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- News & Thoughts #10
News & Thoughts #10
Hello again
How is it late September already? Time seems to fly by in the summer for me and I really should have sent this email last week, or the week before. In my mind it’s still mid-August as I've been head-down with an unusually heavy freelance workload, parenting and a home DIY project.
That doesn’t mean I have little to update you with, so let’s dive into what’s new and interesting in my world.
Honing my offer
I realised I’ve let this focus slip as I experimented a lot in the last few years, so I’m actively working on what I offer now – both in freelance work and as a creator.
I’m a born generalist and thrive on variety, but I know I need to get more specific to grow. Most likely I’ll focus my content and services around helping people launch experiments and products on the side. As a point of difference I’ll bring with me my 28 years of design experience, plus my own experiences launching experiments. You can expect this newsletter to slowly reflect this focus more and more.
Free resources
As part of honing my offer, I’m also starting to build a collection of free resources. These have a leaning towards ‘design for non-designers’, but not limited to that. There’s currently a wireframe template, a brand directory, and some work-in-progress ideas. Some of you new to this newsletter will have joined via the wireframe signup page – so, welcome 👋
The paradox of choice as an indie
Do you ever feel frustrated that you’re not capitalising on everything you could? We live in an era of seemingly infinite opportunities and possibilities, which can make indie creators and founders feel this way. I’ve written a thought piece about this on my blog.
“Even though we’re ‘indie’, we’re all experiencing constraints of some kind (time, money, opportunity, skills)”
Mini milestone on my Carrd sites
I’ve been building these two resource sites for the Carrd community for some time now. In August, I reached a mini milestone – I filled all the sponsorship slots across both sites 🙌. I’m really pleased with this, and I’m going to use what I’ve learned to build bigger things next.
Just filled the last available sponsorship spots on BOTH of my @carrd sites this week:
☑️ @starrt_co
☑️ @deckofcarrdReally grateful to all these supporters 🙏
— Mark Bowley (@markbowley)
1:46 PM • Aug 29, 2023
Forget small bets, go big!
An indie founder I know just surprised everyone with a big launch – a luxury airline! Crazy right? And it was born from a personal pain point she experienced too. Wishing you the best of luck Milly 🙌
Fun fact:
This is exactly what I did💪🏻
Friends, meet @flysevenstar. I am on a mission to build the world's most pet-friendly airline.
Flights to and from North America, Europe, and the UK in 2023 and more routes launching in 2024!
It's been a busy few weeks 😉
#buildinpublic
— Milly Barker (@drmillybarker)
7:07 PM • Sep 12, 2023
That’s all for now.
Hoping to be more regular with these emails now that the summer is ending.
Mark
While you’re here, these are 3 different ways I can help you right now: