Tweets

For me, my best creativity, ideas, and problem-solving come from:

- Rest
- Walks
- Therapy
- Reading
- Listening
- Boredom (long drives)
- Interesting conversations
- Connecting with interesting people
- Novel experiences (travel, retreats, conferences)

What works best for you?

❤️🇺🇦

“I’m going to try YouTube ads, because I saw it work for X.”

When you see someone “killing it” with a particular marketing approach, what you’re not seeing is all the groundwork that went into that channel before it started to gain traction.

I don't want to use my iPhone as a webcam.

I want a separate Apple webcam that has the same lenses, sensors, etc...

I want to replace my DSLR/Camlink setup.

https://youtu.be/LBP4DEJAsjU

If you're selling anything online, pay attention to these two variables:

1. Unit economics: how profitable is one "unit" of your product or service? (one digital download, 1 month of MRR)

2. Sales volume: how many units can you sell every month?

The only productivity advice that's consistently worked for me is:

"Don't do so much."

✅ Fewer projects
✅ Fewer meetings
✅ Fewer commitments
✅ Fewer things to maintain

Another challenge with "niche" positioning in B2B:

When a coffee shop owner searches for email marketing, are they searching for "email marketing for coffee shops" or are they just searching for "email marketing"?

It seems the general search term is more likely.

People often ask me: "how can I make my podcast stand out?"

Here's a good example, from my @podsummit talk.

Microsoft, make me a believer.

I'm tired of Apple's:
- high prices
- faulty hardware
- lack of innovation for power users

BUT...

I'm worried I'll miss:
- MacOS
- Built-in utilities like Preview, unzip, etc
- My favorite Mac apps (like Screenflow, DeckSet, Ecamm Live)

"Be a solopreneur!"

Starting your own business can bring freedom, but it also comes with substantial risks that most founders don't consider.

https://justinjackson.ca/solorisk

⚡️ Unconventional teaching tip:

Most learners need to go from Step 0 → Step 3 themselves.

It's the intermediate learners who plateau that need the most help.

(They're also the most likely to pay for training)

The domestic banking industry is going to get disrupted by global banking startups (like @RevolutApp).

There's really no reason for me to bank in 🇨🇦. All I get is antiquated technology, red tape, and poor customer service.

Whoever becomes the "@stripe for banking" will win.

My 7 year old is too young to get a job, so he started his own business instead. 😎

Three questions for you today:

🔗 What's your marketing site's URL?

🖥️ How did you build and host it? (CMS, design framework)

🤔 What's one thing you'd like to do to improve it?

I just published (my first?) written programming tutorial and holy hell is that hard to do well.

"Build a basic static HTML page using @tailwindcss and @vite_js"

https://justinjackson.ca/tailwind-ui-netlify

A common self-delusion is: "My lifestyle is way better, so who cares about my bank balance?"

Money provides security. Money provides margin.

You want both: money + lifestyle.

(Don't sacrifice either for the other!)

In business, it’s all about what customers *do*.

Leads might say nice things, you might be getting trials, folks viewing your content...

None of it matters if they’re not buying.

"Never compete on price."

We're always competing on price to some extent. It's always a factor in the customer's purchasing decision (and in their decision to keep paying).

A better axiom: "Don't make price the only factor you compete on." That makes sense. 👍

In life, our imagination is often limited by our context.

We only know what we see around us:

“This is how much money folks in my area make.” “There aren’t many opportunities.”

But outside our realm, there are possibilities we’ve never even thought of.

Get out of your bubble!

"If you want to take something more seriously, do it publicly. Social pressure forces you to up your game." – @JamesClear

Mindfulness > Hustle

When a big, impressive, enterprise customer comes knocking at your door, a good question to ask is:

"Is it worth it?"

Those customers generally require "enterprise" levels of:

- security
- support
- features
- procurement

Is it worth it?

And suddenly, around 1933, everything starts to change for Disney.

They get their first real hit ("The three pigs"). Mickey Mouse gets popular. They invent Donald Duck and people go crazy for him.

👋 Howdy friends.

📅 Today I'm celebrating the 3-year anniversary of @marketingdevs.

👩‍💻 5,161 devs have bought the book or course. That blows my mind! 🤯

👉 Right now, I'm selling a limited number of courses for $100 off the regular price.

https://justinjackson.podia.com/marketing-for-developers?coupon=TWITTER-3-YEAR

This is an interesting pricing spreadsheet for SaaS:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LZXJQQ2Xq_NsKmj6ppui-ee92FObCee7NMy8xQfyoaA/edit?usp=sharing

It's pretty tough getting to $1,000,000 in revenue if you're charging less than $50 per month.

Brand new blog post!

"Why I bought your software"
https://justinjackson.ca/software-saas-product-marketing/

(I reverse engineered a purchasing decision)

Needy, unprofitable customers are usually LOUD.

Professional, profitable customers are generally quiet.

Who should you pay attention to?

Here's 11 ways to make $10,000.

Some folks say Twitter is dying.

I'm still loving the people I'm meeting on here.

Just hit 10,000 followers 🙌 and I'm buying you all a 🍺.

@chantastic @aarondfrancis Really great conversation you two!

This quote from @aarondfrancis is 🎯

“If a business makes a business decision, you can get cut immediately. On the flip side, this should empower you to leave a job you don’t like!”

Hanging out with @andrewculver in LA!

One of the best in the Rails, SaaS, bootstrapping community. 💯

take a photo of where you're working right now and reply to this tweet with it 📸

Just finished an amazing chat with @Patticus.

We talked about the @ProfitWell team selling to @PaddleHQ, but also got into a ton of other stuff surrounding SaaS, how to think about markets, whether to go big, etc.

Hoping to publish it on @buildyoursaas soon! 🙌

My son (grade 5) struggles with dyslexia.

I’ve been reading him this book by @LynMullalyHunt. We just finished it.

It is the most incredible book! He begged me to read it to him every night, and really identified with the main character (Ally).

Highly recommended. 💯

When advice is divorced from its context, it’s almost always bad advice.

Summary:

"A group of people" is not a market.

"A group of people spending money on X" is a market.

Meeting folks outside your social circle can open your eyes to the possibilities that exist outside of your bubble.

This is what I love about the @rails community.

A newbie (me🙋‍♂️) asks a newbie question.

Tons of folks show up in chat to help.

@jmcharnes (from @podia) calls me on Skype and walks me through the whole thing. 🙌

https://youtu.be/Ob4WGoRp_UE

"All of the greatest returns in life are delayed. Your efforts aren't wasted, they're just a part of a greater, unrealized potential."

@CorbettBarr just did an interview with @JamesClear about that new book (Atomic Habits) I've been raving about.

https://fizzle.co/sparkline/the-3-habits-that-grew-his-business-to-428000-email-subscribers-fs289

How many of you remember the Incredible Machine?

LOVED THAT GAME!

There’s a tendency for young people to blame previous generations for the problems we have now.

A different perspective: think of all the good things we’ve inherited – beautiful architecture, art, parks, democracy.

That’s our opportunity: what could we gift future generations?

You haven’t lived until you’re on school information Zoom call with 60+ other parents, and multiple attendees aren’t muted. 😳

The product category you choose will determine most of your business' momentum.

America! Seriously. Your public institutions act like this? IN PUBLIC?

This is so absurd and juvenile it doesn’t seem real. https://twitter.com/JudiciaryGOP/status/1320878683423428609

Writing my newsletter for tomorrow, and reflecting on how open source frameworks like @WordPress, @laravelphp, @alpinejs, @tailwindcss, and @rails have helped level the playing field between small indie companies and big (well funded) competitors.

Open source empowers! 💪

@taylorotwell Omg. Cancel your Laracon keynote and just do this.

BIG DAY FOR A PODCAST DAD

So damn excited about the proof of concept @jonbuda just showed me for an upcoming @transistorfm feature.

It's already 🔥.

I can't talk about it yet though! 🤐😅

The more I build @TransistorFM the more I've seen this be true.

Now that we 541 active customers, we need to figure out systems for serving them at scale.

Your help section, tutorial videos, knowledge base, and FAQ all matter (a lot).

Really proud of my partner @jonbuda.

He was up SUPER LATE last night building this new signup page for @TransistorFM.

I ❤️ what he did with it:
https://dashboard.transistor.fm/signup

😍 It looks so good!

⚡️ Your real unfair advantage in business is your personal network.

Education, wealth, and skills all help, but it's "who you know" that will help you make the biggest leaps forward.

“Well made” products don’t win.

It’s products that are well made, target a growing market, and are well positioned that win.

Anyone out there have a landing page that needs traffic?

Reply here. (I’m making a video showing you how I’d get traffic for your site!)

Too many products give users *more* work to do: "learn this, read this, configure this, try this."

Your product should make life easier.

DOING is your best education.

Try stuff, experiment, ship things, fail, iterate, and embarrass yourself.

"Hypotheticals" are the enemy.

Love this answer by @davemcclure:

"Watch what customers do, not what they say."

#comment-153003" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://www.producthunt.com/live/dave-mcclure#comment-153003

I'm writing a book about this:

1. Build something people need
2. Lean marketing
3. Launching
4. First 100 customers
https://cards.twitter.com/cards/pt2jpq/pxyp

Let’s all hang out in person in 2024.

How many of you are following me here because you:

a) are building a new startup,
b) want to build a startup someday,
c) are currently running a startup?

🙏 Please hit reply and let me know which category you're in.

I've got some exciting @TransistorFM news to share shortly... 👀

i'm quitting twitter and moving to fb metaverse

"A lot of founders are fearful that investors are going to push them to make bad decisions."

@mwseibel: "I'll push back on that. Investors can't hold a gun to your head. If you're influenced by their words that's your inner weakness."

☝️ this rhetoric ignores power dynamics.

This insight from @NathanTankus is key to understanding crypto, and why it's not likely to disappear:

"As long as their community is big enough – and rich enough in “fiat” terms – crypto can sustain their subcultural theories of value."

https://www.crisesnotes.com/bitcoin-is-not-a-bubble/

Podcasts for bootstrappers were the big winners of 2020.

In the absence of conferences and meetups, hearing other people give regular updates on their journey helped me feel connected. 🙏

(I especially benefitted from the times folks shared vulnerably about their experience)

Lol. Look who’s on Facebook’s suggested GIFs page today?

I’m still not convinced that entrepreneurs should be looking for a “niche” market.

Whether or not a market is “niche” isn’t a distinguishing factor for success.

What matters more:

“How much money is being spent in this market?”

The "conventional capitalist" in me knows that "if your business isn't growing, it's dying."

BUT...

The burgeoning ecologist in me knows that our planet can't sustain perpetual economic growth.

MAIDEN NYC 🤘🔥

Trying to write the definitive guide on "how podcasters can earn revenue from their show."

Any ideas on how I could improve this?
https://transistor.fm/make-money-podcasting/

This explains my bias, your bias, everybody's bias:

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”
— Upton Sinclair

Here is today's newsletter article:

🤔 Do you even want to be a "bootstrapper?"

https://justinjackson.ca/goodwork/

Promoting your product doesn't mean you should be like the Kool-Aid Man, busting into every conversation.

But it does mean:
- Sharing your story
- Sharing the lessons you discover
- Sharing your excitement when you launch
- Telling folks about what you're working on right now

👉 "Quit stressing yourself out trying to find the perfect SaaS idea."

Great chat with my buddy @adamwathan 👊

http://www.fullstackradio.com/93

I agree with @Shpigford completely.

It's unsustainable to focus 100% on your business. LIFE ISN'T JUST ABOUT WORK. It's about *living*. Let's enjoy other things besides typing and looking at screens.

https://baremetrics.com/blog/why-founders-need-hobbies

The story behind @adamwathan’s $100k product launch. Tons of actionable insights here: https://medium.com/product-people/adams-100k-product-launch-bad6e73afbfe#---0-146

Often, we seek the wrong kind of product validation.

We want people to like us and our idea.

But what we *need* is paying customers!

Listening to this now: "@IndieHackers is indie again!"

@csallen: "We won't get a paycheck anymore. Are you worried about that?"

@ChanningAllen: "Lifestyle-wise? Maybe I buy like slightly fewer books."

@csallen: "Books!? That's your main luxury?" 🤣

New t-shirt concept for @TransistorFM! Who wants one?

💀👕🎙️

(Created by one of my favorite IG artists)

Question:

Let's say you're unhappy with a product you've been using and you want to find something else.

When you go to Google... what do you type in?

I'm still skeptical as to whether crowd equity funding is good for investors.

But, I'm willing to spend some money to build a little portfolio and experiment.

In 5-10 years we'll see if these were *investments*, or, merely donations. 😅

@freekmurze 🤣🤣🤣🤣

I believe that:

- Podcasters are producing incredible content.
- Podcast listeners are one of the best audiences in the world.

I'm highly skeptical of any outside source wanting to take these positive attributes, and then "juice them" to get better returns.

I've been recording video with the wrong settings on my DSLR for 2+ years. 🤦‍♂️

@seanwes notices it, and says: "Let's jump on a call and fix it."

5 minutes later, MUCH BETTER VIDEO.

I’ve gained 8 pounds since the beginning of this quarantine which is pretty amazing since I eat 8 lbs of trail mix a day now.

"Average salary by language"

Some of this is based on supply and demand, but some of it is based on:

- The market you serve: my guess is Java is higher because it's in the enterprise space.
- Your programming language's "brand:" the brand perception of Rails vs PHP.

One challenge I've had as a founder: tracking, and trying to triangulate, thousands of qualitative data points.

Somehow, you have to decide which signals matter.

But even then, plotting all those data points on a map, and deciding on a direction, is tough.

First gym workout since 2012! 💪

On Saturday, I published a roundup of this thread:

"Can you bootstrap a startup part-time?"

https://justinjackson.ca/sideproject

Email trick: remind your subscribers who you are and why they signed up in your header image's alt-text attribute.

Rule of One:

"In your emails and landing pages, only have one main call-to-action you want the user to complete."

“More usage” ≠ “Better for the user”

Sometimes less usage is what they need. That should be ok.

Don’t build your business models on more “time on page / time watching video / more interaction.”

Your business model should correlate with better outcomes for users.

"Being a pro has little to do with what you know, it has to do with how you think. Amateurs make excuses. Pros take responsibility" – @pjrvs

Today I'm celebrating 15 years of marriage with @lorindaapps 🎉

Epic entrance by @jackmcdade at @LaraconUS

#laracon

This is a positive sign for SaaS companies that use @stripe: they're staffing up their sales tax and remittance team!

https://stripe.com/jobs/search?teams=Tax

Should I make a podcast-themed video game?

You can do this!

Three friends and I set up a little coworking office in my hometown.

It's a 5-minute bike ride from my house.

It's (by far) the best work environment I've ever been in. 👍 https://twitter.com/taylorotwell/status/1500473534346375178

Personally, I'm still on team "full stack web dev" (Laravel, Rails).

Most indie SaaS these days are still being built on mature web frameworks:

@SnapShooterio (Laravel)
@bannerbearHQ (Rails)
@TransistorFM (Rails)
@usefathom (Laravel)
@hostifi_net (Laravel)
@ZipMessage (Rails)

In my early 20s, I was running a skate shop where I was constantly stressed, working late nights, putting out fires, and leveraging multiple credit cards to keep everything afloat.

Over time, I began evaluating biz opportunities on their likelihood of “giving me a good life.”

"It’s insanely hard to make a full-time income as a creator."

Interesting thoughts from @AliAbdaal:

"If you just vlog your life like Emma Chamberlain, you'll have no competitive advantage (unless you’re extremely charismatic; even then it’s tricky)."

What do you think?