Seeking Out The Hard Things

Spencer Lee won an NCAA title with no ACLs.

Episode 5 of the 2024 Writing/YouTubing Effort

Good morning team! Today, we're not doing a YouTube video (I'm traveling) but I still wanted to sit down to reflect on the last week.

First, on the ONE thing I'm focused on: finishing out the partner app, and moving on to my own things. Well, I did make progress, and then I got stuck on building an onboarding flow, and a billing flow. I'm not surprised, and I'm not discouraged at all.

The thing is, I'm used to this now. I also have great people on my team who can unstick me, and who I can learn from. So, I took this as a learning opportunity, time for me to conceptualize these things, watch a master do it, and be ready for next time. We got about 50% done, and I forgot to save it, lol! Classssssic. As I'm traveling, the code is sitting undone on my desktop in CDMX, and I'll have to do it over. But that's good practice, right? Silver linings.

So, we'll finish that out this week - by next Sunday, and then it's time to push the app to production, and hand it off. It's close, and I can taste it. And frankly, I'm ready to be done with it.

Beyond that, what's next? Well, many things. First, I'm back into the hiring flow, Cardinal eCom & General Dev are ready to expand a little. Not a lot, a little. If you know any quality full-stack devs, I am all ears. We are lean, we aren't mean, and we are building some serious momentum in the ecom space.

Next, to that momentum point, WOW, we are busy. I am getting all kinds of inquiries for dev work - from other agencies, from partners, from friends, from investors, it's crazy. I love it! More is more, and I just need to bolster the team a bit to handle all of it.

Obviously, not all work is created equal, and there are some opportunities in here that are strategic. One in particular...while I can't go into too much detail, I see a lot of upside in this deal, but I'm going to need to fight for it. I don't consider myself a master negotiator, but I am 10x better than I was last year.

I know that I bring a unique amount of value to this business, I have leverage, I have a full suite of skills that encompass the roles of 3 people. Now, I just need to ask for something that makes me uncomfortable. Roger that. I'm doing that today. Damn dude, pimpin ain't easy!

And that brings me to the point of all this, which is I'm seeking out the hard. I don't know what exactly brought this on, but I'm thinking different lately. I ask myself "What's the decision I can make right now which is hard or uncomfortable (but good for me)?". Then I do it. Despite all my mental protests, I went to BJJ last night. While traveling. For the first time in months. It may not sound like much, but it was a victory over my inner b*tch.

Another example, this strategic deal proposition. Sunday, I was starting my day. First thing, hit that CEO, share my proposed scope. Share my proposed availability. Ask for a call re: comp. Boom, done! This discomfort is my friend. It is the fountain of my personal growth.

Can't slow down now. My last example, this blog post. I don't have my camera, I'm not going to make a YouTube video, I figured - why not a week off? Because. Just because ... that's easy.

Easy is for suckers. Excuses are for wusses.

Team Health, and Team Wealth, out!