I used to do nothing but play video games, all the way up until my mid 20s. I still play them now whenever I have downtime, although for slightly shorter stretches than "all day from 8 am to 11:39 pm." Just cracked open the LAST unopened box from our move and saw the old Super Famicom cartridges we bought in Japan and I'm daydreaming about setting up a retro gaming corner in the "office" slash "library" with an old tube TV and an uncomfortable bean bag chair. What about you?

I think I banned complaining from this group. Somewhere. It's probably in the rules. Would you like to complain about clients? Working in isolation? Existential dread? They're all fair game. Possibly, we can come up with solutions here, too...and stop complaining. But where's the fun in that?

I don't freelance on Upwork anymore. Not because it stopped working. Because ONE proposal template worked so well it retired me. $147,000 in contracts (well, actually $159,000 now). From one basic structure that paid off over and over...so I rode that horse off into the sunset. Clients who hired me over 50+ other applicants. $12k retainers from people who'd never met me. Now, I hire people to push the buttons while I look at graphs and tell jokes on Zoom calls. In May, when we go to Japan for 2.5 weeks, other people will keep my machine running while I eat raw fish and nod at reports. This Friday, I'm sending over a proposal for another $5k to $15k retainer (depends) from an existing client--again, from Upwork--for 5 to 10 hours a week of extra work. All money from Upwork clients. Now... I've thought about how to sell this thing. I could bundle it into a course. Do a whole launch. But honestly? That sounds exhausting. And I realized most people don't WANT another course. So here's my dumb idea instead: A penny auction. Bids start at one cent. Bids can only go UP by one cent. If it sells for 31 cents, so be it. That's on all of you. Here's the thing though... I'm not doing this for just a handful of people. If I get enough PENNY comments below, we run it. If not, I'll find something else to do with my Tuesday. I'd rather go play on a plastic slide with my daughter than sit here like a sad sack waiting for comments to roll in. One more thing: The person who wins this isn't getting some dusty template from 2012. You're getting the exact proposal structure that pulled six figures out of a platform I no longer compete on. Which means ZERO competition from me using it. You're welcome. So here's what to do: You'd bid a penny? Drop PENNY below 👇 You think this is stupid? Drop BAN ME below 👇 Either way I wanna hear from you. Your acquaintance, Nick P.S. Is a penny auction stupid? We'll find out together.