Neglecting the opportunity right under my nose

Smell the roses. Be grateful for what’s in front of you. Learn to appreciate what’s right under your nose.

I think there’s more to these tired tropes about practising gratitude than simply just expressing thanks to life.

It’s also about helping you sense the opportunity that’s right before you.

It’s about being present enough to know it’s the break you’ve been waiting for.

Too past-oriented on your past failures or victories, and you’ll miss it.
Too future-oriented on your goals and targets, and you’ll miss it.
Only by being present-oriented would you see it.

OK all that is just a very long-winded, philosophical way of saying: I see you now, Opportunity.

There’s been a huge opportunity right under my nose for a while now, but because it’s doing okay on its own, I’ve often neglected it for other shiny objects, other projects in the portfolio.

That opportunity is my Plugins For Carrd project.

It’s been the one project bringing in revenue all on its own without me putting in much effort into marketing and distributing it. I dare say, it’s probably 100x less compared to the time and energy I put into marketing Lifelog. Yet, it brings in almost the same amount monthly. Some months, even more.

Another signal that it has potential: I actually love working on it. Every time someone emails or messages me a bug report or a plugin integration problem, I jump right into it. Even if I’m working on something else. And I love it. Being able to so tangibly help someone else, plus use my coding skills, was definitely more compelling than I had yet to admit to myself (now I do).

People email me ideas all the time, and ask me if this plugin can do this or that. I observe Carrd folks asking recurring questions on the Facebook group, prompting me with even more ideas on how I can solve it with plugins. There’s certainly a hunger for solutions beyond what the native Carrd settings can provide. Already I’m starting to see other indie makers trying out making Carrd plugins. I had a recent conversation with @mikecardano on Twitter - we talked about demand for micro-SaaS for low-code tools. Writing scripts and formulas for low-code tools like Airtable, Make, Carrd, Google Sheets to help other nocode users. There’s definitely a market.

Yet here I am, working on other things while my Plugins project is quietly screaming at me to listen.

I hear you now.

I can’t keep neglecting a project that’s been quieting generating revenue and say in good faith that I haven’t found a project that has potential to take-off. IT’S RIGHT THERE for the taking. Take it.

So I think I’m going to shift focus a bit.

Plugins should really be my main project not side hustle.