Wanted to give a shoutout to @Alexander Cebulla. Closed his first large automation customer (5 figs). Alexander you will not forget that feeling. It will fade a bit when you close more in the future, but you won't forget it. I still remember my first freelance client from 2021, my first enterprise customer, and my first 100k customer. Happy for you. Use the momentum to deliver the highest quality results. Remember it is always easier to keep current clients happy than it is to land more clients.

Built my first working n8n automation lab (commit 1). Goal was simple: a local setup where I can build webhook-based automations, but still expose them to external services when needed. Stack is pretty minimal: - n8n in Docker - Postgres for persistence - Cloudflare Tunnel for public webhook URLs - small shell scripts to start/stop/test everything What matters: - I can tear it down and rebuild it cleanly - workflows persist across restarts - webhooks work externally via a temporary public URL - local UI + external access both work at the same time Next step is building reusable automation patterns (webhook → transform → API → response). This is the base layer for everything I’ll build on top.

Some of you know that I have a 2nd YouTube channel for collectibles. TBH I stopped posting bc the videos took too long to research and make. Well, I just automated the whole process today. 1. Scrape Data for specific card queries 2. Clean up duplicated data 3. Research the subject matter 4. Populate the results on a slide deck Now I can upload again on the channel. Small win, but was fun to build with Claude. Did you automate anything this week in your personal life?

74 miles 100 heat index Ticks Technical trails (I fell over 10 times) Elevation NGL I’m probably not walking on this weeks call

Hey everyone, Just a win, I want to celebrate with this group. In mid-February, I received my first payment of around 3,100 EUR (~3,660 USD) for one week's work. I started freelancing last October, focusing on digitalization consulting, implementation support, and hands-on project work for small trades businesses. Here's what I've learned so far: Lesson 1: Get clients through in-person networking All three of my clients came through personal connections — two from industry meetups focused on digitalization in the trades, and one through my social circle. Nothing has beaten showing up in person. Lesson 2: Always come prepared What made the biggest difference in converting those connections into working relationships was the prep work I did before each first meeting. Client 1 — A small business owner in the food industry. I analyzed their website with SEMRush ahead of our first meeting and came in with a full report. We had a great conversation, and I advised them on several issues I'd found. I made an offer for ongoing SEO services (~1,000 USD per month for 6 months), which was outside their budget, but it built goodwill and established the relationship. Client 2 — A trades business owner who needed help selecting industry-specific software. I used Claude to build an exhaustive questionnaire beforehand, which made the conversation much more productive. I've been working pro bono so far (this is the guy from my social circle), but am currently figuring out how to transition to paid services. Client 3 — The one who paid me. They had an idea for a larger project involving automating a manual process. I showed up to the first meeting with an MVP, which impressed them enough to offer payment on the spot. We're now building it out further.