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I did it. I launched my Indie Planner.

Was I terrified? Yes.

Am I kinda still? Hell yes.

But I already started making money with it, therefore, none of it matters anymore.

After reading replies from a few of you, friends, I decided to let go of my worries and hit launch.

For reference: https://basak.beehiiv.com/p/sharing-new-product

Hint hint: I still haven’t received the author copy (thanks amazon .de) but thankfully I didn’t wait for it to be able to do the launch.

Just sharing with you guys so it gives you a nudge for launches that terrify you. 

Thanks, friends!

On to this week’s ideas.

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I’ve been thinking about niching down.

It’s so damn hard. To let go of parts of me that make me me, for the sake of catering to a specific audience. As a hopeless generalist, it even makes me sad. Does it mean I should only make content about:

• Making illustrations and animations?

• Creating digital goods?

• Using Procreate?

That would let me niche down. But it would also turn me into a carbon copy of the next content creator on the Internet.

So there must be another way.

This week I’m sharing two alternative options that resonate with me.

Option 1: The happy ending to your story

When I came across this idea from Dan Koe, it really resonated: instead of niching down, think of the happy ending to YOUR story. And work your audience’s way towards it.

What does he mean? Let’s unpack.

A happy ending to my story would be:

• Having become an old lady with 2 healthy, creative kids who enjoy life

• Having a few creative skills and learning new ones

• A bunch of money-making assets

• Having lived a healthy life

• Having helped others

I could make this more specific but I don’t want to make this about me. You get the idea.

So in order for my audience to advance towards a “happy ending” that’s similar to mine, I can share about:

• Building money-making assets

• The struggles I face while I build and how I move past them

• How I learn and execute creative skills AND the actual outputs of my skills

• (even) How I eat and exercise to become and stay healthy and fit

• (even) How I parent my kids so they enjoy life

People buy from people. This “happy ending” narrative makes me as genuine I can get. It attracts relevant people. After all, if I’m interested in all of these things, so are others.

Bonus: your happy ending can (and will) change over time so you’re never trapped inside a single niche. You’re open to new opportunities.

This paves a way towards building an interested audience you can (forever) build new products for.

Option 2: Stack your assets

One has to earn a reputation for a few money-making skills to start earning money on the internet.

Whether you’re aware or not, you have money-making skills. For instance:

• coding

• design

• copywriting

• video editing etc.

And you can make yourself unique by combining a few of your skills. For instance:

• a coder who knows marketing

• a designer who can do coding

• a copywriter who has a background in philosophy

• a video editor who cares about personal development

If you’re struggling to get a grasp of this, this idea from Daniel Vassallo’s Small Bets course resonated with me a ton: stack your assets.

Here’s my attempt at illustrating it:

Instead of hiding parts of you inside one another, use one to elevate the next.

Everyone has a unique stack though, so it’s on you to do this exercise.

I created an “asset-stacking” exercise worksheet inside my Indie Planner (next to other exercises that’ll help you build money-making online products.)

So my questions to you:

• What’s the happy ending to your story?

• What skills can you stack? (As always, hitting reply works.)

That’s it for this week!

Have a great weekend.

Love, B.