Newsletter #75 - Me-Time

I'm spending two days in London

To think about where to go next with my AI freelancing

To think about how to prepare for Malawi

To step back rather than being full-speed ahead all the time

It was a short visit, Tuesday morning in, Wednesday morning out.

Staying in Bromley, which took a 2-hour journey from the airports I flew out and in off

I chose London because my website flightsforflaneurs told me it's the cheapest getaway from Amsterdam. So much supply, and I guess not that much demand (compared to any flight to the south where demand seems to outstrip supply and hence way higher ticket prices)

I catch myself saying "Amsterdam is so nice in summer", or "the Netherlands is so nice in summer". The thing is, this is true for ALMOST EVERY NORTHERN EUROPEAN CITY.

But it's only summer 3 months per year!

The same is true for London: the weather is amazing, and hence the city is amazing. People are friendly, people are outside, the streets are clean, ...

I somehow expected more drab and deterioration. Since Brexit I've heard too many stories of London and the UK loosing its way, loosing its vision, not being competitive anymore

Don't believe what the news tells you!

And London is a different world from the rest of the UK, so maybe the rest of the country is a different story (Luton Airport was pretty drab and gray to be honest).

But London was as energetic, enthusiastic, international, friendly and considerate as ever. People are witty and smart, and with a sense of humor. They don't take themselves too serious there.

Prep

We're moving to Malawi in approximately 1.5 months.

But my brain isn't there yet (though these 2 London days it was a little more, trying to look forward).

It's hard to prepare for something you have very little idea how it will be like

Instead I'm mostly living in the moment: I'm focused on delivering freelance projects. I set myself a goal of 10,000 usd of projects in Q2. And that worked out actually.

The challenge is to stabilise that. Freelance is a means to an end, the goal is to have a stable and sufficient freelance income on the side, and work on personal projects as the core. And to be able to turn the tap a little more open or close it a little more down when necessary.

The impending move to Malawi might destabilise that temporarily. 2 of my 3 current clients are in Amsterdam, and I'll have to find a way to mitigate this.

The next level is to move from building to selling. I'm currently headsdown 100% dedicated to building for clients, which means I have less time to sell, which means my funnel isn't filling itself.

And selling is where the growth is. Outsourcing the building. Improving the selling.

And what is selling? Selling is networking, it's teaching, it's speaking to people, it's building together with people, not me building for people.

Time to be outward focused!

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