Day 6: Three Things to Do Before You Start
“I dreamed a dreamed today that I dared not find for it washed all that I thought was mine.”
This is a quote that I’ve always tried to write right. Above is a sentence I’ve written some version of since I was in middle school. I had a dream of meeting a man on top of a green hill who felt like all the future’s that I could be. He was reciting some version of that quote as I approached him. I woke up not knowing all he told me in that dream, but my mind held on to — if only in shards. I’ve written it in many things and it always feels like it’s missing a limb. The key part to make the whole thing move, but I suppose I’m not ready to remember what my mind still keeps in its chambers.
I remember feeling like I knew everything when I was eighteen and it’s weird to feel so profoundly, each year, that I’m proven wrong. Life is a humble slice served just right on the days it will move the most.
Nearly every human on this earth no matter the cognitive ability is wearing pants… in some form. That is an unbelievable fact that boggles me. Humans live every day trying to find their corner of the universe specializing in the unique niche that makes them, them. As I get older this fact amazes me and makes me recognize the specialness each person has and dismantles the part of me that believed I was better.
I’m not better.
I’ve been trying to figure out marketing recently and a few months ago I was going through a list that breaks down all the companies that recently got funding and I was like, “I can automate this!” In my superman pose as if no one has ever thought of a cold-email marketing campaign before. So, as I pressed on into this “uncharted” land. I got into all the minutiae of how to make this work as a Zapier automation with an Airtable trigger that activates a beautifully crafted html Gmail action.
I just plug in the csv. file and away it would go to the dozens of people in a second.
A few weeks ago I had the idea of trying to code my first system that would construct emails out of domains (like the reverse of those scenes where someone is hacking into something, but with domain names) and those pieces of gold would create cold-email reach outs.
And in my wisdom gained recently from Google Ads (update on that another day) I thought, “Let me google this, first.”
And oh boy did google give me it.
I saw a dozen SaaS companies that have done what I’ve patched together in Zaps and emails and prospecting and the dreams I had to code. It was all right in front of me with solutions and systems I could only find with years of iteration. I wanted to be first, but it turns out when you’re new to something — you’re going to be last… a lot.
So the three things to do before you start something new.
Google it.
Google it.
Google it.
That way you can use what’s come before to truly get to the end to know how to add something new.
Now I’m going to go watch “The Sandman” on Netflix which is SO GOOD! I just haven’t had the time to finish it and I fear that I am the lynch pin that Netflix is looking at saying, “I don’t know there’s the one person that’s only finished three episodes, I guess it’s not worth renewing for a second season.” So, I stand up (or sit down) and click play on Sandman because it is amazing and a dream I’ve always wanted to see become real since I read those comics all those moons ago. And I’ll be damned if I’m the reason it doesn’t come back.
“But, Kyle, what can one view do?”
And I say, “But what is Netflix but a multitude of views?”
Google it.
sweet dreams.
kyle