from Hacker News

My Biggest Lesson Doing a $10K in 30 Days Challenge

by michepriest on 11/30/22, 8:14 AM with 4 comments

After getting laid off for the third time I decided I had enough of building other people’s dreams. I was going to go out on my own. The problem was I didn’t know what to build.

After a year of learning to build no-code apps, produce podcasts, create online courses, ebooks, e-commerce, and even learning how to create illustrations I was nowhere close to figuring it out.

Many solopreneurs want the autonomy of being self-employed, but the ramp up is brutal. I decided to do a $10K in 30 days challenge to see if I could figure it out.

It’s day 29. I’m at $3,646.57 with $23K in the pipeline. Two major meetings got rescheduled. It’ll take a miracle to make it, but with the internet you never know.

My strategy (below is my Hail Mary):

Come up with a variety of products/services at varying price points. I asked, what if I sold:

1 - $10K item (corporate workshop), 10 - $1K items (illustration packs), 100 - $100 items (info products/courses/coaching snacks), 1000 - $10 items (e-commerce)

Get the word out through sales (reach out to 50 people/week), social media, and podcasts

What actually happened:

50 outreaches/week was too many. 20/week is intense but doable

Launched 7 products (find most on Gumroad under michepriest)

Dropped the ball on podcasts

I sold a mix of everything except the corporate workshops.

My biggest lesson:

Reaching out to 100 people led to opportunities I could never have imagined.

1 potential license deal for my micro-coaching service Unstuck in 15 where I get people unstuck with 3 questions in 15 minutes

1 pack of Unstuck in 15 gift certificates for corporate gifts

3 collaborations for online courses

1 illustration pack which could end up being a long term contract

1 Upwork gig consulting on two AI products

Second biggest lesson:

Put as many buy button on the internet as possible and have big ticket items

Bonus: I learned what I want to offer that people actually want, who I want to serve, and got over my fear of publishing.

My Hail Mary:

Reach out to 100 connections in one day with an offer I believe they will find valuable

If you have any ideas for how I can earn $6,353.43 in sales in one day, I’m all ears. Whether I hit the target or not doesn’t matter. I’ve already won, but it would be fun to do so.

  • by _the_inflator on 11/30/22, 8:38 AM

    I wish you good luck with your services. However, "where I get people unstuck with 3 questions in 15 minutes" sounds brutally fishy. Psychologists struggle with this for decades, and it is evidence based work they do. ;)

  • by groffee on 11/30/22, 9:26 AM

    It's bad enough seeing this kind of spam on Twitter, we don't need it here too.