Dear friends,
I’ve been working with my coach (Justin Mulvaney in the house!) to get Overlay ready for launch. Today, I’ll share a paraphrased excerpt from this week’s session with him. We ended up in a pretty interesting place.
As some context — for my day job, I help founders figure out what to build (and what not to build), when to launch, and how to coordinate the process from idea to product.
So doing the same for my own thing should be super straightforward, right? Nope!
The Next Milestone
Justin: “What’s your next milestone?”
Me: “Shoot … man, I dunno.”
Justin: “Anything brewing?”
Me: “Well, there’s the thought of applying to YC or OnDeck or putting together a pitch deck and raising some money. But that doesn’t feel right, a bit of a copout.”
Justin: “Copout from what?”
Me: “Actually launching something.”
Justin: “Is that the milestone, then? To have a public launch?”
Me: “Yeah I guess, but it’s tricky. Do I wait and patiently build something good? I’m not convinced it’s as straightforward as Build a Minimum Viable Product and launch it.”
Justin: “Why not?”
Me: “Oof … it’s not … compelling. I can’t really explain. It just doesn’t feel compelling. That’s what everyone says to do, but something doesn’t feel right about it.”
Justin: “I totally understand. Okay, so how about this.”
Me: “Mhm.”
Justin: “When do you absolutely need to launch by?”
Me: “Oh shit!”
Working Backwards
Justin: “What’s coming up for you?”
Me: “Okay, April 1. I would be pretty annoyed if I had nothing launched by then.”
Justin: “How does it feel to say that out loud?”
Me: “There’s a mix of fear and excitement. Whereas before there was doubt and uncertainty.”
Justin: “Good! That means we’re pushing up against something you care about, and it’s a little scary … What do you need to do to hit that April 1 public launch? Is it doable?”
Me: “It is doable, but damn! For me to hit that launch, I need— well, I need designs, a prototype, a tech stack, a full feature set—”
Justin: “What feels scary and exciting?”
Me: “Okay, I see. So in order to hit that April 1 public launch, I think I gotta have a private launch to myself. Where I shift all my own learning projects over to using Overlay.”
Justin: “Private launch.”
Me: “Shit, this is feeling real.”
Justin: “Private launch by when?”
Me: “Probably in the next six weeks.”
Justin: “And that’s a pretty aggressive timeline, right? Private launch sometime in late February, public launch in April.”
Me: “Yeah. That’s doable and it’s scary and exciting.”
On the Edge of Fear and Excitement
Justin: “One more step — what needs to happen to hit your private launch milestone?”
Me: “I need to know what exactly it is I’m launching with. It needs to be something I can build in six weeks.”
Justin: “And what is that?”
Me: “Aghh, this is where I get a bit twisted up in my own head. It’s so weird because it’s my job to figure this out for clients. But when it’s for my own thing, I’m just as lost as they are.”
Justin: “This is totally normal! The closer you are to something, the more you care about it. The more it means to you. You’re thinking about it all the time. It’s hard to be a neutral observer of yourself. Even I have a coach.”
Me: “I’m just cycling through, like, what do I need for a private launch in six weeks? Mockups? Product vision memo? Landing page? No-code prototype?”
Justin: “If we take a step back and return to how we got here … what would bring you into that space of fear and excitement?”
Me: “Having to commit to a strong opinion about what would be a good product.”
Justin: “Tell me more.”
Me: “Something I’ve heard before, Minimum Lovable Product. I need to write a spec for what that is for Overlay. And cut out anything else that doesn’t contribute to that.”
Justin: “What’s scary about it?”
Me: “I don’t want to embarrass myself with something stupid that doesn’t make sense to anyone.”
Justin: “What’s exciting about it?”
Me: “I love this project and I want it alive in the world.”
Justin: “By when do you want that spec done by?”
Me: “It would be nuts if I had that done by Monday.”
Justin: “Is that doable?”
Me: “Yeah.”
Justin: “Is this timeline compelling?”
Me: “Hell yeah.”
Putting It into Practice
Justin: “What do you need to get better at to hit that April 1 milestone and your sub-milestones along the way?”
Me: “Making good-enough technology choices. I can’t ignore the tech stack entirely, but I also don’t want to overthink and over-engineer things.”
Justin: “Then these milestones will be a helpful constraint for you.”
Me: “Totally.”
Justin: “What else?”
Me: “You know me, I’m a perfectionist. So I wanna get better at building in public. I want to share my progress, get feedback, get other people excited and involved.”
Justin: “Are there any practices or behaviors you need to put in place?”
Me: “For one thing, I need to schedule specific time to work on Overlay and stay accountable to it. I want to put in the time every day, not a couple days a week.”
Justin: “So that should help with actually building the Minimum Lovable Product. How about for building in public?”
Me: “I want to commit to writing my newsletter on a weekly basis. It doesn’t have to be polished — I just want to share progress and what I’m working through. The responses from the first two emails have been very encouraging and motivating.”
Chaos into Clarity
“You can’t do something you don’t know, if you keep on doing what you do know.”
FM Alexander
What really surprised me about my session with Justin is how we went about prioritizing and creating focus. It was not a cold, dispassionate exercise.
We used my emotions as the key to unlock deeper truths.
We didn’t treat my emotions as something unsavory to ignore. We didn’t try to banish them. Within them, we discovered the root of the problem. What was once murky and chaotic became clear and uncomfortable.
“I want to create something compelling, but I’m scared of looking stupid or fucking it up.” That’s specific and it’s workable. That’s more authentic than trying to do something (or its opposite) because everyone else is doing it.
I would not have been able to have this kind of conversation one year ago. This is a testament to three things:
Seeking out a peak performance coach.
Committing to a regular zazen practice.
Taking regular bites out of humble pie (reply and I’ll give you the recipe)
That’s all for this week! Thanks for reading.
Ammar