Pascal Poredda

4 months ago I wrote a little note to myself, to checkin with my feelings about staying in cold-ass Germany or leave to somewhere sunny. It's pretty cold at the moment, yet I don't find it that horrible as the past few winters here.

Been playing a lot around with o3-mini inside Cursor. But man it's bad. Not sure if it's due to @Cursor or the model, but more often than not it just hangs, get's lost completely or whatever. Sonnet never disappoints like that

Slowly building up reputation on other platforms. And also got back to shipping after a client on-sight last week. Feels good.

I've been playing around with n8n automation and @gumloop_ai
Somehow basic programming things like doing if else if / switching feel hard

Also having to connect to a gazillion of services / APIs cannot be the future..

My shipping has falling behind lately.

Man, I'm really tired of living in a car.

Having all the freedom is a trap in itself. It stops you from being free. Having all the options to choose from is simply not good.

Life hack when anxiety kicks in: simply lie down on the floor.

Recently I found myself more often looking up domain names for random ideas, If I'd purchase all of them.. I'd soon be broke lol

Sometimes I'm buying domain names like books. They just accumulate.

AIfluencer's is a niche one can grow in. Teaching other people to use AI for their individual business case.

The Dip by Seth Godin has one big insight. Knowing when to quit, and that it's ok to quit.

If something is a dead end, and you're not into it to becoming the best, why even bother. Don't settle for mediocrity. Going to evaluate what to quit.

And the biggest of all, trust your gut feeling when it comes to a client. More often than not I already thought during a discovery call that someone will be a problematic client. But you'll learn over time.

13. Create a freelance project checklist. Ensure you don't miss key steps, like sending expectation docs.

11. Contracts protect relationships, even with friends and family. Always insist on one.
12. Consider bartering with freelance friends. Document everything as you would with paying clients.

8. Charge a reactivation fee for projects paused over 6 weeks.
9. Use "production queue" language. Clients should know their place in line.
10. Charge an "expedite fee" for last-minute requests.

5. Use contracts with clear scope exhibits. Ambiguity is a your enemy.
6. Define terms in contracts. Specify what "pages" or other terms mean.
7. Share a 1-page "Expectations" doc with clients. Clarify mutual expectations and impacts of delays.

3. If billing hourly, send invoices every 2 weeks. It prevents surprise bills and allows clients to adjust.
4. Track time well. Once accurate, switch to flat fees. Hourly rates can undervalue your skills.

I've been successfully freelancing for roughly 4 years, here are a few learnings in regards to new clients.

1. Always get a deposit before starting a project. It helps avoid future regrets.
2. Link payment instalments to dates, not deliverables.

Never underestimate the power of having other entrepreneurial friends in your close circle.

This has given me some many insights into how other business handle things, and the chance to find good barter deals.

The four commandments of business according to MJ Demarco: Time, Control, Scale & Entry

Whilst freelancing over the last years has given me a good foundation & baseline in terms of money, I'm literally violating all these. Is freelancing even a business then?

Showed a friend all these "fancy" AI builder tools today. The sparkles is his eyes when he said: "I can build my gf an app she needs" felt kinda cool tbh
Teaching other people how to use this effectively is fun!

Got the recommendation from a fellow IndieHacker to read this book: The Dip by Seth Godin.

One of my big goals this year is to learn that I've come already quite far and that I can rely on my own skills, but don't have to, because there are other people that are willing to work with me, and even help me.

99% of the people I know simply consume. If you start to produce something, whether good or bad you're already in the top 1%.

I've fallen into the trap of regurgitating the same thing other people say, without thinking about it way too often.

My current structure:
- Idea / Topic
- Research
- Write Markdown
- Blog post - long form
- 2-3 LinkedIn posts out of that long form post
- 3-4 X articles out of that

I'm lacking a good system to produce long form content and creating remixed variants out of it for other platforms like LinkedIn, X etc.

Has anyone come up with a good system / approach he can recommend?
Maybe even a good tool?

Coding is not the only form of deep work. It also means doing marketing, writing and content creation.

Started the day 5 hours late today, left the house with my keys inside. Had the pleasure to enjoy the DB for 4 hours driving back and forth :) Can it get any better..