A is for Automation

The main takeaways from this section of the book are:

1. Learn how to DELEGATE to others, COMMUNICATE effectively, and grow AWARENESS on what you’re actually trying to do and what your most essential tasks are.
2. Create a Product MUSE, that will solve someone’s problem and bring in income.

Virtual Assistant

I remember the first time I went through this section of the book, at the time I was interning at an animation studio. My mentor pointed out that outsourcing tasks like this isn’t exactly ethically sound in a lot of cases. People may be charged unfair wages, not to mention job opportunities are going to places with cheaper labor.

It was a good point, and enough to stop me in my tracks. Also, I did not enjoy Tim’s tone in this chapter especially. He packaged hiring a virtual assistant as a power trip. Even reading through it this time, I found myself cringing. Curious how he feels about it now…I’d get it if it was a joke. It doesn’t read as a joke.

These days, I’m in search of a good power trip to let out all my repressed anger and I’m less of a goody-two-shoes. More importantly, I know that it is in my power to make choices that are in alignment with my values. If that takes extra research so I feel good about a decision, I don’t mind.

Most of all, delegating and communicating tasks are some of my ultimate weaknesses. Mostly due to…fear of giving up control and not having the opportunities to exercise that muscle. It’s the first time I’m able to pay someone a fair wage using my hard-earned money. I know it’s within my means*, and it still feels risky.

*Sorta within my means – my emergency fund may or may not be at 50%…(lol)

My first task ever assigned to a virtual assistant:

It took me a while to type this out and elaborate and make sure it was super clear. 30 minutes maybe! I’m sure I’ll get better at it as I go along. The real question is whether or not all this delegating is worth it. It’s definitely a mindset shift for me.

The goal of this first task is to have some more examples of stationary that is doing well for me to reference. Next up I also plan on contacting the store owners and asking how they got where they are! Then I can copy in their footsteps, or at least draw inspiration. Maybe there’s something I could offer them in return.

I’m pretty sure I picked a good company that treats their employees well, but I’ll also be double checking on that. I know I don’t want to use an out of country company unless I feel good about it.

I found myself constantly questioning: Is this task worth it? Is this task even worth doing? What is the objective here?

I can already see the value in the clarity assigning tasks can bring to what I choose to do. I’m forced to narrow down to the most essential tasks, and clarify my true motivation and goal.

On my current TO-DO List: Test my stationary product idea before requesting a quote from the printing service or 3PL service I found. Also, could this potentially be successful just as a digital product of some sort? Like a premade discord server or notion template?

I realize I got the order on the to-do tasks a bit messed up. Should do some task management around that. Validation is crucial and the most essential first step.

I keep wanting to skip over that and make some sort of product. I think it’s fear that’s causing me to skip that step.

That’s probably what’s been causing me to run around in circles with all my ideas…

Darn! This Virtual Assistant thing may actually be worth that one insight!

This whole thing is starting to feel a bit TOO REAL.

It’s funny how easy it is to go from idea to testing a product when I get rid of all my excuses.

I woke up the next morning and checked my email out of curiosity.

There it was, a return email with an excel spreadsheet with all the information I requested, neatly organized. I had a sense of power and limitless possibility rush over me. OK, maybe the who power rush thing Tim mentioned in the book isn’t a total wash.

I was pretty proud of myself, and decided to send some more tasks later in the day.

Also a fun note: Using a VA prompted a re-evaluation of how the economy works. I never fully understood why my mentors looked down on outsourcing.

I talked to a friend who’s more familiar with how capitalism works, and learned that there’s nothing inherently BAD about outsourcing, but it often leads to systematic failures and drives wages down.

Wages continuously going down for everyone means eventual economic collapse.

Creating a MUSE

This is arguably the most challenging part of the 4HWW method/philosophy to fulfill.

I saved it for last, since Liberation comes first for people with a day job. I was shocked to see that this section of the book only took up 3 chapters. Not much handholding here, not to mention much of the direct links throughout the book no longer work.

I mistakenly thought the website creation piece would be a piece of cake for me, as someone who has messed around with WordPress and seen quite a few online business owner’s dashboards.

I spent 3.5 hours diddling around trying to figure out the perfect combination of WordPress add-ons and plugins needed to make a customizable landing page. It was so frustrating. And at the end of those 3.5 hours, I still did not have a landing page where I could get rid of my website header and add custom buttons where I wanted to lead to a checkout cart.

I am using a potato as my test product 🙂

With my second attempt I had a better idea of what I absolutely need to work, and the level of customization I want. I looked through a few more tutorials and landed on a promising one.

I wanted desperately to go the free route, where coding isn’t involved. However, I ended up purchasing a plugin: Elementor Pro. The MUSE must take under $400 to test, and I still have $300 to use outside of website hosting and Elementor Pro.

I nearly bought the 3 site option, and then heard Tim’s voice in my head: Is this essential? What would you do if you could only work 2 hours a week?

I’d save the money and buy the license for only 1 site if I could only work 2 hours a week!!! And use future success to upgrade a couple notches up when it becomes essential to have the plugin for multiple sites.

My second attempt turned out WAY BETTER. With this method I can also customize the page to look exactly how I want…

Lots of messing around and learning how to get things to work properly. Thank Goddess for Amazing YouTube Tutorials! Spent another 3 hours figuring this out.

The Challenge of Testing a Product

Going through the entire manufacturing process, getting a quote, and getting inventory of a product that might not even sell well is highly risky.

The greatest roadblock and challenge to selling for me has been finding a way to quickly and easily iterate over products and test them. I hate the idea of wasting time, but MORE IMPORTANTLY, hate the idea of adding more junk into the world. If I have a bunch of unsold products just lying around, that’s my literal worst nightmare. A pile of trash.

I’ve known about dropshipping since I first read the 4HWW, about 8 years ago. Recently I watched some fun YouTube videos on dropshipping and TikTok advertising. Also, a hustle discord server I snooped around which had successful teenagers sharing their online selling methods had a HUGE emphasis on dropshipping, TikTok and Instagram. One thing I do know from once being a teenager myself, is that often the teenagers have the answers.

I’ve always been a dropshipping hater. Taking a product and selling it at a marked up price doesn’t sit right with me. The only value you are adding is convenience. It’s scammy, and these cheaply manufactured products are far from ethically made.

However, dropshipping is the perfect way to test if a product is worth investing more time and money into. Dropshipping manufacturer sites that sell products at cheap price are great for doing market research. It’s easy to see which products are popular and see multiple iterations of the same product to find sample images to use as reference for how you want your product to look.

My plan:

1. Find products I like from AliExpress (Cheap Products from China)
2. Download all the images of the product
3. Set up a webpage and import all the AliExpress Reviews into my Store Website
4. Get a quote for how much it’d cost me to manufacturer something similar (high quality, ethical)
5. Make the checkout page go to a page that says “Sorry, out of stock. We’ll notify you when this is back in stock! Meanwhile you can check out this blogpost: ______fun blog post related to product niche______”
6. Set the price I’d like to sell for and run ads, track PPC (Pay Per Click) with how many times the purchase button is clicked

This way I won’t be supporting sites and manufacturer’s like AliExpress, and still be able to leverage the iteration and testing power of the dropshipping business model.

Is it way slower and more effort than directly dropshipping a product? Sure. Does this plan make me feel better and even excited? Yes.

I hired someone on Fiverr (a freelancing site) to design my site logo for me:

What I learned: having unlimited revisions is over-powered. I almost just let it slide and didn’t ask for any revisions. I felt bad asking someone to do more work for me. So glad I pushed past that and asked for what I wanted. Would like to tip this agency if possible. Value for buck is spectacular…

I’m really getting used to giving clear instructions. It’s instant feedback to see where I could be more clear and concise. It’s also fun practice to do it without being a dick.

I am going to hire someone else to make some ad creatives for me, specifically for TikTok.

Oh, also. I joined a $2000 entrance fee E-commerce Mentorship…ha.

Trusting the universe bb.

Ecommerce mentorship group call was great today. Got a lot of insights into marketing angles and supplier relationships. It’s nice because I’m familiar with the general processes from doing some freelance ad agency work in the past which I can build on. Now I’m getting the in depth knowledge.

The business I hired for the TikTok ads let me know there’s not a lot of content for journal covers out there. Also, from the call today I learned it’s more about what structure and promise you’re offering to the customer rather than the product itself.

I decided to look directly on TikTok for potential products to pivot to. And I think I found the perfect type of product to start with.

Acrylic Wall Calendars are doing really well. They also uses acrylic sheets which is one of the most sustainable materials. This is a great type of product to manufacture myself and build off of into a full-blown organizational station brand.

After all, my site is called “Qi STATION” for a reason. I had wall organization stations in mind since the start and wanted to keep it loose for potential pivots. Station can also be interpreted as a music or audio station, or even a train station! 😉

Finished a landing page and added button tracking using some marketing tools by Google and connecting it to my WordPress site:

My coding knowledge is saving me. My brain may explode. Is it really 2023? More work initially, but I know that WordPress will give me way more customization than Shopify in the long run. It’s such a nightmare honestly…I can see why people get paid for this stuff.

Hey, so a long overdue update here.

It’s been almost 2 months since I last updated this post and a lot has happened…as well as not that much.

Long Story Short, I ended up pivoting from binder covers to Acrylic Wall Calendars.

However, margins and suppliers for eco-friendly acrylic did not end up panning out. I contacted every supplier I could find, and scoured the internet for ethical acrylic manufacturers. I additionally fell into a semi existential crisis upon realizing how messed up and destructive to the environment out entire product creation system is.

Here are the unused video ads I bought:

And a landing page I scrapped:

So I ended up pivoting to something I knew was manufactured in the US, and used ingredients that could be ethically sourced in the future.

The product I landed on is shower steamers.

I also switched to using Shopify mostly for the ease, and because everyone in my mentoring program uses it – so they are more knowledgeable on how to use it.

Shopify Website Update:

Compared to my first Potato Page, I’d say it’s quite an improvement!

I plan on launching image ads this week. (today is 1/9/2024)

Happy New Year 🐉