#35 Weekly Dan — Overnight Oats

January Priority, Feedback for Solopreneurs, and sharing your “Why?"

Jan 06, 2023

Hello there

This is the #35 issue of Weekly Dan.

Welcome to 53 new people who have joined in the last 2 weeks. You are nice.

Every Friday, I share 5 golden nuggets for Solopreneurs:

One Personal Insight
One Problem to Solve
One Long-term Trend
One Thought-provoking Question
One Great Resource

Let’s get going.

Personal Insight 🤯

One goal at the time

I procrastinated hard in December.

I tried to finish my product positioning course and the research for Sponsor This Newsletter. In reality, I didn’t even finish the course's first lesson.

Every time I worked on the first project, I got the anxiety about not making any progress on the second project. Even though I scheduled it for the end of the month.

Inner panic attack Blank Template - Imgflip

Lesson learned.

Now I have one goal for the month, one for the week, and one for the day. This is a must-achieved goal. Getting it done = success.

For example:

January — Launch the course on product positioning
This week — Send the first lesson to 10 beta testers
Today — Record videos for the first lesson

It’s a painful tradeoff. But if you have more than one priority, you have zero priority.

Problem to Solve 👹

Solopreneurs don’t get enough feedback

Chasing ultimate freedom is an admirable goal. But it has unexpected consequences.

If you plan to do something dumb, no one will tell you.

A Mixed Bag Of Memes Filled With Stupidity - Memebase - Funny Memes

Usually, it was the job of colleagues you hated — “Thank you, John. I will take your feedback into consideration”.

But now you are all alone.

You have an idea. You execute it. If it’s dumb, you get no results.

But is there a way to give Solopreneurs feedback before they make dumb mistakes?

Long-term Trend 🛸

Short-format text content

I might be late to the party, but TikTok is killing long-format videos.

And it has nothing to do with “decreasing attention span”.

It’s just more effective.

Why watch a 10-minute recipe when you can watch a 30-second one?
Why watch a 20-minute travel video when you can get the same must-visit places in 15 seconds?
Why watch a one-hour standup when you can crack up from a 10-second absurd video?

No doubt people predict that short-format videos will kill text as well. But I disagree.

I think the short-format text will kill long-format text.

Why read a 30-minute, poorly structured essay to get the same point from a 10-tweet Twitter thread?
Why read an unreasonably huge book, when you can read one newsletter issue with better visuals?

People who love to read will not magically stop reading.

They will just read content that brings clarity faster.

Thought-provoking Question 🔋

What is your “Why”?

When I buy from corporations, I buy the product.

When I buy from Solopreneurs, I buy the product and their story.

I understand that even Solopreneurs create products to get money. But having a compelling reason to build the product makes it more valuable.

Here is an example. Who would you rather trust?

Habit tracker from the Creator who just wants to break ramen profitability
Habit tracker from the Creator who struggled with building healthy habits and made a tool to help busy Entrepreneurs (+ and they also want to break ramen profitability)

Stories sell.