🗞 What's New: Harnessing the power of liminal spaces

Things are pretty turbulent in the world right now, but there's a way to harness that:

• Human beings are currently in a transition that anthropologists call a "liminal space." Check out this guide on harnessing the power of the liminal space to build resilience, protect your mental health, and strengthen your business.
• There are many approaches to lead generation. One unorthodox approach is making potential clients pitch themselves to you, instead of the other way around! Here's how.
• Founder Tom just hit $100 in monthly revenue with his AI app, Aiva, an iOS native ChatGPT competitor. Below, he shares how he grew his Twitter audience quickly, and how he differentiates his tool from the major player in the space.

Want to share something with nearly 120,000 indie hackers? Submit a section for us to include in a future newsletter. —Channing

💪 Harnessing the Power of Liminal Spaces

by Anne-Laure Le Cunff

Take a look at these headlines:

• “Why the world feels so unstable right now.” (BBC)
• “Global economic uncertainty remains elevated.” (IMF)
• “Learning to do business in an uncertain world.” (FT)

Things feel pretty turbulent right now!

We’re in a phase of rapid transition where our understanding of life and work are challenged, and where we need to constantly reinvent ourselves. This is what anthropologists call a "liminal space."

These can be uncomfortable times of doubt and anxiety, and that's especially true for indie hackers. It’s hard enough to build a business as it is! So, here are some practical tips to find creative ideas and build a resilient business in times of change and uncertainty.

These tips are based both on my experience as a founder, and on what I learned about the brain as a researcher. They have been immensely useful as I’ve built Ness Labs, where many of our projects were born out of times of chaos.

Increase your resilience to uncertainty

Uncertainty is a source of stress both for the founder and for the business, so there are two aspects to this: Psychological and practical. You need to consider both in order to better manage that stress, and even turn it into “eustress,” the good kind of stress that makes challenges motivating.

Psychological resilience

Regarding the first aspect, psychologists study something called “tolerance to uncertainty,” which is our ability to cope with the unknown. This is incredibly important in general, but particularly so in liminal spaces, where information is limited and the environment keeps on changing.

The best thing you can do to increase your psychological resilience to uncertainty is to build your mental gym. It will be a bumpy ride, and it can be hard to switch off when you’re a solo founder. Lots of founders turn to mind-numbing TV or alcohol to disconnect from work, but your mind is your most precious asset; protect your mental health!

Do this instead: Choose a couple of healthy coping activities for when you feel stressed. For me, it’s journaling and dancing. For other people, it’s exercising, meditating, painting, or playing an instrument. Experiment with a few coping activities until you find the ones that work for you.

Practical resilience

When it comes to the resilience of your business itself, there are several things to help you keep thriving during chaos:

• Become an all-rounder: If you’re a solo founder, that means becoming good at most essential functions.
• Stay on top of big technological shifts: Imagine being the founder who ignored the explosion in mobile apps, or the one who refused to switch to cloud-based solutions. Today, imagine being the founder ignoring AI as if it would have zero impact on their business. Don’t be that founder! You don’t have to jump on every trend, but be aware of how the world is changing so you’re not unknowingly putting your business at risk.
• Ship often: Liminal spaces are times of rapid change. Make sure to test your ideas by shipping them and collecting feedback. This could apply to features for an existing product, or new products entirely.

A big benefit of doing these three things is that, even if your business fails, you’ll be in a much better position to limit the downside for yourself.

Leverage times of change to generate creative ideas

It can be scary when you’ve built your business based on specific assumptions that suddenly don’t hold true anymore. But such times of change are also great arenas for founders to come up with new ideas.

Building a startup is about finding a problem that enough people experience strongly enough that they would pay for a solution. Turns out, liminal spaces are teeming with both new problems, and new ways to solve them.

Here are some examples of how you can practice liminal creativity:

• Explore new problems: Are there any old problems in your space that can finally be solved thanks to new technology? Or, are there new problems created by some recent changes in the way we work?
• Develop new skills: You’ve been building a product based on your existing skillset. What if you tried improving aspects that would require you to upskill yourself?
• Build for new niches: When the lines get blurrier, is there a way to position yourself to help a very specific kind of customer solve their unique problems?

Uncertainty can be structural (a fast-changing environment) or personal (your skills and ability to navigate a new space). As you can see, success is all about turning that uncertainty into creative opportunity.

Think like a scientist to learn from success and failure

Finally, it’s incredibly important to, not only accept that things can go wrong, but to learn from those moments of failure. Just like a scientist who observes unexpected results when performing an experiment, treat any outcome as a useful source of data.

One of my favorite tools to make this a habit is Plus Minus Next. It’s super simple. In the first column, write down everything that went well. In the second column, write down everything that didn’t go as planned. And, in the last column, write down everything that you want to focus on next.

Ideally, you want to block out 15 minutes every week to go through it. You can also use it with your team.

Summing up

Liminal spaces are much easier to navigate when you don’t go it alone. Find other founders who are on a similar journey. Look for people who have a high tolerance to uncertainty, who are looking for creative ideas to leverage times of change, and who are willing to learn from both success and failure.

Indie Hackers is actually a great place for this! When I made my first dollar online four years ago, I announced it on Indie Hackers. I’ve connected with so many amazing founders by hanging out here. So, I hope this post was helpful in some way and provided some food for thought!

Will you use these tips to increase your resilience as a founder? Let's chat!

Discuss this story.

📰 In the News

from the Growth Trends newsletter by Darko

💻 Reddit is updating its gender identity and ads policies.

🔎 "High-quality content" is the most useless phrase in marketing. Here's how to do better.

☁ Amazon has introduced Bedrock, a cloud service for AI-generated text and images.

🏛 Nine more states have joined the US federal antitrust lawsuit against Google.

🩺 The rise of docinfluencers: Why DTC brands are increasingly tapping medical professionals.

Check out Growth Trends for more curated news items focused on user acquisition and new product ideas.

💼 Getting New Clients to Pitch Themselves to You

by Julia Janks

The Signal: The Trends community is always looking for novel approaches to lead generation.

One of the more unorthodox strategies that we've seen discussed in the Facebook group recently is an application-only agency, where potential clients have to pitch to you about why you should take them on.

Sounds crazy, but agencies like this exist, and they work! Read on for hot takes from the community on how to put this into action.

Consider your positioning (scarcity vs. fit)

Many companies who use this model use real or manufactured scarcity to drive applications.

For example, experiment with mechanisms such as time windows and limited application periods, or only inviting qualifying prospects to have an introductory call.

*Launchpeer uses limited application windows. ATTN also does this.

While this approach clearly works for some (ATTN was booked out months in advance), it can rub people the wrong way.

As Sara Abrons put it:

Be transparent and specific.

The key is to be transparent about your approach so that everyone knows where they stand. Be clear about the kinds of clients that are and are not a good fit for your agency.

In the words of Sarah Weikart:

Don't assume that people will know whether they are a good fit. Let prospects know your preferred:

• Revenue.
• Team size.
• Tech stack.
• Industry.
• Stage (i.e., early-stage startups, mature companies).

Specificity helps the prospect answer the question, "Is this for me?" and ensures that you only get high-quality leads.

Create an application form

Once a prospect has determined that they're potentially a good fit, direct them to a questionnaire.

As with many things, short and simple is usually best. Or, you could take a page out of Brains On Fire's book, and go super in depth.

Go one step further and use a tool like ScoreApp to create a smart form that suggests one of your packages (i.e., your bronze, silver, or gold packages) based on a prospect's responses.

Set up an introductory call with qualified leads, and provide free resources to those who don't quite make the cut. These can be e-books, newsletters, webinars, or podcasts.

Prove your value

It goes without saying that you'll need to prove to clients that you're worth applying to.

You could provide a simple ROI calculator that visually shows prospective clients what you think their business could look like after working with you.

Client testimonials will also help people understand if they're in the right place. Work and Co., which also works on an application-only basis, has extremely detailed case studies on its site.

*We couldn't even fit the case study into one GIF. You should check it out.

Would you consider this path to lead generation? Let's chat below!

Subscribe to the Hustle Newsletter for more.

🔥 Landing Page Hot Tips

by Rob Hope

Strengthen your landing page with these design, development, and conversion tips:

Spice up your call-to-action (CTA) buttons.

Remember: You’re excited to share your product or service!

🚫 Click here.

🚫 Sign up.

Too bland. Use actionable phrases.

✅ Request a call from our agents.

✅ Discover the wonders of science.

✅ Unlock creativity for only $19.

Subscribe to Rob's One Page Love newsletter for his favorite UI, design, and development finds.

🤖 Tom Hit $100 MRR With His AI App

by Tom

Hi, indie hackers! I'm Tom, and I've been toying around with AI for a while. I published an app that aimed to be what ChatGPT is, but with iOS native, more character, and a built-in prompt list.

My app, Aiva, just reached $100 MRR! Last month, it was at $25 MRR, so it is a 400% increase. Read on for more!

The AI ideas

I've constantly updated my app, and I believe that it has the smoothest user experience of them all. Just like ChatGPT (but without the downtimes and the high cost), it can display code, tables, lists, etc. We also provide 30 free messages per month, so people can try what AI is capable of without having to pay a cent.

I also developed a Twitter bot that replies to tweets of people that she follows, and replies when you mention her. She's gathered over 350 followers and more than 25K profile visits so far, which is impressive! It's also an interesting way to do automated content marketing.

The audience

I'm still studying who actually subscribes to see what added value I can bring to them, and determine how to bring in more subscribers like them. I'd like to develop on top of that niche when I discover it.

Narrowing down on the audience is the big challenge with this project so far. I have such a broad audience that it's hard to actually tailor the app. I'm going to try surveying my subscribers. So far, I've been trying various small ad campaigns just for discoverability, but it's been all over the place. I'll get there eventually!

Building in public

My advice on this is to just be consistent. I schedule tweets for when I'm not awake, and I use a tool to retweet my own tweets every few hours. That ensures that people from all timezones see them.

I interact with as many people as I can, including people outside my circle. I also search #buildinpublic to find newcomers, then try to provide feedback and support to them. This helps me develop connections and increase my following. Just treat building in public as an important part of your day.

I used to see programming as the main thing in my day, and treat marketing and networking as a side, but then I realized that marketing is just as important (or even more!) as development time.

What's next

I wanted to make the base of the app as good as it can be, and I believe that the foundation is now very solid. The next major update will contain various conversation supports, with search, folders, and more.

Then, I might introduce more tools for content writers, and allow users to save their own prompts so they can easily reuse them. That's in the plans!

Discuss this story.

🐦 The Tweetmaster's Pick

by Tweetmaster Flex

I post the tweets indie hackers share the most. Here's today's pick:

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Special thanks to Jay Avery for editing this issue, to Gabriella Federico for the illustrations, and to Anne-Laure Le Cunff, Darko, Julia Janks, Rob Hope, and Tom for contributing posts. —Channing