind myself that I’m making the choice to live like this, which brings a lot of amazing benefits, but there’s a price to pay for all this upside and novelty.
I don’t have the luxury of living in one place and having 12 hours of my day every day to just work towards my goals. There’s the managing battery, finding places to camp, managing food and water, doing errands, being constantly on the move, and driving a lot.
I had a bit of expectations that I’d be able to camp for 7-8 days at a time like in Colorado in the fall (The Week Of Locking In From The Mountains, October 6th, 2024), but my time off grid ended up being: 6 days, 3, 3, then 3. The days are so short and the sun is so low that I wouldn’t get enough charge to make it that long.
This meant I had to move more frequently and it’s harder to just lock in when moving every couple of days.
Living The Dream
Ya know, sometimes I wonder if it’s a mistake to live like this.
I realize that I’m living my dream lifestyle already. I’ve already made it.
But see there’s no pain to run from, only unknown to manage.
There’s no dream because I’m living it.
And man that’s a rabbit hole that goes deep.
Opportunity Cost
But look, maybe I fast forward 6 months and I’ve got traction from my personal brand content, I’ve got 100+ users using my software every month, making $3,000+/mo, I’ve got the audience to get feedback from to know how and where to direct the future of this software, and the systems are set up that I know how to continue to get more leads.
Maybe then all of this is just a wash. I did everything right and had no reason to worry.
Or maybe none of that happens.
See my problem with the mindset of thinking “don’t worry you’re doing enough, you’re just managing a lot” is that opportunity cost is real.
What if I can’t scale this enough to make proper money from it? What if I need to pivot? What if I realize I need to pivot 6mo after I could’ve realized? What if this fails and I need another 3-6mo to build another software?
I’m incredibly grateful that I have the financial runway to manage some of these risks, but I also don’t have infinite money (I mean unless the U.S. stock market continues to hit all-time highs 😂).
It’s nothing but unknowns.
Some days I wake up confident. Some days I wake up questioning everything. You can probably guess what side of the bed I woke up on this morning 😂
Anyways, I decided to expand on this section to share a glimpse into my mind.
Whatever happens, I know I’ll reread this with a smile on my face.
What’s Next?
I’ll be spending the holidays with family. If I don’t get next week’s update out next Sunday, it’ll be probably within a couple days. Lots of exciting stuff coming up. Happy holidays!