Not Business Advice

How I made $1M from my personal projects

Book 8: In the arena

($40,000/month, late 2022)

Table of contents

Introduction

1. Recap

Part 1: Higher stakes

1. Harder than I thought

2. Launching our first campaigns

3. Digging my own grave

Part 2: Running out of time

1. Shotgun

2. Losing my first client

3. Against the clock

4. The first reply

5. Reading between the lines

6. Bleeding clients

7. The first deal

Part 3: Building systems

1. From artist, to athlete

2. Pick your poison

3. Documenting

4. Automating

5. The factory is the product

6. Gordian knots

7. Hitting industry standards

8. Most advice is marketing

Part 4: On the brink

1. Systems breaking

2. Vicious cycle

3. Explosive growth

4. Joining the 1%

5. No escape rope

6. Breaking point

7. Second cage

8. Second rat race

Appendix

1. Sacrifices to the gods

2. What's next?

3. Time travel

Introduction

I'm looking at my dashboard. I just hit $10,000/month.

Normally, this would be cause for celebration. Champagne. I have made it. All these years of work have finally paid off.

But the truth is, nothing has even started yet.

I just received an email from one of my clients to setup a weekly meeting schedule so they can guide me through everything.

And another email from another client who tells me that he completely trusts me and is sure everything is going to work out perfectly.

I'm not sure which is worse.

I don't like either.

Recap

Before we begin, here's a quick recap:

• In 2016 and 2017 I learnt how to code and built my first product. I spent two years building it but made $0 from it.

• In 2018 and 2019 I built and failed a lot. I built 15+ products and reached $200/month in revenue.

• In 2020, I launched and grew CyberLeads to $2k/month, then doubled my salary and quit my job.

• In 2021, I spent the whole year searching and eventually found the next lever of growth for CyberLeads.

• In 2022, I am starting a productized service on top of CyberLeads. Hopefully it takes me to the $10,000s per month.

Part 1: Higher stakes

The first payments just came through.

And my calendar is packed with meetings.

It's go time.

Harder than I thought

I download a few books and guides on outbound marketing and read them in a weekend. I'm taking detailed notes and I'm excited because I'm learning new things.

I have 5 clients at the moment. And setting up everything for everyone takes time. I'm making mistakes.

A simple 30m task per client can turn into a full day of work. And mistakes are costly.

Sometimes I have picked the wrong tool and I only realize it once I have setup everything for everyone. By that point, I have wasted 2 weeks, hundreds of dollars and I'm pissed.

I'm also writing the campaigns. I didn't expect this, but I enjoy analyzing offers and explaining them simply.

But sometimes I'm too embarrassed to ask dumb questions.

Sometimes I just want to interrupt them in the middle of our meeting and tell them to start from scratch.

"Ok.. what is your name again and what exactly do you do? No buzzwords please. Explain it like I'm five."

But I don't. I hold a pen and pretend to look professional. Kinda reminds me of my days working in an office.

Too many names. Too many companies. Too many offers. Too many folders.

I take the time to do my research by myself later, going through all of their studies, past work, about page and website.

I am proud of the campaigns. And the clients like them too.

But the questions have started.

They want to know when we're launching our campaigns. We're late, even though I'm trying my best.

I'm going to bed at 3am every night. And waking up at 8.

Launching the first campaigns

After many sleepless nights, I finally launched the first campaigns.

For the first time in a while, I feel like I can take a deep breath, relax and finally sleep.

I notify the clients, and they immediately ask when we can expect the first results. I have no idea.

I tell them 2-4 weeks, just to be safe.

It feels amazing. I did everything according to the guides and books I read. I did everything correctly.

Over the next 2 weeks, the first replies started coming in.

It was a blood bath.

• Every single reply was negative, sarcastic or rude.

• We accidently emailed a client's friend who made fun of him.

• I forgot to add a subject line on one campaign.

• One person threatened to sue one of my clients.

• LinkedIn warning me that they would ban my clients' accounts.

• And another clients' emails got blacklisted.

I felt battered. This feeling was new to me.

It wasn't just me failing. It wasn't just me being embarrassed. It wasn't just me being threatened with a lawsuit. And it wasn't just me being banned.

I was taking risks on behalf of others.

Digging my own grave

At the same time, I am still signing new clients.

I don't know why. I can't say no. I will figure this out.

I have 10 clients now. I'm digging my grave deeper and deeper.

More contracts signed. More meetings on my calendar.

My confidence is so shattered that I have to watch the Wolf of Wall Street to pump myself up for sales calls.

One evening, as I was watching, a thought came to me.

"Wait a minute.. this guy is a scammer. Am I a scammer too?"

Part 2: Running out of time

Everything I had tried so far had failed. Zero results.

And I was running out of time.

Following the experts was not working for me. So I decided to do the opposite and think for myself.

I had no other choice.

Return of the shotgun

I bring out the shotgun. This time for my clients.

I try as many things as I can within the campaigns. And double down when something hopefully works.

• Like reaching out to people on LinkedIn. Through email. And combined, complicated flows with LinkedIn and emails together.

• Opening the emails with a generic compliment. Or a specific compliment generated with AI. Or nothing, just straight to the point.

• Using a long email subject line. A short one. Or a clickbaity one.

• Asking for a call. Or offering something for free.

• Including a case study. Namedrop all of our big clients. Focus on the founder's credibility. Or nothing at all.

• Framing our offer around how we could help them save money. Save time. Make money. Or anything else I could think of.

• Reaching out only to funded startups. Or everyone like hotels, ecommerce stores and enterprise companies.

• Writing very long professional emails. Or very short messages on LinkedIn joking and talking about the weather.

And spliting test everything else I can think of. The days and times we send emails. Whether we email the founder, CTO or Marketing officer. Number of follow ups. And so on.

Losing my first client

A couple weeks go by. A client tells me that he wants to cancel.

I explain to them that we are waiting for the first results and that I have credited their account for the delays.

But they are not interested. They just want to cancel.

I fully refund them. And offer to keep running their campaigns for free for another 3 months, to try and turn it around.

They took it well and even thanked me. That wasn't too bad.

But I lost hundreds of dollars on their account.

Against the clock

It's been 2 months since I signed my first clients.

And 1 month since we launched our campaigns.

I have absolutely zero positive replies. For anyone. Zero.

They have paid me thousands of dollars for me to do so. And this is the month we are supposed to have results.

I feel like an impostor. I don't even know what I'm doing. I need to figure something out. Otherwise I'm fucked.

All the replies are still negative. If it was a rude one, I would jump out of bed to make sure I delete it before the clients see it.

Most of the times they still did. And would bring it up on our weekly calls, telling me that they were worried.

I'm still experimenting. But I'm running out of ideas.

The first positive reply

I will never forget this moment.

I was back in Greece to sort out some legal stuff.

It was midnight. Overcafeinated. Underslept. And full of nerves.

I was going through all of my clients replies for the tenth time that day, while setting up my new clients and making mistakes.

Finally, I check David's replies. I couldn't believe it.

A startup that had recently raised millions wanted to have a call with him to talk about his software engineering services.

I had to read it 3 times and check the domain to make sure it's real.

I started jumping up and down laughing. I sent him the lead. And then went to find my brother and wrestle until one of us quits.

Reading between the lines

The next morning, I found another positive reply for David!

It felt like a dream. It was happening. I had solved the puzzle.

I sent him this lead too and their information. Now he had 2 leads that raised $15M collectively in the past year.

He was very happy. I couldn't stop smiling.

I quickly updated all of my clients campaigns to be as similar to David's as possible.

But after 1 week and thousands of emails, I only had negative replies. It was still only David that was getting positive replies.

I was very confused. Why aren't these campaigns performing the same, when the text is the same? And why is nothing ever easy?

Maybe it wasn't the exact words but something else?

I tried reading between the lines, and kept running custom campaigns for everyone, focusing on their individual strengths.

If they had a strong LinkedIn presence, I'd use LinkedIn. If they had a strong brand, I'd namedrop their clients.

If they had a strong case study in the Fintech industry, I'd run a Fintech campaign and mention it.

If they were based in a big city like London or New York, I'd reach out to other founders locally and suggest a friendly coffee.

It was so much work. Way more than I expected or wanted. And nothing about it felt scalable, productized or right.

But it was slowly paying off. Out of all of my clients, around 3 were getting replies now.

Bleeding clients

Month 3 is almost over. My clients should have closed deals by now. But absolutely no one has. Zero.

I lost 4 clients in the span of 2 weeks. Four very difficult conversations. And minus $100k/year in annual recurring revenue.

The swings are more aggressive now. And there is still nothing recurring about my revenue, even with this business model.

They didn't care about my effort. They didn't care about leads either. They wanted deals. That's the only thing that matters.

I refund them and offer to keep running the campaigns for them for free so I can maybe turn things around. I also wanted to keep experimenting and collect more data from campaigns.

They all agree. All of them are grateful and patient.

The first deal

One of my most difficult clients requested a meeting. His co-founder is also invited to the call.

I was certain that this was going to be another cancellation, refund and tough conversation.

So I braced myself for it and joined the call like a scared dog with it's tail between it's legs.

But after the small talk was over, he surprised me.

"Well, Alex, I actually wanted to talk to you today to tell you that we have just closed 2 clients from our campaigns! Big deals too. Probably around $120k each."

I tried to act cool, as if this was part of the plan all along. But I was close to fainting. Haha.

The rush was something else. A thousand times stronger than signing a new client.

Then, a couple weeks later, another client closes a deal.

I can't believe it. It's happening.

Part 3: Building systems

I didn't have a magic recipe for clients to get results yet, both clients that closed deals felt like flukes.

All the campaigns I was excited about went nowhere. And some of the campaigns that I thought of the least were the most successful.

One client closed deals from a random LinkedIn campaign asking other founders to have a casual coffee. The other client from a random campaign that looked exactly like every other. And David's campaign is still raining leads but he hasn't closed anyone.

But the process I follow for each client is the same every time.

Maybe I can streamline that.

From artist, to athlete

I am still working all day. But at least I have clarity now.

Somehow I prefer this to being stuck in artist mode and looking for a new product or new lever of growth.

There is still an element of "magic" and uncertainty for each client. Finding a winning campaign for them.

But apart for that, all the systems, steps and setups are the same. I just have to put in the work in every day.

I'm back in athlete mode. But a very unhealthy one. I am not working out at all at the moment.

Pick your poison

In some ways I feel more stress than I did before. But in other ways I feel less. It's strange.

On one hand, I don't feel existential stress anymore. And I don't feel competition stress either.

At $2k/month, I need to find 40 clients from the entire world to make $1M/year. And I already have 10.

No marketing channel can stop me from finding 40 people. And no competitor can stop me from finding 40 people either.

I can open my laptop right now and find 40 companies that I could work with inside 10 minutes.

But, on the other hand, the actual work and responsibility is on a completely different level.

I am not sending a little monthly list to people anymore. I'm taking risks on their behalf that could backfire. And I am charging thousands of dollars a month in exchange for results.

Generating results is not easy. It's a puzzle I have yet to solve.

But somehow I prefer this type of stress.

Documenting

I started documenting everything I do.

Word for word. Comma for comma. Click for click. With screenshots, arrows and text explanations.

Every single task is explained in crazy detail. And the whole client experience and management is documented.

Things like:

• Send onboarding questionnaire to the client asking for all the info I need to start setting things up.

• Send present to client, different depending on which country they live in and which store supports their country.

• Create a new board for the client so I can have their dedicated TODOs organized there.

• Create a new folder for the client so I can have all the notes from our meetings, their information and campaigns there.

• Setup their LinkedIn, emails and gather their leads.

• Write the campaigns, based on best practices and my own best performing campaigns.

• Review and launch the campaigns with the client.

• Monitor the inboxes daily and forward leads to clients.

• Send weekly report to the client.

Automating

While documenting processes above in detail, I realized that I could automate them.

Documenting things step-by-step was exactly like programming. Just in human language and images, instead of code.

Go to this website. Login with these credentials. Left click here. Right click there. Copy paste this.

All I had to do was translate it into code. Which I did.

It was crazy. I was turning this monster into a SaaS.

It took me 45 days to onboard my first client. And 10 days to onboard my latest. And their campaigns were running on autopilot now.

The only things that were left to do manually were monitoring the inboxes, sending the weekly reports and writing the campaigns.

The results were not guaranteed. Which is the only thing that matters.

But at least I had more time to focus on that now.

The factory is the product

Boredom was dead.

Everytime I wanted to, I could work, even without a laptop, in my head. I would just think of my systems and ways I could improve them.

And everywhere I went, I saw systems and processes.

On the train. On the plane. On the bus. In the mall.

I was blind but now I see. The real business is not the final product. It's all the behind the scenes stuff that's invisible.

It's the kitchen and cooks you don't see running around when you're at the restaurant. Or the people working at warehouses. The suppliers and delivery drivers you never see. And now, all the CyberLeads automations and processes you never see.

I never had detailed systems or processes before. For example, my process for generating a random password for the monthly list was smashing my keyboard randomly.

But now I did. My landing page hadn't changed one bit in months. But behind the scenes, CyberLeads was unrecognizable.

My desire for building new things was satisfied too. I was coding and building new things every day.

I was exhausted, stressed, happy, overworked and excited about the future, all at the same time.

Gordian knots

As results improved, things got simpler.

Every process that stayed had to fight for it's life. It was a war against complexity. If it was just ok or good, it would be killed.

• I went from running complicated omnichannel campaigns across LinkedIn and email, to email only.

• I went from weekly meetings with clients, to zero meetings.

• I went from running campaigns in any language, to just English.

• I went from running campaigns towards any target customer, to just funded startups.

• And I went from running 10+ different niche campaigns, to one monster campaign reaching out to my whole database.

My life became easier. The process became faster. Results remained the same or even improved. And I could take on more clients.

And most importantly, my clients were happy. They loved that I didn't give them too many options to choose from and told them exactly what will be done, when it will be done and how it will be done.

That's what they wanted.

Hitting industry standards

Focusing only on funded startups, email, and seeing the same types of agency offers again and again made me an expert.

I was able to find nuances I would never have found otherwise.

Like which angles work best, depending on when the funded startup last raised. Or which angle works best depending on their funding stage. Or even predicting when they are going to raise again and reaching out to them before everyone else.

The campaigns were still extremely custom. Results felt random. And there was still no guarantee that they anyone would close a deal.

But somehow, inside this chaos, things were improving.

I remember one morning in particular, when I realized that every single one of my clients had received a lead that week.

And high quality lead. Startups with millions in revenue, that had raised millions and were interested in working with them.

Asking around and comparing, I understood that this is considered good. Some of my clients had worked with another agency before me and received 0 qualified leads in 6 months.

Slowly, more clients started closing deals too. My landing page was full of testimonials from clients that had collectively made millions.

I felt so proud.

Most advice is marketing

Once again, following recipes and playbooks didn't work. And I only started seeing results when I started thinking for myself.

Most of the guides I had been following were marketing in disguise.

I remember realizing the same when I was working on my SEO last year and noticing that every article my competitors were posting was to plug their own product or affiliate links.

It was a mind blowing. Made me wonder how many of all the articles I had been reading for years were marketing all along.

The person telling me to build a personal brand was selling personal brand building as a service.

The person telling me that I have to surround myself with successful people was running a founder community.

And the person telling me that SEO is the best channel was selling a course on SEO.

It felt like an "Alice in Wonderland" moment. I now saw a surrealistic world of walking and talking books. And I couldn't unsee it.

Everyone is talking their own book. And everyone's advice somehow perfectly aligned with what they are selling.

I'm trying not to be harsh. But I do know this.

I was a privacy advocate. Until I started CyberLeads and found success selling business data.

It was a million times easier to tell myself that "information should be free" than build a privacy focused business. I told myself that I was now helping small business owners bypass gatekeepers, access Silicon Valley and grow their business.

I also wanted my business to be my passion and make the world a better place. Until I failed hard with Epilepsy Blocker.

It was a million times easier to tell myself that I prefer "a boring business with an exciting life", run Epilepsy Blocker for free and give money to charity. It even felt cleaner and more effective.

I just snapped my fingers and changed my worldview to feel comfortable. It was easy. And it even felt true.

So when I see someone preaching a philosophy that perfectly aligns with what they sell, I don't immediately assume they are evil.

But I also don't assume anymore that it's pure.

It's a million times easier to change your beliefs and the advice you give, than change your actions and your business.

Words are flexible. Actions are not.

Part 4: On the brink

I'm in Paris. I just cut my finger badly while cooking as fast as I can in between meetings.

My sister is worried. She tells me I should go to the hospital. But I don't want to, I believe I'm fine. And I might lose clients.

She is telling me that my stress might be too much.

I don't sleep well. I can't cook. I forget my phone at the cafe. I book the wrong tickets. And I have no idea what day it is.

I cannot even function anymore.

Systems breaking

I thought that automating things would solve everything.

But my automations were breaking all the time.

Because many services don't provide APIs I can use, my automations are pretending to be a human and clicking around. Every time these websites change, even slightly, the automations break.

Also, every time I do custom things for clients, like accepting bank transfers instead of using Stripe or sending them their report in the specific way they want it, my automations break again.

Finally, every so often Google will publish an update and the whole process of registering and configuring emails changes.

Ironically, maintaining all these automations while handling their edge cases is almost as much work as doing it manually.

Vicious cycle

I am also having a very hard time constantly switching between marketing and fulfillment.

When I have too many clients, I instinctively stop marketing to focus on getting results for them.

And when my clients finally leave, I rush to do marketing again.

But it's too late, because I have no pipeline now. And my revenue dips until the effects of my marketing kick in again.

Another problem is that a lot of my marketing is posting about my business and how much money I make without employees.

That used to be cute at $100/month, but now it feels off.

People might feel bad about themselves seeing it. And my clients might see me boasting instead of trying to get them results.

I tried switching things up and post about the real ugly side of things, but that never gets any engagement.

On social media, I find myself subconsciously dancing to the algorithm gods. For the rest, at least I have these books.

So, this vicious cycle of marketing and fulfillment just keeps happening. I end up pulling punches on both.

And I end up doing a half ass job at both.

Explosive growth

A few weeks later, I woke up to messages from friends.

One of the most famous podcasts in the world found out about me on Twitter and talked about me and CyberLeads.

The podcast is called "My First Million" and had millions of listeners. I had never experienced virality like this before.

I would go run down the Seine, as far as I could, trying to clear my mind. It was savanna stress all over again.

I didn't listen to the actual podcast segment in its entirety for days. It felt so strange to hear people I have been listening to for years talk about me. It actually felt like they were talking about someone else. And I jolted every time I heard my name.

The segment was actually great. They sold CyberLeads better than I ever could and they were funny. It was awesome.

But this was new territory for me and beyond my capacity. I couldn't handle any more clients, so I wanted it all to stop.

I was getting 10 new subscribers for the newsletter per day and multiple people booking calls to talk about the service.

Over the next month, the newsletter doubled and reached $20k/month. And the service was making another $20k/month.

So combined, CyberLeads was making around $500k/year.

Insane.

Joining the 1%

I remember 2 years ago when I reached $2k/month and realized that I was in the top 1% of indie hackers. It felt amazing.

Two years later, I am now making almost $500k/year, which means that I am in the top 1% of income earners in the entire world.

Wow.. So I actually went from absolute zero to the very top inside 3 years. Or 5 years. Or 7 years. Depends when you start counting.

In any case, I'm still 27 years old. That's pretty cool.

Half of the days I feel like Tony Montana from Scarface, thinking that the world is mine. It even feels illegal to be making all this money.

I sit on the plane and wonder if I'm the richest. And I realize that I love making money more than spending it. I'm addicted.

Every problem apart from health problems seems like a problem I can easily solve. Lost my flight? I will just buy a ticket for the next one. Luggage over the weight limit? Just tell me how much.

Everything feels like a speeding ticket. I feel zero stress outside of work. I'm unstoppable.

On those days I'm also cynical.

I have caught myself overhearing people talking confidently and trying to sound smart and thinking the following.

"If you're so smart, where are your millions? What have you actually done or built?"

But the days I am not cynical, I remember that I am exactly the same person I was 5 years ago. Yet, there are days I make more than my yearly salary back then, when I was still in my hometown.

This can't be fair. Life isn't fair. I am the same person, with the same character, work ethic and intelligence. I'm simply working on things that make money now.

I also remember that all my friends in Greece are struggling to survive and are living with their parents. I could've been like that.

Finally, I wonder if I'm providing any value to the world or even deserve this money. I'm just part of the global GDP engine and flow of money. I've just placed my bucket strategically and making bank.

I will never forget one morning specifically, I was in London, walking to a university library to grab a coffee and work.

A girl saw me and gave me a leaflet. It was about a seminar to help young people find a job and figure out their career.

I looked at the leaflet and threw it away in the next bin, with a smirk on my face, almost laughing.

Then I remembered that just 5 years ago I would have taken that piece of paper, read it carefully, folded it and put it in my pocket.

I have started giving more money to charities lately.

I think I feel dirty.

No escape rope

The conveyer belt is still running. I am signing new clients while bleeding old ones.

Many of them are not happy. And my escape rope is not as strong as I thought it would be.

My refund policy was the following.

I charge people $2k/month for 3 months. And if they are not happy at the end of this period, I refund one month back in cash, give them access my database and newsletter for 1 year and keep running the campaigns for them for another 3 months.

It's a full money back guarantee, but structured in a smart way.

But some people don't honor the contract and request a full money back guarantee, otherwise they threaten to initiate a chargeback through their bank and put my Stripe account at risk.

And others are not interested in playing ping pong with their money. They have goals. They want results. And they are losing time and opportunities, even if you refund them.

I remember a client specifically telling me.

"I was going to refer you to all of my agency owner friends because I like you as a person and I know you tried, but I can't do that now. I will have to do the opposite and tell them to stay away."

That hurt a lot. Because he was right.

I could refund money. But I couldn't refund my reputation.

Breaking point

I am in Italy, finally emptying my house to complete my transition to Cyprus and this nomad lifestyle.

I was hoping for an easy morning. And I had made sure to finish all my tasks the night before.

As I am packing my stuff in order to leave and go to my new house, I receive an email from a client.

"Hey Alex, just got a call from my largest client, they told me to immediately stop using JPMorgan as well as their company in all of our outreach messages.

Someone let them know somehow, they told me we're not allowed to mention their work with JPMorgan because of strict NDA and they could be in serious trouble.

Please let me know ASAP, I just had a panic attack. Thanks.

Let's cancel this whole thing entirely."

I thought I had developed thicker skin and was better at dealing with clients. But this one destroyed me.

I just caused someone a panic attack and possibly to lose their biggest client. I have destroyed them.

Maybe I should shut this whole thing down.

The second cage

The irony is that apart from the insane highlights and milestones that felt like taking drugs, my every day life sucks.

I don't spend that much money. I don't exercise much. I'm not reading any books. And I'm not socializing as much as I would like either.

For the first time in my life, I'm working from cafes and libraries because I have to force myself to do things I don't enjoy.

Reply to emails. Work on clients. Schedule meetings.

I also never leave my laptop. I have it with me 24/7. It even stays on my bedside table when I'm sleeping. Close to me so I can see it.

I remember one night specifically. I was in Colombia and it was a Sunday night.

I was dreading the next morning. Monday is my most difficult day. I have to send every client their weekly report, answer questions and deal with who knows what else.

In that moment, I asked myself a simple question.

"If you weren't making all this money and this was a normal job with a normal salary, what would you say?"

I didn't have to think much. The answer was simple.

"I would say that I absolutely hate my job. Even more than the job I quit two years ago. And I would want to quit."

That shocked me. And I was a little sad.

I used to love CyberLeads. It was my baby. But now I hated it.

I had created a new cage for myself.

The second rat race

I don't understand why I'm doing this.

Yes, I'm making a lot of money. But it's not sustainable.

I started CyberLeads to gain my freedom. And I had that already.

I had escaped the rat race. Only to find myself in another one.

My first rat race was my nine to five.

My second rat race is wanting to run a successful business, be a millionaire, travel the world, and have an impact.

But do I even want that?

In this very moment, I hate my life.

Appendix

I can't do everything by myself. So I have to make a choice.

Either I go back to running the newsletter. Or I scale this down significantly and coast as a glorified freelancer. Or I go all in and build a real business by hiring people.

But that would require becoming exactly what I once hated.

Someone's boss. It's ironic.

I guess either you die a hero, or live enough to become a villain.

Sacrifices to the gods

As the years go by, I am realizing that so many of the beliefs and morals I held were just words.

And that my morals and beliefs don't mean anything unless they are tested in the real world under extreme pressure.

I knew this from fighting. It doesn't matter who I think I am in my head, shadowboxing, hitting the pads or even sparring. All that matters is who I am in the middle of the fight, when things are not going my way, my coach is screaming at me, and I have to adjust my strategy and start taking chances.

And I'm noticing it again in business. My beliefs and morals don't mean shit until they are tested and I have to make a choice. Only then I know if they are real.

This is my little personal heuristic:

• If a belief I hold benefits me, I am suspicious of it.

• If it's neutral, I treat it as cosmetic and just words.

• If a belief costs me and I still hold it, then I believe it's real.

So many of my so-called beliefs have been sacrificed to the business gods for favorable winds to reach my destination.

The problem is I have no idea where I'm going.

What's next?

I never thought I would ever say this, but I have decided to go all in, hire people and build a team to scale.

I have no idea if this is the right move. And I have no idea how to do any of this.

I guess we'll see. Thank you for reading.

Time travel

Hey. This is Alex from the future writing this.

I decided to clean up and re-post my blog posts as free books.

Nothing changed. Even if I disagree with things I said back then.

Regardless of marketing or algorithms, the greatest books have always ended up in my hands through recommendations.

So if you you enjoyed them, you can do the following:

• Share them on X or LinkedIn

• Message me so we can have a chat

Or don't. It's ok.

Thank you for reading.

Credits

Finally, special thanks to everyone that inspired and supported me, whether they know it or not.

• Pieter Levels, thank you for building in the open and making this movement happen for all of us. It was your revenue tweets and blog posts that made me realize that I could do the same.

• Courtland and Channing Allen, thank you for building Indie Hackers and putting a name to our little movement. I have read every single post, listened to every single podcast and have day dreamed countless times being on your show.

• Patrick and John Collison, thank you for building the tool that has allowed us all to make a living online. No joke, Stripe changed our lives. In awe of what you're building with Arc Institute. And huge fan of your podcast "Cheeky Pint".

• DHH, thank you for bringing common sense to the tech industry. Reminding us that you don't need to run a VC company and become a billionaire to be successful. And that you can have work life balance.

• Jason Fried, thank you for sharing your contrarian views regarding work. It's inspiring to see how ahead of the culture you were with remote work and SaaS. Your books are awesome too.

• Pat Walls (and Demi), thank you for replying to my emails back in 2021. Also for your awesome daily blog, which definitely inspired me to continue to write daily. Finally, thank you for showing us the power of focusing on one business, which you can adapt and evolve over time.

• Daniel Vassallo, thank you for introducing me to Taleb's books and philosophy, they changed my world view and helped me with my journey. Also for sharing your authentic thoughts and taking a stance, even if it's not popular.

• Stamos Venios, thank you for inspiring me to start this journey and for teaching me that you learn by doing, not studying. Your story inspired me a lot. I've told you this directly, but it's true. You are one of the main reasons I'm here today.

• Sam Parr, thank you for sharing my little business with your audience. Even more importantly, thank you for always being nothing but kind and generous to me. Funnily enough, your show, "My First Million", helped me make my first million.

• Derek Sivers, thank you for having the most awesome blog on the planet. Also for writing all your books and giving everything back to charity. You are awesome.

• Jon Yongfook, thank you for building and failing products at the same time as me, from 2018 to 2020. You launched BannerBear roughly at the same time I found CyberLeads, after roughly the amount number of failures. It was cool to not fail and succeed alone.

• Damon Cheng, thank you for showing us that even indie makers can acquire and grow businesses. Your run from quitting your job till today is legendary.

• Marc Köhlbrugge, thank you for building WIP.chat. Seeing other successful makers public TODOs made me realize that everyone just builds things, fixes bugs and makes mistakes. Like me. This was actually one of my most important realizations. It was frame breaking.

• Danny Postma, thank you for showing us that even indie products can exit to a larger company. And that even after an exit, if you want it bad enough, you can go back to square one and try again and again until you succeed again.

• Jason Cohen, thank you for your amazing blog and talks. Probably the best business blog in the world. And for your talk on boutique bootstrapped businesses. Seriously, that talk helped me niche down, raise my prices and change my life.

• Dru Riley, thank you for running an amazing campaign for CyberLeads together, back in 2020. Those high revenue months were the final push and confidence I needed to quit my job. Thank you my brother. Forever grateful.

• Andreas Klinger, thank you for being a class act and making an effort to help me find a job when I needed one. Also, for always replying to my emails and DMs.

• Vic, thank you for helping me find the next lever of growth for CyberLeads. No joke, you helped me change my life.

• Mubs, thank you for launching 50+ projects in public throughout the years and showing us how fast one can build.

• Andrey Azimov, thank you for your epic 2018 run, becoming Maker of the Year and changing your life. Your scrappiness and determination were infectious.

• Dimitris Raptis, thank you for being one of the very few people from our little hometown that is in our little bubble and industry. Also, thank you for reminding me that working on products you enjoy is more important than the money you make.

• Katerina Limpitsouni, thank you for being the final person from our little hometown that is in our little bubble and industry. I've used your designs and illustrations countless of times. They are awesome.

• Dimitris Kourtesis, Nikos Tsoniotis and Stefanos Tsiakmakis, thank you for accepting me in your startup incubator back when I knew nothing. Thank you for teaching me that killing projects is just as productive as building them. This was one of the biggest lessons I ever learned.

• Justin Jackson, thank you for your essays and podcasts regarding the importance of markets. You might not know it, but they were super impactful to me and helped me end up in the lead generation market, which helped me find CyberLeads and change my life.

• Josh Pigford, thank you for being one of the first people to show your complete list of failed products before your big success. I remember seeing the list and preparing mentally to go through the same. I built 19 failed products, then the 20th changed my life. Thank you.

• Nathan Barry, thank you for being one of the few people continuing to share revenue numbers after reaching millions in revenue. We have small businesses like myself doing that. We also have huge public companies doing that. It's great to have companies in the middle, like yours, do that too. Also, thank you for showing me the value of niching down and focusing on one segment of the market at a time. It really helped me grow CyberLeads and change my life.

• Ali Salah, thank you for being one of the OGs from 2018 and showing me that slow, consistent growth, in a saturated market, while focusing on product, can actually happen. This hasn't been my own experience and it's another example that anything and everything can work, there are no magic recipes.

• Michael Aubrey, thank you for being another story of hard work. Seeing you try for multiple years before finally achieving success is inspiring. Reminds me of my own journey.

• Reilly Chase, thank you for showing me that you can build a boring business, on top of an existing platform, and grow alongside it. Been inspiring to watch you grow over the years, build a team, a house and a life for yourself and your family.

• Rob Walling, thank you for your books and for your amazing podcast. I've listened to so many episodes over the years and there is always something interesting to take from them, because you and your gueststalk from experience, not theory.

• Jack Butcher, Bilal Zaidi and Trung Phan, thank you for the awesome podcast, the great art and the funny memes you've all been sharing with us for the past many years.

• Nico Jeannen, thank you for showing us that building and exiting multiple little businesses is possible. Also for keeping it real and sharing the good and the bad. There aren't that many people that do that and it's inspiring to see.

• Marc Lou, thank you for setting a new standard on shipping fast. I thought I was prolific for shipping 20 products from 2018 to 2020, but you took it to a whole new level. Respect.

• Peter Askew, thank you for blurring the lines between boring and cool. Selling onions online is simultaneously one of the most boring and one of the coolest businesses in the world.

• John O' Nollan, thank you for inspiring me to build a remote business and travel the world. You were one of the first entrepreneurs I looked up to, and still a massive fan.

• Harry Dry, thank you for showing me the power of storytelling and copywriting. Seeing your Yeezy.Dating saga unfold in real time back in 2018 was awesome and your climb to the top of the copywriting world is inspiring.

• Jordan O' Connor, thank you for your amazing blog. I remember reading every single post, multiple times, as you grew your business from zero to tens of thousands of dollars per month, changing your life for yourself and your ever growing family.

• Sahil Lavingia, thank you for building Gumroad, it helped me make my first $100K online. Also, thank you for challenging the status quo, thinking out of the box, doing things your own way and never being too busy to reply to my DMs back in the day. Truly grateful.

• AJ from Carrd, thank you for showing us that you can build and grow a simple, elegant and useful product by yourself and make great money without charging high prices. Frame breaking.

• Alex Napier Holland, thank you for being real and having authentic thoughts and opinions. Your are one of the very few non BS and non cringe people on my timeline.

• Florin Pop, Mr Purple, thank you for staying humble and ambitious at the same time. It's inspiring to see you set goals and then go after them.

• David Park, thank you for sharing the good and the bad so openly and authentically. Not only in business, but in life too. Your story is inspiring.

• Andrea Bosoni, thank you for showing me the value of being consistent and for being one of my Italian brothers. It's been great your amazing content for all these years, whenever I see your posts I always get a nice feeling of familiarity.

• Flavio Copes, thank you for showing me the value of writing daily, with the simple heuristic of "do stuff, encounter problems, write about the solution". Your website and blog remind me of what the internet was originally made for, real and authentic.

• Lim How Wey, thank you for sharing all of your knowledge around SEO. It was really helpful to me. And thank you for always being kind and supportive, I truly appreciate it.

• Arvid Kahl, thank you for sharing the story of exiting your SaaS business. It's been awesome to see you re-invent yourself and write your books.

• Swyx, thank you for inviting me on your podcast back in the day and for always being kind and supportive. Also for being prolific and constantly working on new things and technologies, it's contagious.

• Dmytro Krasun, thank you for showing me that progress happens slowly, then all at once. Your journey is awesome.

• David Perell, thank you for spreading the benefits of writing and specifically of writing daily. Your essays, podcasts and newsletters are fantastic.

• Noah Kagan, thank you for building AppSumo and for always keeping it real and honest. Seeing you embark on random new side quests like YouTube and being successful is cool to see also.

• Andrew Wilkinson, thank you for showing me that you can build insane wealth with boring businesses. Your essays and books are amazing. It's great to see your progress from being a freelancer, to running a small studio and being afraid to hire people, to managing hundreds of employees, to running a portfolio of companies, to finally going public. Insane.

• Andrew Gazdecki, thank you for building Acquire (formerly MicroAcquire) and helping indies like myself exit our companies and change our lives. Gazdecki style.

• Steph Smith, thank you for all the amazing essays. I remember reading "How to Be Great? Just Be Good, Repeatably" and realizing that I don't have to be fancy, just consistent. Also, every single one of your MFM appearances was great.

• George Mack, thank you for being one of the few, modern, original thinkers, popularizing new terms and expanding the lexicon. Your newsletter is one of the best I've read in my life, your ability to explain concepts is on another level.

• Jonathan Garces, thank you for all the amazing memories working on CyberLeads together. You are the only business partner I've ever had and helped me more than I could even imagine. It was a blast, my favorite business era.

• Lachlan Kirkwood, thank you for all the amazing chats over the years, going through similar milestones and challenges with our very different businesses. I'm really proud of you exiting your business and re-inventing yourself.

• Vytas Bu, thank you for believing in me and trusting me to work together. Even more importantly, I'm grateful to call you a true friend and thank you for treating me like a brother.

• Andreas Asprou, thank you for reminding me what true wealth is and for pushing me to take a break and write these books. I wouldn't have done it without you.

• Max DeMarco, thank you for inspiring me to continue being the main character of my life. You always have main character energy and it's contagious. Seeing you grow and always challenge yourself was amazing. Hope to make it to your next Muay Thai fight.

• Niklas Christl, thank you for being one of the most successful yet humble and honest people I've met. That contrast is amazing and inspiring. Hope to see you soon and catch up again.

• Giuseppe Ettore, thank you for growing side by side since 2020. I still remember showing you CyberLeads when it was just an idea, during lunch break at the office. Time flies. We started our jobs on the same day in Milan, we both quit our jobs since then, have achieved a lot and always support each other. And I believe we always will.

• Justin Gluska, thank you for the amazing chats in New York. I hope to see you again somewhere around the world.

• Eracle, thank you for welcoming me to Las Palmas. We had many amazing chats and nights out. Hope to visit again.

• Nikolas Konstantinou, thank you for welcoming me to the island of Cyprus. You have always helped me when I needed help, without asking for anything in return.

• Dawid Cedrych, thank you for being a dream client and for showing me that true business is a win-win game. I'm forever grateful for your trust in me, for encouraging me to write and for always being humble and real.

• Pete Codes, thank you for featuring me in your awesome newsletter and for being supportive over the years. It was also cool meeting in person a few years back.

• Jonny Ward, Daniel Ward, Doug Ward and David Carter, thank you all so much for being generous enough to invite me one of the impactful coffee/dinners of my life, when you had absolutely nothing to gain from me. I will never forget.

• Mohammad, thank you for giving me perspective on life and how you can continue being happy and positive no matter what happens.

• All the staff and friends at Cafe Nero for giving me free coffee and letting me write my books all day.

• Eneas Lari, for being my best friend in life.

• My family.

And to all the people that have supported me over the years or have shared my books. If I missed you, it's not on purpose.

Constantly updating this list.