The Knitting Club Season II · The Creative Dream
Standing on the roof, peering into the pink, set sky, with rosy grins across our faces and a cold Modelo in our hand, we talked about our future success as if it was a given, a matter of belief.
It was 2012, and G and I were in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Swayed by the promise of The 4-Hour Workweek, we had quit our jobs earlier that year to chase freedom and passive incomes.
Our projects never took off, though. Both G and I underestimated what it would take to set up businesses in domains neither of us had expertise nor a lot of interest.
We were also falling in love and living our best lives. And anything but frugal. We’ll never even know if our projects had a chance of succeeding because we neither put in the hours nor persistence.
Nonetheless, I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. It gave me a lot of calm. Never since have I considered quitting a job to pursue a side project. On the contrary, I’ve kept my jobs to do just that.
After ending the first season of The Knitting Club by mapping our creative dreams, I wanted to use the second season to put some of those wishes into action. Each chapter of this new season lasted three weeks, during which we tackled one dream at a time.
❤️ Special shoutout to Devon’s boyfriend, Julius, who crashed every session this season.
Chapter I: Neo’s Tree – Mirha
As you consider building your own minimum viable product, let this simple rule suffice: remove any feature, process, or effort that does not contribute directly to the learning you seek. –Eric Ries, The Lean Startup
We kicked off the season working on Neo’s Tree, a recipe app that I started building this summer. Devon created a launch campaign, Silvia added six recipes, and I focused on doing user interviews and implementing feedback.
🔧 Features implemented
- Add a featured section on the landing page
- Expand the user profile with a user image and bio
- Add error pages
- Add flash messages
- Add metadata
- Add icons
- Pick a name and set up the domain
- Add logo (gifted to me by Laura)
🎓 Lessons learned
- When assigning a task, providing a certain level of detail and structure is helpful and doesn’t need to come across as control.
- Having interim check-ins helps to catch and iron out misunderstandings about the task at hand.
- Committing to weekly goals helps keep perfectionism at bay.
Chapter II: Digital Product – Silvia
Self-motivation is and always will be the most important form of motivation. Driving with your eyes on the rearview mirror is exhausting. It’s easier than ever to measure your performance against others, but if it’s not helping you with your mission, stop. –Seth Godin, Run Your Own Race
Silvia plans to diversify her work as a photographer with a digital product. For her chapter, which was an exploratory one, we researched the products and courses other photographers offer, looked into the best course and digital product platforms, and thought of articles and social media posts Silvia could write to introduce her new venture.
🎓 Lessons learned
- Researching your competitors and inspirations can become overwhelming since we tend to compare people’s current successes with our beginnings.
- If you aren’t excited about your plans, others won’t be either.
Chapter III: Portfolio – Devon
A person with a flexible schedule and average resources will be happier than a rich person who has everything except a flexible schedule. –Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big
Devon became a freelance content writer recently. To seal her new career step, she wanted a portfolio, which was the focus of her chapter.
For the first week, we looked into how Devon could best promote her work, researched portfolio platforms, and found examples of copywriting portfolios and social media profiles.
The second week was about getting a feel for what Devon’s portfolio was going to look like. Devon chose Squarespace as her portfolio platform and started writing the copy for her site. Silvia created a mood board for Devon, and I showed her how to customize the design of her website.
In week three, everything came together, and Devon’s portfolio went live. Silvia and I offered our feedback and reached out to our network to promote Devon’s work.
🥸 Curious observation
Procrastination has sneaky ways of showing up when you finally commit to a project, like in the form of other creative dreams that you neglected for years and now suddenly feel compelled to follow (this happened to Devon with Café Birk).
Chapter IV
For chapter four, each of us focused on her own project. We set personal goals and met up once a week to discuss what went well and what didn’t.
Lady Luck favors the one who tries. –Barbara Oakley, A Mind for Numbers
Devon set up her food blog Café Birk and added the first recipes. Silvia started writing SEO-optimized blog posts for her site. I continued working on Neo’s Tree, adding a feature that allows users to convert their online recipes into PDFs.
🧶 Cheeky fact Laura also joined us for chapter IV and started working on her and her friends’ yoga and wellness platform. In the end, we invited her to join us as a member of The Knitting Club, and she accepted.