MacJunky
  • 3 months ago
In this conversation, I'm speaking with Elder. I met him about last year, but I've been following him longer than that. He creates templates and courses for an app that I used to use. I've always been interested in how he works and how he produces his videos and the simplicity of them. After this conversation, I found out he is a minimalist, and we're pretty, much alike, and it freaked me out a bit about how alike we were. But anyway, hopefully, you enjoy our conversation.

In this conversation, I'm speaking with Eldar. I met him about last year, but I've been following him longer than that. He creates templates and courses for an app that I used to use. I've always been interested in how he works and how he produces his videos and the simplicity of them. After this conversation, I found out he is a minimalist, and we're pretty, much alike, and it freaked me out a bit about how alike we were. But anyway, hopefully, you enjoy our conversation.

Eldars on : https://twitter.com/eldargezalov

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Category

🤖
Tech
Transcript
00:00I have a great treat for you today. I'm speaking with elder. I met him. I
00:05Think about last year, but I've been following him longer than that. He
00:10creates
00:12Templates and
00:14courses for an app that I use basically or I used to use and
00:20I've always been interested in how he works the way
00:24He kind of does his videos the simplicity of them and after this conversation
00:29I found out he is a minimalist and
00:32We're pretty much alike and it kind of freaked me out a little bit how alike we were
00:37But anyway, hopefully you enjoy the conversation. Here it is
00:43But um, what have you been up to today?
00:47Just answering bunch of emails I spent like 60% of my time in my email client. Oh
00:54Yeah, and you're using a creative work during the night
00:59Yeah, but you're you're kind you do have hey, but do you use that for work or not? Not really?
01:04I use hate for everything these days, right?
01:09and I actually connected my
01:12Custom domain finally. I didn't like the hateful work
01:15It's not what I wanted, but the custom domain support which we just added like a couple of weeks ago. It's yeah, I'm using that
01:23I have from my understand when the custom domain thing or work came out. I added my Mac junkie domain to it
01:31okay, and
01:33And it was and it works really well, but then I found I didn't actually know what I wanted to do so I
01:42Deleted it. I was like, okay. Well, I don't really need it. So won't bother with it
01:47But I went back to it
01:49two or three days ago
01:51You mean like hey or make a custom domains the custom domains. I already have a you know, my hey.com. I still have it
02:00So I went back to it, but I don't think it's actually any different to the way that because I think yeah
02:07branded the hateful work into hateful domains and
02:12Yeah, I mean that's fine with me. I just need the mail address. This is my name
02:17I I was used I was paying for Google for years
02:21right and
02:24Finally like I switched to hey, I
02:26Wasn't I mean, it's a long story. I'm not sure if we have time to talk about it. So maybe go for it
02:30but it's a conversation so
02:35I
02:36Was kind of enjoying hey, but the one I mean I do prefer Apple mail
02:42Honestly, right. I think I watched a few of your videos older videos about how you do email and
02:48My workflow was pretty much similar to what you had in Apple mail like years ago, I think yeah, and it's very clean
02:57I
02:58Owned only heavy mails, which really like needs to I need to do something to like reply or maybe do some test or whatever
03:07And I was inbox zero guy, I guess
03:10But this hey, I mean it was a little bit more complicated when I wanted
03:16but I then gave it another try and
03:20These days thanks to their new
03:23Like hey world, for example, I'm starting to use it more as my newsletter
03:28And it's much better than the regular newsletters
03:31I used before because I don't care about statistics all that stuff. No, I don't want to track anybody
03:38No, none of my websites using tracking Google Analytics or anything. I don't care about this for business
03:44Maybe not good. But for me is a
03:46Like as a person that's totally fine. So yeah, I'm using hey and I was paying like 60 or something dollars to Google
03:55Actually, I think it was $6 per month. It's like more than $60 per year
03:59I was paying to Google just to have my custom domain email and
04:05I'm not actively using it. Actually. I'm using like my hey or my
04:11Apple mail more
04:13but since they added custom domains, I moved from Google and
04:19For now, it means that hey my personal hey email will only cost me like $20 per year more
04:25Right because of their pricing a little bit complicated. I don't know. Yeah, I mean this is what I wanted to talk about because
04:32they've
04:34Obviously there's things going on in Basecamp. And I think that's kind of caused the issue with the not
04:40Simple that the no simplicity thing that they're doing right now because with Basecamp the product
04:47It's a hundred bucks. That's it and a story as many users and then they did the hey.com
04:53Pricing and it's like do this and that and maybe this and more for this and more, you know
04:59That annoys me that annoys the hell out of me. So I have a three letter
05:04Right, so that's costing me 350 a year
05:07But I realized I don't actually need it I
05:12because of this branding that I did I
05:15Thought well, I just have a hey.com because I wanted hey and they didn't have custom domains. So I didn't do it
05:22So I just said well, I just use my hey.com
05:25But now I've realized I don't need to spend $350 a year for email. I just it's silly
05:31So this is where I'm gonna write a post about this
05:35But this is where I think they've kind of
05:38Unsimplified things and they're losing money because if I have to pay 350 euros
05:45That email is mine forever, right? It's yours forever. That's the whole thing
05:49So I could just stop that and forward it to my custom domain and then losing out
05:56So if they said I know the reasons why they came out with it the vanity thing. I mean, it's not a vanity thing
06:03That's my name because you know, it's not as if I'm gonna sell it or or look at me. I'm Ferrari at hey or whatever
06:11But I realized why they did it, but I think they're kind of done it wrong
06:15I mean if if they chart if they said listen, we'll charge you 99. I'll keep it
06:21But I don't need it
06:23The only difference between what what I've noticed the only difference between the two products again
06:30They're just complicating it. You can have something on this but not on this and this so
06:35The hey for work the domains one you could have you can collaborate
06:40mm-hmm
06:41but the thing in there that
06:44You could easily put into the hey.com email is the collaborator. Sorry is the collections. I was missing in the collections now
06:53People would say to me where you don't do folders. Why do you want collections?
06:56Well, they're actually quite handy for certain things for certain projects or whatever and I wanted that in my hey.com and I didn't get it
07:04So with hey.com you you get hey world
07:09But not collections and in the other one you get collections, but not hey world
07:15And that's just
07:17Complicated. Yeah, just make one product and say you can add a domain five bucks a month per domain
07:25Is that I they've just really I
07:28Mean, I guess, you know better, you know, the team may be better. But I mean why?
07:35they would I
07:37Guess there is some reason there because there look like they are very smart guys and they have their strategy
07:44So I guess there is some reason behind it or maybe they over complicated something from the beginning
07:50So it's difficult restructure now, maybe I don't know. I think it's more to do with that
07:55I think they thought of it in a different way
07:58I eat hey work because what people wanted it, but no everyone wanted just a domain added to that
08:05it's
08:06Just oh, yeah, it's just rotating, right? Yeah
08:10You were about the three-letter your email
08:13I was thinking about it as well like if you pay once like you said, it's your forever
08:18But do you need to pay like 350 every year yes using it
08:23Why don't you just switch to some other email and then just forward it like that's what I'm doing
08:29Yeah, I mean after one year. Yeah, so you still have your your email address
08:34I guess how outgoing email address will be different when you're like, that's I guess we can't reply from that
08:40But other than that, I think that's a bit strange the price
08:45This is going back to what I was what I've been talking about for the past couple of weeks about owning your audience
08:52But owning your audience is the same as owning your data
08:56Now I've been telling people for years stop using
09:00We in Holland here. We have access for all and we have you know, I cloud and whatever they're not your domains
09:08So the company could say well, we're going to change the way we work and then you're screwed with that email
09:13So I was kind of a bit stupid because I didn't really
09:17Adhere to my own advice
09:19By getting a hey.com email address, but I wanted it because I wanted to try out its base camp. They're not going anywhere
09:26It's not it's not it's different to to what I was explaining. However
09:31Yeah, you have this problem. I have this problem now if I want to leave I'll keep it but I can't send us
09:36Well, that's not a huge deal, but it is a problem
09:40But they're shooting themselves in the foot as well by losing money because they could still get a hundred bucks
09:48A year from me because I would pay it
09:52But I wouldn't pay 350. I don't think it's worth it
09:56Yeah, and it's a shame because now there was two or three people that wanted my email
10:02the KIA
10:04Luckily, I got there first because I wasn't the early adopter thing
10:09But yeah, it's a shame for them because now I don't really need it or want it and but they can't have it
10:15You know
10:17They will put some like system of reselling your name
10:22well, I don't want I don't want to do that because
10:26Yeah, I
10:28Mean, I see that they develop like hey world. I don't think it was planned or anything. So
10:33That's why maybe they have some
10:36Learn Tom long-term planning is not in place. So they kind of make plans on the fly
10:42This is why they have to structure this so
10:45strangely sometimes
10:47but yeah, I mean
10:48Hey, I am going to extend it. I mean hundred bucks plus
10:55$20 now because of the
10:57Customer money and that's only because you are an early adopter all new people don't get that. Yeah. Yeah, exactly
11:03Yeah, right
11:04but I mean the only the biggest reason two reasons why extending is because of hey world as I'm
11:12trying to use it as for minus letter maybe and
11:16obviously the custom domain which
11:19Was kind of more than half the price was going to Google every year for many years anyway
11:24so I prefer to pay base camp and
11:28Like I said, I mean the whole the downside for me if I had a name like you
11:32I would probably use my personal domain for everything. Yeah, but I have a bit longer name. So right
11:39Elder at hey.com looks much cleaner and better on my websites and everywhere
11:44But well, I'm or I mean even if even it's it's only been like two or three days since I've moved over and it's annoying
11:51Typing my domain instead of hey.com
11:53So I
11:56Know the issue because my full name is Keanu's which is much longer. I don't use it professionally
12:03No reason just because it's longer. So KIA is the first three letters that I use
12:09In fact, I've got a blog post about why I'm called I read about your name. So it's pronouncing I should pronounce it K
12:17K. Yeah. Okay. It's a long story
12:23Actually
12:25Yeah, I did I did I wrote I have actually on my about page
12:30I've put pronounced K. It's a long story and it's a link to the blog post because so many people ask me I
12:37Read it on your circle
12:39Whatever. Yeah, I was always like kind of curious about this
12:45Self like closed communities type of platforms and when I saw you do this our circle
12:52I was like, whoa, that sounds interesting. I checked their pricing their everything. I
12:57Checked all of your futures because kind of thinking something like that for me
13:02But at the end of the day, I wasn't sure how it really would benefit. I guess
13:10You know, I've been wanting to do a community for a long time
13:14Because of what I do
13:16for what you do
13:18You know make doing your themes and and your courses and stuff
13:22Communities kind of vital. It's something that you should definitely look at which is what you do
13:28but
13:30For me and what I do I even I've tried it many times and it hasn't worked
13:35But there are the reasons why it hasn't worked and mostly my own personal fault
13:40But because of what I do, it's not I don't think it's going to work as well
13:45So I've tried it a third time and I'm going to shelve it again, but what I've noticed
13:53Is that a lot of people obviously they're using slack, but they're also using discord. It's quite interesting
14:00I was talking to a few people about it and discord is
14:04free
14:05Unlimited you can do the server nitro thing or whatever, but you don't actually have to and I know quite a few communities
14:13Using discord because it's free because you can live stream on it because you can do audio things
14:19And so that might be something to look at
14:22Yeah, I I looked through this court many times actually
14:27It's evolving
14:29Becoming this community go to solution for many because I don't like Facebook. I don't have Facebook like Instagram anything like that. So
14:37discord was I was like
14:39Taking a look at telegram this people these days
14:43Gram, but I don't I didn't want to be like kind of in the chatting application
14:49Discord is more like a slack. I guess. Yes, sir to telegram
14:53But at the end of the day, I'm still doing email most of the time
14:56I mean, I enjoy email because it gives me this personal feel
15:01and it's it's just like exhausting really because I have so many people email me every day and I
15:08Enjoy talking to people but I really want in the long term to
15:14Rebuild this and I mean I'm looking at you as an inspiration. Maybe you have
15:21You know the again I am I love emails as well I love it I think it's the best
15:28Communication thing is and I know you have your email organized as well
15:34Simplified because that's who you are. That's what you do. We're kind of similar in that respect
15:38And I don't think and this is the reason why I think I'm going to stop with circle
15:43Because I found myself again. It goes back to owning your audience
15:48My information was on my website. So why am I pushing them away to go somewhere else? There's no point to that
15:55So that was one idea
15:56the other idea is no one's
15:59interacting and
16:01People love email people got it. You know, everyone has email right? So yeah
16:06Why am I going somewhere else to do it? And then?
16:10Elizabeth Pamplon, which I did which I was having concert. I had a conversation with she runs a
16:18membership site and it does really well and
16:21she said
16:22It depends on your lifestyle whether you can do it and I thought yeah, I can do it all the time in the world
16:29I can do it but
16:31It's it's it's difficult
16:34Even if you've got all the time in the world because people then have to it's it's your members
16:39Have to go somewhere else for that information. Why don't they just go to your website? Why don't they so
16:47Going back to hey world
16:49I'm gonna even stop doing that because obviously I'm gonna get rid of my hey again own your audience
16:55I want my stuff my data my content in my own place in my own house
17:00So again, everything's back. I mean everything I didn't move anything, but everything's on my website
17:06So there's one domain everyone goes to it
17:09and if you want me you press contact and you email me and that's kind of I found the best way and
17:17because it's been like that forever, however, I
17:21Still think a community thing is good, but you need to make it as simple as possible
17:25Yeah, yeah, right, but
17:28again
17:30Does do people have time to go to another social network as it were your own social network?
17:36To do that information to do that thing now if you are big and you had hundreds of thousands of people
17:42Yes for sure. You ain't gonna do that by email
17:47How many emails do you get do you think per day a week, uh, I mean I to reply like 30 mails per day
17:55Wow
17:57But the thing is I don't even before hey, I
18:02Didn't get I don't get a lot of newsletters. I never sign up to anything unless it is like really something important for me
18:09Right, and if somebody emails me without
18:14Kind of my consent I would block them in my Apple mail or whatever
18:18Right. It is kind of similar to screener. We have a hey and I never hear from them again, but
18:26yeah, I mean I mostly talk to like people and that's fine for me, but I
18:34Guess I mean, I'm still in the process of figuring out the whole like system the whole
18:42Community because I'm part of a bigger community
18:46like the blocks community if you heard about it, there are like thousands of people there and I'm the active member there, but
18:54Like for my own community if I would make it
18:58Like you said, it should be very simple and I watched your video
19:03Showcasing how to use your circle and I was confused
19:06Why would you do that? Because yeah, if there are so many rules where you can put some you can put something here
19:12Then you can put something here
19:17Yeah, I mean you hit the nail on the head this is the reason why I was like, you know, why am I using this?
19:23What what's the what's the yeah, what's the benefit for me?
19:27If I always look at benefit for me, you have to be selfish to a certain degree, right the benefit for you
19:33Why am I using a tool whatever it is whether it's a service or tool or you know, whatever
19:39And I looked at that. That's why I was like, why am I doing this exactly what you said?
19:44but I think a
19:46Community is deaf. I mean for you again because you do courses
19:51so rather than getting them in emails and replying to the same kind of question within
19:57Three different emails for four different emails or whatever per day
20:01You could even make a video you could
20:04Yeah, post it up somewhere on the web. I made courses actually in my youtube channel. Like I have a couple of channels
20:12before I was still doing email helping people via email like
20:17communicating via email and then because I answer the same questions most of the time I
20:22started to do videos free tutorials and stuff like that and then it's evolved in paid courses because like I
20:30can't put like hundreds and hundreds of videos just like
20:34It should be structurized somehow. So this is how I came to do these courses and
20:42Yeah, I mean
20:44these days my emails are not very long unless people ask me to
20:49provide some technical help is there a web design project or
20:54Sometimes I just need to get to my Mac because I like to use my iPad for email and everything
21:00But when you get the emails which require me to use my Mac because the web design program I use is only for the Mac. So
21:08one of the reasons why I still can't use my iPad for everything, but
21:13Yeah, I mean
21:15Yeah, you're one of these iPad people aren't you rather than Mac?
21:18You're you're kind of more it was more like that like couple of years ago
21:23I I mean, I'm obviously for the blocks for the web design app. I need to use Mac
21:29yeah, but since
21:31Apple Silicon and m1 I
21:35Feel a lot of great benefits using this device
21:39Compared to the Intel one. So I bet it's still my favorite device. I enjoyed more the touching the manuals and everything but
21:47Like I do use make more now, right?
21:52Because of the m1 the battery life the quiet performance
21:57What I enjoyed always is my iPad it's funny before the m1 was announced
22:03I was really considering getting a the big iPad
22:08Because my Mac was just annoying me. I had a
22:122013 MacBook Pro
22:15And I loved that machine was one of my favorite machines and it was great but then
22:21You know when you use your phone you're thinking wait this does faster than this what the hell
22:26And I was like, oh, I'm just gonna get an iPad and I was very close to buying one
22:31And then there were rumors custard coming out was like wait
22:34let me just deal with the fan for now, and I've replaced the battery on that about
22:40three four times myself and the second user batteries are never that good and
22:45Then when they announced it, I was like, okay. I got a jump jump ship. I got to do it
22:50And these m1s are amazing. They're
22:54Unbelievable. Yeah. Yeah, they are so good. I
22:58Mean they put it in the iPad these days, but I mean I even my iPad
23:03Apple Silicon I guess the same similar to what I have inside my m1 MacBook is
23:09like it's almost
23:11Like two and a half years old and it's still running like new my iPad
23:15Right, and I expect my MacBook to be the same because I mean I replaced the top of the line
23:2316-inch MacBook Pro, which I only had for one year
23:27This is MacBook Air and one MacBook Air which also has only 8 gigs of RAM
23:32compared to 16 I had on the MacBook and
23:36I never like even remembered any time when I I don't remember any time. I was having some troubles or anything
23:44For me, I don't know if you noticed that or not
23:47I had always some problems with connecting external display
23:52So touch bar was freezing and stuff like that this m1. I don't have any problems like that
23:58No, I mean I had the air it died after three weeks
24:03Yeah, and then they then I just rather than wait to get it repaired
24:07I said, can I upgrade because I'm here so I did but I wish I kept the air
24:13really
24:15Why I wonder it it's made more solidly it's actually a different machine
24:21Whereas the pro is the same machine as the old pro
24:25So my one makes noises it creaks sometimes, you know, I don't know
24:30I've never I never I've actually I've heard the fan once when I was
24:35doing I was using descript, you know the transcription thing and it does optimizing and uploading and
24:43That's the only time I hear the fan I
24:46I'm editing videos and audio and making music and nothing nothing this thing. I mean that it's just screams
24:53It's so pleased and they're made so simply as well, which is which is really cool. But what's your
25:01What I want to try to understand because you are into simplicity, I don't know if you're into minimalism
25:07I guess they're different things
25:09But what's your work day like like when you're working you talked about your emails and you have your workflow
25:17obviously you said
25:18Hey hasn't really changed your workflow much. Is that correct? It's actually yeah, it didn't change a lot because
25:28Yeah, because I never had any problem with email
25:31I never had any like I understand the benefits, but I used and still use hey
25:39Because I like the maybe philosophy a little bit. I like privacy focused
25:45Obligations, right? Yeah, private is a big thing and I am the minimalist like very
25:52Minimalist and I don't talk about that as much as I want to but I have a long list of videos
25:59I want to make on this
26:01minimalist topic and like I
26:04Yeah, hey did not change the way I work but
26:09I think I think it just tidied things up a little bit because there is a lot of things in hey, you can't do
26:16It's actually a little bit more complicated now because of hey my workflow
26:22Because I had because like I don't know if you know if you understand what we do
26:27I'm talking about but you are showing your Apple mail setup and it was so clean
26:32I have a little bit more folders than you in my Apple mail, but it was so clean and
26:38I mean
26:41In hey, I guess you can use this cover image cover the new feature of the edit recently. I don't really like it
26:47It's not strange for me
26:49but I don't get this refreshment when I finish with my emails the same way I was like doing this Apple mail and
26:59Yeah, I mean
27:01these days I'm actually
27:03trying to
27:05switch my
27:07Workflows a little bit because I'm doing fine. I'm minimalist and everything but I have a big problem because I
27:15Can't turn off my head most of the time. I'm working 24-7 every day without the weekdays
27:22day of all days are weekdays for me, but
27:26Thing is I'm flexible so I can talk to you right now in the middle of the day without any like pre-scheduling
27:32because I know that I can work like all night for example and
27:37That's not good for my health mental health
27:41Relationship either
27:43What your wife is saying?
27:46Yeah, I mean, I mean I'm always home these days so
27:51It's not a bike not by choice. I would prefer to travel more. I did travel a lot before pandemic, right?
28:00But but you work for yourself, so where are you traveling to to clients?
28:05I had a lot of work. I have business actively working this different
28:11I've been to my Amsterdam many times as well
28:15and
28:17Yeah, I mean I'm I work from home right now
28:21But what I'm doing now was my hobby a couple of years ago right now
28:26It's my business and everything but it was never intended to be my main job. Never so right
28:33Evolved but it's not like I want to do this forever
28:39Yeah, I mean I always explore new opportunities I have so many
28:43Goals so many projects and just not enough time
28:48I'm with all for that because okay. Let me put let me give you some advice from an old man
28:59Yeah, you're
29:00You're way younger than I am I'm 52 you are in your early 30s, I guess 32 32 early 30s
29:08Right. So when I would sound so weird like granddad saying when I was your age. I
29:16Too actually, I mean I still have some goals. I'm not saying I don't have goals. But when I was younger
29:23Mid-20s even younger than that. I was always hustling looking for different work different jobs different things
29:31I was a I've been doing so many different jobs to work for myself many times
29:37but the older I found I
29:40Found myself and I actually had discussion that was my friend about this a few days ago
29:45Is that?
29:47I've kind of given up
29:49Not on the dream but on the hustle part of it
29:53So I so when like you'd like you and I love the fact so we had this conversation because like are you free?
30:00Yeah, I'm free. Let's do it. And I love that and that's what I do
30:04So when people say so I didn't know that of you actually
30:07But when people say when should we meet I always say no, I'm always free
30:13When should we meet and you're the same it seems
30:15Which is
30:17Slash free, right exactly. I'm always thinking of things
30:21I'm always busy, but I always can make time and I it's just one a fantastic way of living
30:28actually because
30:31What I've been saying is that work should be accidental to your life and if your life you enjoy doing the things it's not work
30:38It's just stuff you do right? Yeah. Yeah, but I
30:43Would be careful of
30:47Having too much to do
30:49Because I think you will then go. Oh, I didn't do that. And then you have a negative effect in you know
30:56What I mean, I don't have to I have a to-do list, but I don't have
31:00Goals in that to-do list. There's only one goal. I have right now and that's good to get the cyber truck and that's it
31:06right
31:07other than that, there are no goals and
31:10And not get, you know knocked over by a bus obviously, but there are no goals and I think
31:17Because before I did put goals down I did have these things
31:21I did put pictures of houses and stuff, right? But then I was like I didn't get it and I'm now annoyed
31:28You know
31:30Not now, but you know then so I would
31:35I'm not telling you what to do, but I would that that was my experience. So I would be careful of that
31:42Because you are a minimalist
31:44I'm not a minimalist. I'm a tech minimalist. Some people call me tech communist, but I'm
31:51I'm a
31:53I'm a
31:56Simplifier I guess
31:57Simple and simple I used to say the word simpleton, but that means something like something bad in England
32:03So I would say that but yeah, I don't think I'm a minimalist. I like to have
32:11Minimalism doesn't really mean have nothing
32:13Minimalism means I think more to do with be intentional with what you have, but that's not me
32:19Unfortunately hasn't been me for many many years. So for me is more to do with how can I make my life easier?
32:26Right. How can I make things simpler? How can I get rid of distractions and so on so
32:31But you're a minimalist so for you to have this list and
32:36then not and
32:38Something not happening on that list
32:41But I'm ready for you. I'm there for you
32:45It's not like I am
32:48Pressuring myself. No, that's anything it's because I mean
32:52I just want to kind of you know, if you're doing one thing for too long
32:58You're getting too comfortable and the progress is stopping
33:02so I want to kind of evolve maybe over time and I
33:08Mean the least it's not like I put it in front of my bed and like every time
33:14Helping me to remember
33:15What like what I want to do in the long term and right basically I can tell you what it is
33:22I want to do less
33:24work
33:25Like related to my web design my courses templates because it's all about web design right now, and that's fine
33:33I I love people helping people build websites and stuff like that
33:38But I also like minimalism a lot. I like tech
33:42I mean I had many tech related blogs like 10 years ago 15 years ago and
33:48I occasionally do YouTube videos about tech and
33:53it's just helping me kind of
33:56Stay away from web design because when you're always thinking about the same thing
34:00It's it's getting getting boring and not boring like I am. Okay, if it makes me money, I will do that
34:06anyway, I need to support my family and everything but
34:09still if there is no enthusiasm in the work I do I I
34:15Can feel that I'm doing less
34:18Not that a good job. Let's say that so I understand. Yeah, I mean with me. I've always been in tech
34:23I've been in tech for 30 or G. I mean, I've always been in tech. I
34:27Remember when I was about seven or eight my father giving me pocket money, which was nothing
34:33And instead of going to buy sweets
34:35I would go to the hardware store and buy cables and lights and stuff because I've always enjoyed that kind of stuff
34:41So I'm lucky as hell to doing what I do because I don't see it as work
34:47So I've just changed my website
34:50Header
34:51Because people like what do you do? So it's like, okay. Well, how do I explain it?
34:55What do I usually say to people? So so I changed my
35:00header to I waste time on tech so you don't have to it's basically what I do and
35:08So it kind of enables me to do what I want to do and
35:11People pay me money for it because they can't do that. They don't have the time for that. So I'm
35:16Incredibly lucky. No, not lucky
35:19I've worked hard for it, but I've been lucky in the sense that I've been able to do that, you know and
35:27Like you say trying to find that is very difficult, but I think if you're into minimalism and tech and stuff tech minimalism
35:36Which is what I do
35:39Well, I mean like it's it's maybe
35:42More I can I guess you provide I don't know exactly what you do, but you provide some consulting services, I believe
35:49and
35:50But what I've seen of your work, it's your videos about tech about minimalism tech minimalism
35:57But as I understand your main like source of income is actually helping clients directly and getting yes for it
36:05but I mean I
36:07Wonder I think you did you've done some courses as well before, right?
36:15Yeah, no, yes, I wanted to so I attempted to and I was like, you know what I half
36:23asked it to be honest because it's like this isn't my heart isn't in it because I think I
36:28With what I do with tech minimalism
36:30You have to work with someone if you give them a course to do it with you is different because there's an end goal
36:37Right, you want to build a website? So it's a lot easier for that kind of product for me
36:43No, I can't create something. You've watched the videos so it helped you
36:48So that's different because a lot of people still come back to me say I can't move these emails
36:54I can't I just can you do it for me?
36:57So I prefer to work one-on-one because I've always done that throughout my career
37:02So, yeah coaching consulting I guess, you know, and it works it works really well
37:12But yeah
37:14It's it's it's different. I
37:18Think it's different with what you do being able to create courses and what when I tried to create courses like
37:25This ain't right
37:28Well, yeah, I mean honestly I
37:32would prefer to
37:35Like gave give away all of the tutorials all of the videos
37:40I do for free to as many people as I want to be honest, but I
37:45Need to kind of separate the free content and paid courses
37:50There are two reasons first of all for me because if I I have decided to do this is my business
37:56so I need I need to make money, but also if people pay for something and
38:02Not like much but still if you pay something they are much
38:08The possibility of them finishing the course and watching the videos is much higher
38:11So yes, and I noticed that people do put much more effort when they pay for something
38:18And but some people watch for like to be honest like for this online education and courses
38:23I
38:24Tell my wife as well like all the time if you learn if you want to learn something
38:28You don't need to buy courses all the information is out there on YouTube or whatever some bloggers
38:35but it's about less structuring it may be better and
38:39for me courses is
38:42it's not big part of my business like a website design and templates is bigger, but
38:49yeah, I mean I enjoy kind of
38:53feeling that I'm helping people in some
38:56way, I think you're right about the pricing thing because I
39:01I always say freeze never good, right? Yeah
39:04Yeah, not quite true, but generally freeze not good in the sense as exactly as you said it people don't value it
39:12so
39:13It's like you go to a website and they say I've got this plan blah blah. Give me your email. Well you get the thing
39:21And the thing doesn't really mean anything
39:23So you don't put no emphasis emphasis into reading that or trying to learn from what it is and then you you unsubscribe
39:30So what's the point of it?
39:31So I try not to do those things because that's what happened to me
39:35I was I will these courses that I had I call them guides now. They're all free on my website
39:41They were give me your email and I'll send you them
39:45The five so over five days
39:48One there's no different to just let me watch them
39:51Right, or I'd started charging from a few people bought them
39:56but then they'll they don't really
39:59you know, so I
40:03Can't be bothered with it
40:04Whereas I'd rather just give out the information and if you need to help to do it
40:09Then I will help you do it and you I charge you for it
40:13The whole idea of the circle was to get people
40:17Interested
40:18In the content to where you can comment and stuff
40:22But again, it's just going to another social network and people are fed up with that. So that's why I'm kind of still
40:28Yeah, I mean I'm very curious where you will end up is your setup and community and newsletters and like the
40:37like products free products like paid products because I mean like
40:43It's not like exactly what I want to do but in the long term
40:47I mean I want to talk about I have so like I said, I have so many like a video
40:52I even have all the scripts and everything my minimalist iPhone setup actually recorded a couple of times already, but I wasn't happy
41:00Right, but I just don't need I don't have time to like really produce good quality videos
41:06but
41:07Okay, so let me let me put it this way because you're a perfectionist
41:10I can tell because you're exactly the same as me. I can tell one perfectionist or another I can tell
41:17but
41:18Why don't you like those videos? I mean you like my videos, right be perfect. Yeah
41:25It's a different part a different type of video because right this is a problem
41:30I think this is the problem you should sell for your business as well
41:33Is that like I said your videos are for me when I watch them
41:39Because I understand your values and kind of like-minded as you are and
41:45For me, it was kind of entertainment because right most of the I mean basically everything you say in your videos
41:51I already know and it is similar in my
41:54Workflow and I would just I was just like put it on the my iPad and doing some other work and hearing
42:01Oh, really? He does the same with me. Oh, it's cool. Yeah, but
42:05Would I pay for something like that?
42:07No, so I want to do something similar, but I couldn't charge for
42:13Kind of entertainment, which is not funny
42:16But just sharing I guess kind of YouTube or podcast
42:21Maybe would make YouTube channel or podcast would make sense for that
42:25But then I would rely on advertisement to make money
42:28And I mean, it's not exactly my favorite unless I make like really reach a lot a lot of people
42:35Then YouTube or podcasts really make sense. Yeah, but
42:40Thing was going to advertising. I know I've never ever wanted to be
42:45Get money from advertising
42:49Affiliate I still feel a bit weird having affiliate links on my website
42:54because
42:55The way I see it is I only talk about products apps that I use and or I have used or I think are good
43:02For somebody else doesn't mean just because I don't use it doesn't mean it's not good
43:06And if you use my link, maybe I'll get some, you know, a couple of bucks or whatever
43:10But I don't put the affiliate link in there or I don't make a video because I want people to click that link, right?
43:17So advertising has been the scourge of the Internet to be honest. I don't mind advertising
43:24We all need to advertise to get get people in but the way it's done
43:28People making content because of the advertising I think that's wrong and that's why I didn't want to be on YouTube
43:34I don't I took it off. I don't want anything to do with YouTube
43:38I don't want anything to do with Google, but I used YouTube to watch stuff
43:42But I I've ad blockers and stuff and I don't want to put my stuff on now
43:46I don't want to be part of that machine, right?
43:48So then I my thought was okay. How can I make money? I have to pay rent. I
43:55Do well with my consulting and stuff's not a problem
43:58But then I see everyone doing courses and stuff and I'm like, well, I still of course, let's do a paid newsletter
44:03Let's do so I've tried these things
44:07But going back to simplicity
44:10They're just too complicated
44:12For not just for me, but for the client, but mainly for me
44:15I like I've always said when you're on the plane and the planes about to crash
44:20They always say put your mask on first you have to look after yourself first before you can help others and that's the way I
44:26See it if the product if what I'm doing isn't as simple then it's not as simple for the client
44:33So I got to make it simple before
44:35So again going back to own your audience
44:37Everything's back on my website because you just go to one website. Everything's there podcast blah blah everything and it's all free
44:44But then why shouldn't I make money from that and I'm in a master's group a select master's group with another
44:52Community. Mm-hmm. And
44:54This discussion came up about should we ask for donations?
45:00Now very good thing because I want to put buy me coffee comm and I have those I
45:07use one for my gaming and
45:10I set one up for myself and I was like, well it devalues your consulting and coaching and it's kind of silly
45:18But the general consensus was there's no reason why you can't put it at the bottom of your email
45:25You got a free email list, right? You've got thousands of people on it
45:29Why not put it on there because I'm sure just like me you've been
45:33People there's been a handful of people in a period of like three years or so
45:39Saying you know, I really like this. How can I pay you?
45:42Literally, yeah, which is really nice, you know, not many people do that
45:46But now can you imagine the people that want to do that, but don't tell you
45:51So why not just have a donation thing?
45:54So it will devalue it if you put it on your website, I think but I don't think it will devalue it
46:00If you put it on your email newsletter if you enjoyed this
46:05Buy me a pizza coffee or whatever. So that's something I'm working on. That's what something I'm thinking about
46:11so the whole your type of
46:15audience like
46:16the
46:18Guest topic you're talking about. I think that's
46:21That's my word
46:22because you give away a lot of useful advices and
46:27Hmm because you don't have any courses because for me courses are actually playing
46:34kind of
46:35the role of donation because there are people I
46:39Help for free a lot of people like all the time the 30 like 50 whatever emails I answer each day
46:46like
46:4880% of them are
46:49Free help to people who've never paid me anything, right?
46:53And I just help them because I'm kind of part of the community. I just like to help people but
46:59Someday maybe like some of these people will come back and some of them buy courses
47:06My course or something even if they don't really need it because they want to thank me
47:11And I guess there is a difference between the course, which is 50 to 100 bucks for me
47:16I don't go like super expensive but not super cheap as well and a coffee, which is like $10 wherever $5
47:23but
47:25For me it is maybe a little bit different but for you because you don't have paid courses
47:31I think donation me. I don't know on the website or email newsletter
47:36for me, it really doesn't really make a lot of difference, but
47:40yeah, I mean well the reason why I say not on the website is because the website is
47:45Geared towards the consulting and the it you know, that's why I'm that's why I was thinking about it
47:52But
47:55Right, that's what I was thinking but the
47:59The reason why I created the circle was actually one of these this was the reason the reason was
48:06With Mac junkie. I had 6,000 clients. I still have six that and
48:12The problem is I get emails. Okay, can you help me with this? How do you do this? What's the key shortcut for this?
48:19Just go and watch a video, you know, you can find out if you just instead of emailing me
48:23Just type that into Google you'll find out but you'll get the answer, but you can't say no
48:27You just do it because I enjoy doing it. I have all the time in the world's another problem
48:32The way I see it is that you're taking time away from the people who are paying me and I don't think it's fair on them
48:41That's why I want money. So then I thought well, how can I do the money thing? Right? How can I charge for this?
48:48Five bucks ten bucks twenty bucks. I mean, I don't know
48:52So I went super high with the circle thing and you know, but I'm not going to do it now
49:00And I'm not gonna do it
49:02It's not because of the money
49:02but it was more to do with the fact of I want a place for people to go where they can ask me questions and
49:09Then if you want because this I think is good for you
49:13You see so if if you ask me a question, I'll post it up so other people can see it
49:20so instead of making a video and having it polished and stuff just do a screen record very quickly and you know,
49:26That's the answer and that was the reason
49:30It was like it was mainly to do with it's not fair on people paying me. I'm consulting and coaching
49:37With you know, these people they're paying me good money
49:41And if I start emailing, you know 5 10 15 people a day
49:47then it's not give my mental capacities going because I've got to think about what I'm doing with these guys and
49:53That was the reason that's why I have priorities like I mean you said you asked about my day. So I know
50:02What I should do every day. I wake up and go to my computer. I know exactly
50:08The clients or people or just whoever I need to help first
50:13Yes, like before I was very quick answering every question like one hour and I would answer basically
50:20These days because I prioritize like people who pay me or people even though don't pay me, but who I really
50:28important to me I
50:32Answer them right away, but for free help which I do as fast as I can
50:37But because I really I'm really becoming busier and busier every day
50:42Sometimes it's like three days now five days and if you want faster
50:47Like help response time. Yeah, there there are there are obviously I have actually VIP support package somewhere
50:54But it's for corporate clients. Hmm
50:57like for them, it's not an option waiting three days and
51:02I just add them as a VIP in my email client or in the hay
51:06In the filter and I know right away then they email me and I answer like in a few hours
51:12But yeah, I'm trying to prioritize and if I don't get a lot of emails and I have a lot of time
51:19Rarely happens, but if it is the case, I would answer even to people who just ask for help
51:25If I can answer in five minutes on my phone without going to my computer
51:30Why not I would do that and if I can help somebody especially when I see people like oh
51:35I'm sitting here for three hours trying to figure out how to do that
51:38And for me, it's just ten seconds to tell them there is the button click on it. It will work
51:43So it makes my I mean
51:47It's a good ethic to have to be able to have if you can do it in a couple of minutes and it's not taking
51:52time away from you
51:54Then there's no reason why you're not doing it because I see a lot of other entrepreneurs and stuff saying who want money all money
52:01It's not about money. It's about time
52:03there are sometimes people who really
52:07Overuse, how do I say that? I mean your time
52:11Yeah, they overstep their my kindness. I think there's a saying like that
52:16So if I help once and they keep asking and I help another time and they keep asking even more and it really takes hours
52:23of my work of my time and
52:26people expect you to continue to provide free help and sometimes it's getting
52:31Annoying a little bit for me, but
52:35Most of the people are very nice when it comes to understanding that we all busy
52:40Yeah, but but with just with life, there's always the minority that ruins it. Yeah, and this is the this is the thing so
52:48Again having so many clients as you as you have also
52:52You will always get one or two or handful of people
52:56Trying to push their luck and they're not doing it maliciously
52:59It's just that they don't understand or realize it right so you have to have some sort of a mechanism to say, you know
53:07by the way, here's a link to my I don't know VIP thing or you know support thing because
53:15Etc, etc
53:16If the you know, the thing is if they take it wrongly and I've had this in the past as well
53:21if they take it wrongly like well
53:24You don't really need them as a client if they're gonna be like you would never work with them
53:28So why bother I had one person Wow, this was really horrible
53:33I was doing um, and he was a good client of mine, right and
53:37So I was doing a live
53:40in my office down here
53:43Workshops about tech minimalism basically and
53:47And
53:49People would book them but not always turn up and I only had like six people right
53:55So if only two people turned up like what's the point of having a you know, so annoying and
54:02Then I thought someone gave me the idea. Why don't you say to them?
54:07It's free. But if you don't turn up you're going to get an invoice
54:10Okay, and one person's message I can't believe you believe do this and I can't do this I'm like dude just don't come
54:19If you're gonna be an asshole in not showing up, why am I the asshole for asking you for 50 bucks?
54:27You know what?
54:29He just went crazy. So there are always those people
54:32There are always those people so I don't think I think you have to worry about the good people or not
54:38Not what you what the worst-case scenario is
54:42Because the worst-case scenario will stop you doing the things that you want to do
54:46Yeah, is there a good case because the scenario is well if the worst-case scenario comes in I didn't want to work with them
54:53Anyway, yeah, I mean like the good people are the reason why I continue I continue to do what I do because
55:01over the years there were such annoying people sometimes which like
55:06Really like
55:08they don't respect me my time and they take everything for granted and they are like rude and I
55:16Mean sometimes people just like that they without any bad like reason or something
55:22They just like that. They that's just the way they were. It's the way they raised. I don't know and
55:29Like if you point to them like, okay
55:32Like you email me 20 times and you didn't even say hello or thank you once
55:38But when I point that to this person
55:41He will explode then contact like everybody like post everywhere negative comments like oh, he's such a bad person
55:49Love like are you crazy?
55:51Yeah, really? I mean the moments like this I think like, okay
55:55I mean, I really don't want to do that as much I mean helping for free because
56:02Ten people will say thank you and helping and we would offer their help maybe doing something
56:08But there is one person who will really like get to me sometimes
56:13It's not often but once per year I have like meltdown when I'm just amazed what kind of people are there sometimes
56:21Yeah, I had that when I was running back junkie doing the max stuff. I had a lot of that. I had a lot of that
56:28However, you know what changed and we talked we touched on this putting my prices up when I put my prices up
56:34And I used to put my prices up every year two years every year and a half
56:39But you saw some people just say it's too much. I don't want to well fine that you know, honestly, it's fine
56:47But some people like getting really angry. It's like wait this thousand other people that do what I do
56:52Why are you angry with me if you like what I do
56:56Then this little raise shouldn't make any difference, right? But no, I hate it
57:02and they would go down to I mean I have I
57:06Thousands of reviews so they would go to Google
57:09With the and put a review like oh, he charged me this and he charged me that but this other shop would have charged me
57:15this like
57:16Why did you come to me?
57:18Yeah, I tell you everything in front, you know, there's always those people but I think you got to get keep away from the negatives
57:25Yeah
57:26I stick people make it. Okay, make it worth it because if you focus on bed, of course, it's depressing
57:33but then I can just look at the good people and
57:37Reason why I'm doing that. I mean when I help somebody when I give a present to somebody to feel it makes me happy
57:44that's the kind of the
57:47Logic behind this helping others because I can see how wow. Wow. Thank you. It was so great. Thank you very much
57:53Oh, it makes me happy. Okay. Yeah, maybe it doesn't make me a lot of money, but at the end of the day like
57:58money will follow
58:00exactly, I
58:02Think we'll leave it there. I think well, let's leave it on a high note because it's it's just basically doing what you enjoy
58:09and making sure that you're happy with it and
58:13Because otherwise there's no point doing it
58:16That's basically it anyway awesome talking to you
58:19It's first time I've spoken with you and it's uh, it feels like we have the same parents or something because I think we're pretty much
58:24alike
58:27Thanks again, and I'm sure we'll have another conversation soon sure. Yeah, it was nice talking to you. Awesome. See you later, man
58:33Ciao, but right