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I finally hit 100 subscribers on my YouTube channel today. I thought I’d self-congratulate ahem* document this milestone and the things learned along the way. Hopefully one of many to come. First – I know 100 is a laughable number. But maybe some of these reflections are useful for people sitting on the fence who’ve…

Something I’ve noticed in myself and some friends: sometimes we have these clear goals and objectives, but we don’t always follow them through. And it’s not necessarily because of a bad strategy, it’s because we keep changing the plan. For example, I’ve often overengineered my approach to learning the Thai language with learning the writing…

Since December 2020 I’ve been learning the Thai language. While I’m no where near proficient yet, I’m at the point where I can have some conversations beyond ordering food at restaurants with people who don’t speak English. If we assume Thai is similarly difficult to English, then this Preply diagram based on the EU language levels suggests…

A lot of people are jumping on the personal brand bandwagon (including me). But something that always felt a bit hollow to me was its most common approach: Building an audience first, before having a product. Admittedly I’ve been taken into this idea for quite a while too. I built a little Twitter following, ran…

This is technically my third attempt. When I was a kid, I used to mess around with custom servers in Graal Online. Learned just enough scripting to spawn tanks or special weapons. Somewhere along the way, “if” and “then” logic kind of stuck in my brain. But sadly I never learned ‘to code.’ So as…

What kind of marketing tactic costs nothing to do, scales and spreads itself bringing you inbound enquiries over time? Well, that sounds like content marketing. This was the answer to a question I asked myself, “What would be the best marketing skill of all to develop?” as a marketing freelancer (now focused on Meta Lead…

In September 2023 I made the logo for my paid ads micro-agency Hungry Bear using AI. While I don’t really seek work as an agency and instead rely on my freelancer profile, I thought it’d be great to give my corporate brand a professional look. Here’s how it went: Originally, I tried to zero-shot the process with…

Networking online doesn’t have to feel awkward or blatantly transactional. Over the years as a freelancer I’ve used a simple 5-step process to attract client referrals, build genuine relationships and develop allies who support my goals (and vice versa). Many are surprised to hear that as much as 50% of my client work comes from…

Hey folks. In January 2024 to February 2024 I did 31+ days going cold-turkey on caffeine to better control my energy and improve my health, ‘no-caf.’ It was a pretty rough experiment (you’ll see why soon) so I wanted to write my notes on the experience here so the agony didn’t go to waste. Why go no-caf?…