Context

Keywords

Summary

Highlights

The Story

• Traf made $280k in a month from selling icons. This was work he had done previously and was something he was super familiar with

• Played with it for 2 hours, branded it as iOS 14 icons and just shared it on Twitter with a screenshot

• Initially wasn’t planning to monetise them. But monetised after seeing traction and packaged everything together well

• Sold via gumroad. Made a website with notion and super (super.so). Super is a product that he has co-founded

• Tweet had gone totally viral. Added more pages to the website after this. An inspiration/showcase page, a how-to and tutorial page etc. Basically showcased how to use the icons and made nicer mock-ups

• Had around 4K followers when he tweeted this out. MKBHD had featured his icons in his videos which really supercharged his sales

Meta points

• Luck is where preparation meets opportunity. Tweeting, networking, being involved in communities etc massively increases your luck surface area

• Always optimise for freedom. That includes having a free schedule. Inspiration is an amazing productivity multiplier, and you must have a clutter free mind to be inspired

• Inspiration is perishable. Taking advantage of inspiration is incredibly important. Act on it as it comes. This is why having a free calendar and leisure is so so important

• In your inspired, flow state, you’re putting out work that’s insanely good at an insanely fast pace. Optimise for that

• Utilising tools, specially no-code tools, can really supercharge your productivity. It’s an under leveraged skills

• Being a good creator is often just about being a good curator of what’s possible, slapping on a name and a brand, and then just shipping it out in the world

• Read to find new ideas, write or teach to better understand them, and implement to actually learn from them. Very few people spend most of their time writing and thinking. If you can spend most of your day writing and thinking, you’re going to have much higher quality thoughts than people who have no time to think

• Leave space in your calendar to be inspired and have time to think and let your mind wander

• You don’t have to always create evergreen things. You can also ride trends that are really high in demand but temporary. If you can do this quickly, there will be very little competition (because no one has the time to prepare) and a lot of demand

Pricing and capturing opportunity

• Price is not ancillary to your product. It’s a part of your product. If you price too low, it can make your product feel cheap and crappy. Price appropriately

• To capitalise on opportunities: 1) share a lot and build an audience, 2) read a lot so you’re up to date with whatever is hot right now and have your ear to the ground

• You want to read and absorb the content around the subject you’re passionate about. Also, try more new things that people in your field find useful