Starting From Zero & Learning In Public

“Finally, I can rest”, I thought to myself as I took one last look at the completed renovation. Blood, sweat, and tears in the most literal sense stay behind as I finally get ready to leave Cyprus and return home, having completed the last outstanding project from my “previous life”. It took 12 weeks of early mornings, meticulous planning, last-minute problem-solving, and a fair share of physical work to complete the renovation, but I’m thrilled with how it turned out.

The ups and downs, international shipping, and problems caused by Leroy Merlin Cyprus are a story for another time. However, what counts is that the team is happy, the place is modern and unrecognizable, and I can safely rest and tick it off my to-do list. It’s a relief that is hard to put into words.

The Next Chapter Starts Now

It’s time for some well-deserved rest, recharging, and sleeping it off. I plan to take the week to sleep, eat well, and go for long walks to give my mental health some light of day. From Monday, however, it’s time for the next big thing: Learning and Building In Public

Come a little closer. A little closer. Allow me to let you in on a secret. I feel like an imposter most of the time, and that I don’t actually know what I’m doing.

Professionally called Imposter Syndrome and affectionately called Monday Morning Doubts, it’s something I’ve struggled with for quite a bit.

I don’t have a formal higher education; I never worked for the biggest names in the industry or under great creative minds. My experience comes from learning by doing, failing repeatedly, and trying until something stuck, with some help from YouTube Academy and a lot of StackOverflow. I’m immensely proud of what I’ve achieved, but it still felt most days like I didn’t deserve to be where I was.

The second truth is that in the last years of employment with The Holding, marketing was always treated as a “joke” and a nice cherry on top, yet not seriously at all and the last thing required. Ideas were shot down, campaigns were never executed, and strategies didn’t leave meetings if they were ever heard at all. After a long enough time, I started to doubt my marketing abilities too and began to give in to the intrusive thoughts that maybe, after all, I really didn’t have anything to show for it. At the end of the day, what counts are the results, and because the plans were never implemented, the results never had a chance to come to fruition.

It took a long time to get over this and re-frame it, but I think I managed to do it and see the great in it - It’s incredible to be a novice again.

Starting over and starting from zero (even if symbolic) is an incredible blessing. The slate has been wiped clean, and it’s a chance to learn, experiment and fail. There’s no better teacher than failure and experience, and I look forward to the challenge. In a way, it’s exciting to try something new and now devote myself entirely to a D2C brand. (Direct 2 Consumer, usually through E-Commerce).

I can’t wait to learn about running ads on social, about funnels, and all the three-letter acronyms the cool kids over on X are using (LTV, CAC, AOV, etc). I’m excited to learn more about split testing, getting back into copywriting, and experimenting with photography and videography.

The best part is that I wholeheartedly believe in the mission of Nutrified, and the thought of working on it helps me get out of bed in the morning.

I’m committed to learning in public, sharing what works and what doesn’t, where I succeed and fail, and what’s going on behind the scenes.

This will also mark a small change to this newsletter; in the coming weeks, you can choose whether you want to receive all updates, personal stories, or the LIP ones. More on this in the coming weeks!

Big Updates From My Projects

This week also marked a massive milestone for two projects, TinyPaws and recommended.by.

I’m super proud to show you the two new logos these projects received from the incredibly talented brand architect Natalia Kawa and from the intriguing new approach of a design subscription at Studio Salt.

Please let me know what your thoughts are about the new visual identities of these projects:

Recommended.by (Natalia Kawa)

It is a beautiful merger between the universal sign of recommendation in the form of a thumbs up and the globally recognized sign for conversations - the chat bubble.

Keeping with the darker purple brand colors chosen for the project, the pairing with this typeface forms a logo that’s intuitive, timeless, and true to the core of what this service will be.

TinyPaws (Studio Salt)

TinyPaws’ brand identity had to walk a thin line between staying connected to Nutrified and finding its footing and identity. I’m delighted with the resulting work, playful in nature but serious in execution. The logo is universal in a way that allows it to work as an icon on the web and in print, distinctly recognizable but still paying homage to its parent brand.

Let me know what you think by replying to this email. I read all the comments and replies, and they make my day!

Now comes the more challenging part: implementing the ideas and starting to market them. It’s 2024, and for a project to succeed, the most crucial thing is reach and distribution. The following 4-6 weeks will be spent building out these two apps, testing and verifying a good market fit, and then the real (and exciting) growth work will start.

Thank you for reading, friends, and until next week!

Love from Kraków,

Julian