AH! What If We Have No Idea What We're Doing?
July vibes
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The most frequent word spun through our Slack chats in recent weeks has been "ah!"
We've redesigned our browse.
Redesigned our listing pages.
Retooled the nav.
Rebranded our membership program.
Restructured our sign-up process.
Remade our advertising program.
Revamped our admin and editor portals.
Rewritten over 30 automated emails.
Oh, and we are in the middle of performing a full audit on over 3000 magazine listings.
Re-, re-, re-, re-, re-OK, how about new business?
We're building a new tools cabinet for writers complete with several new never-before-seen paid features. We're creating new badges, browse methods, and more.
Sometimes, we just scream.
I wonder if we're allowed to say that? Like, I sometimes come across "How It All Started" articles about businesses, and the founders always seem so cool and smart. There are photos and they're like, Yeah, I'm in a garage doin' smart cool computer stuff ‘cause I'm a genius.
And...OK, I can't help but wonder if, after those photos are taken, if they don't walk calmly into the bathroom, sit on the closed toilet, look down at their stupid hands, and scream, "OH MY GOD WHAT IF WE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT WE'RE DOING!?"
A little over a year ago, Karina and I packed our lives, hopes, dreams, and savings into a pair of dice and tossed them into the internet. Then, for some reason, a few friends of our saw what we did and thought, "Well that looks fun..."
Now, we're about to get a glimpse at how those dice landed.
Okay. So, what's it like working on something like this?
They say that starting a business is like jumping off a cliff and then building a plane on the way down. We jumped off a cliff with a book about planes.
It's a lot of questions. What if we can't pay our employees? What if people don't use it? What if people don't buy it? What if the audience isn't there? What if it explodes? Can things on the internet explode?
We'll find out.
In the meantime, Marcin's computer broke. Mikita went on vacation. Business Daddy got sick. Shelby spent six hours on an Instagram post about sad songs. I turned thirty-four. And Karina got a fan. She really needed a fan.
In work news. Karina has gone over to the dark side.
We have figured out Marcin's catchphrase:
Nikita mostly communicates in Figma links.
Someone unsubscribed from our newsletters because we curse so much.
...fair.
I recently found out that Nikita (our designer) has been taking any opportunity to scrub my and Karina’s ‘fucks’ from our web copy. When I asked him why he did this, he said, “You know how in the movie Meg, there is just one shark and it’s exciting and fun, but then in the sequel they had Jason Statham fighting, like, a dozen different giant monsters and so you just didn’t care anymore?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“Yeah,” he told me. “That’s why.”
Meanwhile, Karina and her husband went to a concert and are either the best at, or absolute worst at, picking out raincoats:
We haven’t decided.
And the winner for Chill Subs' Emoji of the year is...
And that's where this month's updates end.
I won't be responding to comments right away because yesterday was my birthday, tomorrow is my fuck work day, and one of my best friends is visiting.
He's a nurse. He has a house. And two dogs. And is married. And has a retirement plan. He saves lives every goddamn day.
Here's what it looked like the first time I tried to explain Chill Subs to him.
Oh well, at least his dogs are ugly.1
Kidding! All dogs are perfect.
Ugh 🤣
Happy birthday.