Hey 👋
This newsletter is for independent creators, expression-minded solopreneurs, and makers who want to build meaningful work without losing heart in the process.
This week was quiet. I was alone in a city of 10 million people during Lunar New Year. I ended a collaboration that wasn't working. And I started using AI tools in a way that made me realize I might not need a designer anymore. A quiet week, but a useful one.
🧠 Reflection of the week
Being in a low is okay. Actually, it's needed.
I'm on the other side of the world, alone in a city of 10 million people. The Lunar New Year meant everything was closed, and yeah, the loneliness hit a little.
But here's what I noticed: even being this far away, I have people. A few real friends. People who randomly send me voice messages. People who pick up when I call. And that makes even the hard weeks feel okay.
The low itself? I think it's necessary. At least from a business perspective, it gave me space to think clearly about things I'd been avoiding.
💡 Inspiration of the week
Hormozi's value equation, and how I started using it.
From $100M Offers - link to download ePUB if you have e-reader.
Value = (Dream Outcome x Perceived Likelihood) / (Time Delay x Effort & Sacrifice)
Everyone focuses on the top, make the promise bigger, make it more believable. But Hormozi says the real work is at the bottom.
Reduce how long it takes.
Reduce how much effort the client has to put in.
This week I was building my 10-day sprint offer - where I set up a full marketing system for coaches and consultants in 10 days. Landing page, email marketing, payments, offer, strategy.
When I was reading about time delay and effort, I realized, that the moment someone pays, they need to feel it was the right decision.
So I started building an onboarding dashboard.
The client logs in, gets daily emails, and sees exactly what we're doing each day.
Step by step. Feeling control over the process.
That's the bottom of the equation in practice.
🔧 Tool of the week
Claude Code / Gemini CLI via terminal
This week I started using Claude Code through the terminal for the first time. You can also do this with Gemini CLI.
Instead of the browser (or desktop app), you run it directly from your computer's terminal and give it access to your local folders.
What that means practically: I had months of chaotic notes and knowledge everywhere in Notion.
In about 10-15 minutes it organized everything into a clean structure. Lov it!
I also used it to build the onboarding dashboard I mentioned above. Claude Code (Sonnet 4.6), and Codex GPT-5.3 worked really well for that!
Worth trying if you haven't.
📈 Business development
I had a contractor. Now I don't. And I'm fine with it.
This week I ended a collaboration with a contractor I was working together in client project. It didn't work out, and that's okay.
What I realized is that the tools available right now cover a lot of what I was outsourcing. Aura.build for generating designs. GPT-5.3-Codex for coding. Claude for reasoning and strategy. And Claude just got an MCP connection to Webflow, so I can manage and edit Webflow sites directly from Claude without switching between tools. Crazy.
Honestly, I'm not sure I'll need a dedicated designer in the future.
The gap between "I need someone for this" and "I can do this myself with the right tools" keeps closing. Fast.
🎧 DJ Journey 🌏
No new set this week, first week since arriving in Vietnam that I didn't touch the decks.
But I discovered sooo good DJ set on SoundCloud, check this one:
Link to this set
💬 Any thoughts or reflections? Text me back!
Thanks for being here.
Have a good week and see yaa next Sunday ✌️
Bart
