Maarten Belmans
Summary
- What’s your favourite thing about freelancing?
- Three rapid-fire questions to get to know you better.
- The origin of the name of the podcast.
- Australia is a great place to live.
- What kind of product or service does Studio Wombat offer?
- What kind of product or service does Woocommerce do.
- Saturated software market at the moment.
- How to get started in a saturated market.
- The process of selling his software.
- The process of creating software.
- The pain of selling software.
- Selling software is like real estate.
- Selling digital products as a passive income stream.
- Mistakes to avoid when selling digital products.
- Making money on the internet by having a work ethic.
- Mistakes to avoid in digital products.
- Don’t expect your product to be perfect on the get-go.
- Don’t be passive.
- Finding the gap in the market.
- Finding the gap in the market.
- The two directions to sell a digital product.
- The mess of VAT in Europe.
- Using a payment processor to handle VAT.
- Hiring a support agent.
- Marketplaces are a good starting point.
- Hiring the first permanent hire support agent.
- Working for an agency vs freelancing.
- The trap of thinking one can do it all.
- Taking a step back and letting go.
- Taking a step back and giving up some control.
- Personal growth and business growth.
- Remote work is not suitable for everyone.
- Staying motivated and preventing procrastinating.
- Maintaining a healthy lifestyle while working from home.
- Separating work and personal time.
- Transparency report and year in review.
- How do you reflect on your goals?
- Reflect back on the year and set goals for the next period.
- Next thing to accomplish.
- Three people you would like to have dinner with.
- The best piece of advice you’ve ever received.
Qing
So we’re gonna kick off by asking you three rapid-fire questions so that our listeners can get to know you a little bit better. What’s your favourite thing about freelancing?
Maarten
setting my own agenda.
Qing
What’s one book you’re reading right now?
Maarten
I don’t read books. So I’m not reading any.
Qing
Not even ebooks?
Maarten
No.
Qing
Okay. If you could constantly become an expert in something, what would it be?
Maarten
Oh, that’s a tough question. Photography.
Qing
I’m really surprised that you don’t read books.
Maarten
Yeah. Honestly, I think I like the attention span. And I’m very visual. So I prefer movies or, you know, even comic books.
Qing
And are you into maybe, infographics?
Maarten
I am yeah, into is maybe a strong word. But yeah, I would prefer those over books. I really tried reading. But it takes like for a lot of people, it’s, it’s something that they want to do. It’s a hobby, but for me, it takes too much. It, I have to force myself to concentrate and to finish the book.
Qing
So as someone who has no idea about the IT world, what does a front-end developer do?
Maarten
A front-end developer is somebody that works on the side that is facing the consumer or the user. So it is a term that that is often used in web development. So that’s somebody that develops for the web, but he develops the front-facing side of the web. So that’s the side that customers that surfers will see.
Qing
So everything we see everything we get to experience?
Maarten
Yeah, if you can interact with a website, that part is usually made by a front-end developer.
Qing
Let’s navigate your business world by starting with the baby that has pretty much I would say, beaten all the rest and won e your exclusive focus or 100% attention at the moment. So that is Studio Wombat. Yes, I hope I have pronounced that word correctly. Let’s start with the name. So wombats… I’ve done my homework. You know? It’s an animal in Australia. That might be koala’s nearest living relative.
Maarten
Yes, that’s correct. Yeah.
Qing
And where does that name come from Studio Wombat?
Maarten
I’ve travelled with my partner in 2016 for a year to Australia. And that was one of the best experiences of my life. It wasn’t your typical travel it was we bought a van and we lived in it. And we travelled through Australia. And we, you know, we slept in amazing places under the stars. And so that whole trip left a very big impression on me. And so that’s where I got the name from because I saw wombats there for the first time. And I didn’t know what they were. And they were fascinating creatures. And so I use that as my business name. In hindsight, it’s probably not the best business name because it doesn’t really,
Qing
yeah, we we’ve all been there and making mistakes and finding exactly. Business Name. Yeah, it doesn’t unique.
Maarten
Yeah. And it doesn’t really explain what the business does. But then on the other hand, I think people don’t really care about a name as long as it’s recognised, as it’s recognisable. And I think that I made it work that way. So I’m not too not too afraid that the name was a bad idea, but I would not choose it again.
Qing
You can change it anytime you want. Yes. It’s it’s, it’s who you are behind the name. Exactly. Remember? Exactly. So what kind of product or service does studio wombat offer?
Maarten
I sell plugins on a popular e commerce platform called WooCommerce. And so basically, I sell small software packages that enhances a customer store with whatever feature they need. So I will have a few software packages, each doing their own specific thing. And people, store owners, they will find my website and they will hopefully buy my software. So it is purely focused on ecommerce store owners.
Qing
And the purpose is to enhance the end consumers experience of using that website or?
Maarten
Yeah, yeah, that’s true. So the the ecommerce platform I developed my software on is called WooCommerce and it’s an out of the box solution. And that runs on WordPress. But it can only do so much. At a certain point, you will, you know, there are boundaries to what WooCommerce can do. And that’s where so called plugin developers come into play, they will take WooCommerce and enhance it with, you know, other features that anybody might need. So that’s what I do with studio wombat. I make these plugins, which are a little software packages, running on top of WooCommerce.
Qing
And I see that you’re planning to build a community that would be a place to to to have people learn about e commerce best practices, or to give them some ideas to improve their store. Are you busy with it at the moment?
Maarten
At the moment, I’m collecting signups for that community. And when I have enough signups I’ll put in the work and make it happen. Yeah, but the idea is to bring people together, that are store store owners, and then they can, yeah, talk about what they need, what they what are they missing in the ecosystem, or they can give tips to one another. And so it would be a win win situation, because there would be a community for store owners. And for me, as a software developer, I would get ideas out of that, because people would share, you know, what they need or what they’re missing, or they would ask questions on how to do things. And that gives me ideas as a software developer, where the E commerce platform Lacson, where I can go in and make it better.
Qing
Yeah, this is a question about statistics. I don’t know if you have any idea how many e commerce stores are here. I mean, registered here in Belgium?
Maarten
Oooh, No, I have no idea. But there are actually websites that are trying to measure that. There’s a website called Build with.com. And they will collect information of all websites or as many websites as they can. And they will share what the website is doing, what the website is built on. And so they have they have numbers on how many ecommerce stores are currently in Belgium. But I do not know that number by head.
Qing
Yeah. But do you think developing those software packages or plugged ins? Do you find it very saturated market? At the moment? Yes, I suppose. So.
Maarten
Yes, it is a very saturated market. Yeah, there are a lot of players out there. Because the barrier of entry is quite low. So it is easy for a software developer to get started with making these kinds of smaller software packages. Because it’s like the footprint of such a software package is not as big as building the next Spotify, for example. Because you need a lot of infrastructure for that, then you need a team and, and so building smaller software packages. Yeah, it’s it’s easy to get started. So a lot of people will start and then luckily, not everybody, you know, grows that into a full time business. But nonetheless, it’s a very saturated market.
Qing
And how do you find your spot in such a saturated market?
Maarten
To me in it’s about, not about the software, but but about the service that you deliver. Because a lot of people will develop software, and they will only think about that software, but I’m trying to think about the solution that the software provides to my customers, which are store owners. I will also deliver a service that is hopefully better than the competition. I will do that by by offering very quick support turnaround times. So when somebody has a question, they email me and I’ll try to reply within a few hours, which is very unusual. And that’s how I tried to differentiate from the competition.
Qing
The service? So service as a differentiating factor. Because I yeah, I was quite amazed to see this number on your website it says the average wait time on working days that is three hours 37 minutes and 80% of support tickets were solved within the hour?
Maarten
Yeah, Yes, that’s correct.
Qing
So studio wombat your baby at the moment. But you have you have also you know given birth as several babies along the way of your career. So let’s talk about table two site. This is a smaller baby that you maybe sold two three years ago?
Maarten
Correct.
Qing
I’m pretty sure you have also devoted an equal amount of time energy on giving birth to this baby bring it to life. Why did you decide you had to let it go?
Maarten
Because I was spread too thin, I couldn’t maintain. Because as you said, you you give it an equal amount of time. But it’s impossible to do that with two projects that are growing. And I lost the drive because of it. I was feeling a bit burnt out, because I was simply doing too much. So I had to, I had to sell it really,
Qing
And did you launch pretty much launched Table Two site and Studio Wombat at the same time.
Maarten
No studio wombat was launched two years prior to Table Two site. So it was growing. But I always felt like I want to, I want to create something else. Cuz I do I do like the process of creating something creating software in this case. So I started on Table Two site, because at that moment, the thing that I was building was becoming very popular. So I jumped in at the right time, and I built the tool. But then you have to grow the tool, once it’s out there, you have to, you know, you have to market it, people have to find your site, people have to have to use your tool. And that’s what I got burned out on, because that was too much work with Studio Wombat. But and it wasn’t even, it wasn’t even a fancy drag and drop builder. It wasn’t I mean, the tool was basically an MVP at that stage. Which means the product that is just good enough to launch basically, so it wasn’t super polished. But because airtable had such a large fan base at the time, people were still finding the tool and using it. and was it a very painful process to to sell it? Yes, and no, because there to sell it… There are a lot of tools online to do that. So there are marketplaces where you can basically just register, you fill out the profile of the website that you want to sell. And then buyers can see that and contact you. So it’s really easy that part. But then once you find a buyer, you you have to either sign contracts, or you have to work on trust, which isn’t always easy, because it’s sometimes about a lot of money when you sell software. But still you have to trust the people that are buying. And then you have to do the actual handover, which means that you have to document everything, explain everything, make videos on how things work, so that when they take over the software that they know how to get started. And that is a long process. But nonetheless, I mean, it is worth it in the end,
Qing
in a sense that it’s a relief for you?
Maarten
absolutely yes.
Qing
It has been a liberating experience for you?
Maarten
Yeah.
Qing
Okay.
Maarten
It was really a weight off my shoulders when I sold it. Yeah.
Qing
To create that extra headspace to something else?
Maarten
Yeah, exactly.
Qing
This is the most important thing.
Maarten
Yeah, yeah. And it’s like selling software is actually a very interesting field to dive into. Because it’s a little bit like real estate, right? Let’s say you buy a house today, you can rent out the house. So let’s say you receive 1000 euros per month for renting out your house. And then in 10 years, you say, Okay, now I want to sell it, I want to get rid of it, because I need the cash or whatever reason you have. So you’ve had 10 years of getting 1000 euros per month, which is already a nice income. And then on top of that you sell the house for whatever it’s worth. And it’s the same with selling software, right? First you build it, you grow it until you get a few, you get a side income off of it. And then when you’re ready, you sell it and then you get a bigger chunk of cash. So you earn twice by selling software first because you’ve built it and it’s semi popular and then a second time because you’re selling it.
Qing
Does that motivate everybody to enter the field of IT and start building software?
Maarten
Well, it is it is a growing trend because now it’s so easy to sell software, there are actually a lot of people that make it like their core business to just make software with the sole purpose of selling it.
Qing
Yeah, I think that’s a that’s a good transition to my next question because I know that nowadays more and more people are considering selling digital products as one of their maybe passive income streams. And I mean, yeah, why why shouldn’t we monetize the skill set we already have right? To create extra stability or a buffer or whatever, as a freelancer. So I took a look at the numbers of studio Wombat. I’m not sure about the numbers last year and 2022 But I know in 2021 you manage to sell Over 200,000 worth of plugins, right?
Maarten
Correct. Yeah.
Qing
That’s, that’s an amazing result. That really deserves a big fat celebration. Were are you really proud of yourself at the end of the year? Were you?
Maarten
Yes.
Qing
That number? Yeah. Were you surprised?
Maarten
Well, I, if if I would have seen that number five years ago, you know, this is what you’ll earn in five years time, I would never believe it. I didn’t think that was possible to make, you know, money on the internet in a very saturated market by just having a work ethic, because that’s really the only thing I have. Because I’m, I’m a software developer, but I’m not specifically very good at one field, I’m average at everything that I do. But I, so my skill has nothing to do with this. But the fact that I have a work ethic, and you know, I put into time to do support, and then to programme on the side, and then I find some more time to grow the business side of things. So by just having that work ethic, it was, I was able to get to that number. And yeah, that is very surprising, because I would have never thought that this was possible.
Qing
What do you mean by your skill set has nothing to do with this meaning success, because does that mean you are delivering an average product like anybody else, but service has become one of the differentiating factors.
Maarten
So I wouldn’t say my products are average. But because I do, try and deliver quality. But that takes time, maybe when I launched the plugin, at first, it will not be at the level of quality that I want it to be. But combined with everything else that I have, like you said, with the the service and the support, it makes it worth it for people to buy that product and get started with it. The fact that they can tell me like I would like this feature as well. And then next week, I would have it implemented for them, you know, that gives them the reassurance that that this product that they bought is going to be good enough in the long run. So yeah.
Qing
So I think I already have one of the answers to my next question to you, those of us who would like to try it out to sell digital products, can you share with us some great resources that have helped you along the way? Let’s put it in other words, what are the mistakes to avoid? And I can already answer that to that, based on what you said. That is do not expect your product to be perfect on the get go. Correct? Yeah, just launch it. Yeah, when it’s good enough as
Maarten
Yes, launch it as fast as you can, because the hard work only starts when you launched. And that’s the second point, don’t expect just because you launch the product, that people are going to buy it. Because you people often think of digital products as being a side income, you know, or, or passive income. Yeah, but I mean, it’s not passive, because it requires a lot of work and a lot of patience, just to get known or so that people can buy your course. But definitely launch as fast as you can, obviously, your product has to meet a certain standard of quality. So I’m not saying just launch anything, but don’t nitpick over every little detail. Because it’s never going to be 100% Perfect. And your customers will make that very clear to you. Because there’s always going to be somebody that needs something in your course, or that thought of a subject that you didn’t think about. And then all of a sudden, it turns out that your course is you know, not 100% What that customer wanted, but still good enough, especially at a price point that you’re selling it because don’t forget that you’re usually not selling, you know, of course for 1000 euros or something, it’s going to be a smaller amount.
Qing
Yeah, I totally agree. And I think we have to go back to what you said before, that passive could be a misleading word or concept when it comes to selling digital products. Because, I mean, you have to constantly put in the work and sales and marketing on one side. On the other hand, you also have to constantly update the content of your product to I don’t know tailor make it to address the specific needs of different customers. So it’s not like once you put it out there you launch it, then you can sleep over it and just let it generate money for you.
Maarten
Exactly. Yeah, that’s that’s almost never how it works. And if there’s a very Every small chance that you know, it generates a lot of money for you. But that usually means that you found, you know, the golden egg, something that’s very popular, something that doesn’t exist and you built it and then the ball gets rolling from there on, but that usually never happens. So yeah, you have to put in the work.
Qing
So finding the gap in the market is also something we have to work on, or
Maarten
yes or no, because, for me, I didn’t really find the gap, right, all my software already exists, I just made it better, or offered a better service. So you don’t necessarily have to find something new. But it’s it takes a lot more time to grow, if you if you don’t find something new. So if you do have a gap in the market, you can jump on that and launch something as soon as possible.
Qing
So there are different types of digital products out there. For example, for coaches, instructors, among our community members, they can launch online courses, then you have creatives making digital arts or printables. Patterns. Nowadays, I see a lot of people selling knit patterns.. on Etsy.
Maarten
Yeah, it’s a it’s a good idea. I mean,
Qing
and also designing and selling different fonts that people would always need. And so I know that you are a specialist in offering licences to digital assets. So that’s your digital products. But for this sector, or industry or fields in general, what other resources that you can share with us,
Maarten
I think for anybody that wants to sell a digital product, whether it’s licences, software or design files, there are two directions you can go in. One is you grow your own brand, which means you build a website, and you basically do SEO so that people find your website, or you go onto an existing marketplace, and you sell your assets via the marketplace. I think for every you have marketplaces for audio files you have marketplaces for, for icons for funds. So every type of digital asset that you might want to sell has a marketplace. And the upside of the marketplace is that they drive the traffic for you. And you don’t have to. You don’t have to work on marketing as much. But the downside is that they take a percentage of your sales, and you have no say in any of the decisions that you make. But it could be a good idea to start on a marketplace anyway. Because that gives, because that validates your idea. If people on that marketplace, find your product and they want to buy it, you know that you’re onto something. And then you can always move off the marketplace later and start building your own brand.
Qing
Yeah, so use those platforms. Yeah, as a launching pad.
Maarten
Exactly. So one of the learnings that I made early on was the mess of VAT in Europe. Because when you’re selling digital goods, you have to charge VAT in the country of the buyer, if that person is not a business. And so suddenly, I was on the other end of the equation, because I was selling something and a buying. And so you would need a system, a payment system that knows if you know somebody from France buys, okay, then this many tax needs to be added. If somebody from Spain buys this much tax needs to be added. So that was really complicated to get my head around in understanding the whole VAT scheme. Because it’s not as straightforward as it is when you’re just freelancing and selling services. So I did a lot of research. And then in the end, I chose a payment processor for my site. Because obviously, if you’re selling digital goods on your own site, you need a payment processor to accept credit cards. So I chose a processor that would handle everything VAT related for me. So I think I paid him a small percentage per sale. But the headache of VAT and rules and laws in Europe is suddenly gone. So it was well worth investigating that. And so if you’re away
Qing
just to clarify you mean you’re selling to organisations or institutions or individuals that have no VAT number,
Maarten
correct. Yeah, because I mean, even if you’re selling something else than software, if you’re selling fonts or images, a private person can buy these. It doesn’t have to be a business. So They won’t have a VAT number. But that means that you have to charge VAT in the country that they’re from. So if somebody from Spain wants to buy my software, but they don’t have a business number, then I would have to charge the Spanish percentage of VAT, I use a payment processor called Paddle and they handle everything for me. So I don’t have to worry about all of that. And it’s just as simple checkout on my website. But underlying, they will handle all the VAT headache that exists when you’re selling digital goods in Europe. But this could be one advantage. Why marketplaces that we talked about earlier, could be a good starting point, because they will usually take care of all of this for you as well. And you don’t have that headache of the accounting behind it.
Qing
I have taken a look at your website, there is a timeline of the development and growth of the company. And one of the milestone events on your professional career timeline was in June 2021. Do you remember what happened back then?
Maarten
Yes, I hired full time. Well, not full time. But I hired a support agent. Yes. Yeah.
Qing
Congratulations. Thank you. Yeah. Is that we expanded our team with our first permanent hire support agents. Yes. Tell us about that.
Maarten
Yes. So as I already mentioned, in the show, support is a big part of the, you know, my selling points. But it was getting too much for me to handle on my own. If I, you know, I still have to do other things as well, such as make new programmes and business decisions. So I needed somebody to help me with support. And that was a that was a relief, finding that person and, and having them helped me that well, I should have done it sooner. If I think about it,
Qing
is he or she working for you full time?
Maarten
No. So they work through an agency and they work for me about four hours per day, right? So that’s half a day. But it’s I can I can up or downscale whenever needed. So because it’s through an agency. So if I need an extra support agent, or I need more hours, they can just supply me with that. So it’s very easy. And I don’t have to go and look for my own agents, because they have trained their agents for the specific field that I’m in. So So that’s very easy for me.
Qing
But it’s interesting that you said looking back, you should have done it sooner. Yes. But I think that’s that’s a trap we all fall into when we start freelancing, that we think we can do it all. Exactly. Yeah. Because either we lack the money. That’s usually as a poor starting freelancer, yeah, or because we lack resources to to delegate the tasks that we’re not good at. And also, I think ego plays a role that we should really just learn to appreciate and leverage our own talents. But in the meantime, we have to admit that we have shortcomings we have weaknesses, we it’s impossible to be an expert in everything and know exactly,
Maarten
yeah, yeah, I do think that it’s, it’s good to grind at first. So you know, I for a long time, I did my own support. And it’s good, because then you’re closer to my customers, I learn about the issues they’re having I learned about the issues within my software. So it’s very good to be on that frontline. But Enough is enough. At some point you need to you need to occupy yourself with you know, what you’re good at, and what’s necessary. And so I needed to take a step back and have somebody else take over the bulk of support for me.
Qing
And looking back by giving up some control, what do you think you have gained in the process?
Maarten
Growth really, because it, it frees up time for me to do other things. And also personal growth because as you said, it’s very hard to, to spend money on something to you know, to put aside your ego and find somebody that can handle things at the level that you want them to handle it. That’s not an easy thing to do. And so by by just making that step once I can do it again, because now I know how it feels to you know, give part of the business to somebody else and let them handle it. So that’s personal growth as well for me because I’ve always said If I don’t want to end up with a team, I’m very happy on my own. But now that I made that hire, and I see the positive sides of of that, I kind of think like, you know, a small team would be nice. So yeah, I definitely grow with that as well.
Qing
And are you satisfied with what you have at the moment? Are you planning to expand the team by maybe adding one more team member?
Maarten
I think in time, I will have to add extra team members. Because there’s also a lot of competition in my field. So if I want to stay ahead, I will need somebody to help me with programming as well. And then marketing as well. So that’s part of scaling up. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It’s necessary evil.
Qing
Right, Maarten, let’s talk about remote work. It is true that remote work adds flexibility to our lives. But it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. It’s definitely not suitable for every profession. But I know you are a die hard fan of 100% remote work even. Tell us about that.
Maarten
Yeah, that’s true. Well, because for me, it does work. But you’re right. It doesn’t work for everybody. But I think that it would be nice if people were given the choice. And I think maybe thanks to COVID More people have the choice now. But before that, in Belgium, you know, there’s you, you had to be in the office. And yeah, I like to be given a choice, because for me, it really equals freedom to be able to work remotely because I’m an avid traveller. So it means that I can go anywhere and just work from my laptop.
Qing
Yeah, I think software developers their work is mostly location independent. Right?
Maarten
Exactly. The days that you need is super decent internet connection are also over because everybody just works on their laptop, and then when they need to send it off, they’ll send it off. So you need an email connection, then. But yeah, there are a lot of a lot of professions that are perfect for remote work. And I wished that more companies would offer that incentive. But yeah, I’m a very big fan of remote work. Because it makes me happier. And it really works for me. But obviously, there are a lot of negatives to it as well. Because you do get isolated and your words, your world grows smaller if you don’t go out and meet people. So yeah, it’s definitely not for everyone. If you’re a social butterfly, sitting cooped up at home might not be the best work environment for you. But there are solutions to that, because there are only
Qing
You would be like a flower that would eventually be withering.
Maarten
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But there are solutions to that, too. There are co working spaces in every major city. So yeah,
Qing
there are ways to create that. Exactly. Social interaction. Exactly. But I personally, I do find it much easier to maintain this healthy or healthier lifestyle, because we can we can cook at home. There will be less eat outs or and we can even schedule in very small workouts or stretches during the day during the working hours. Yes. On the other hand, do you find it difficult to stay motivated and prevent some, let’s say bad habits such as procrastinating?
Maarten
Oh, yeah, definitely. Yeah, you need you need a good work ethic, I think to make it work. And it works both ways. Because working from home also means that you know, when it’s 6pm, you could still be working or even later. So you have to you have to make boundaries really
Qing
super important that we freelancers we have a routine. Yeah. And on top of that, the discipline to maintain that routine. Because I mean, when you start freelancing, you can think that okay, I’m going to be my own boss. I can just lounge around in my pyjamas and doing my work. But in the long run, it’s it’s very unlikely, at least to me to achieve success that way because you have to develop a routine that for example at home defines your working hours and your non working hours and have a very clear separation between the two because that’s the only way to help you maintain that productivity. On the other hand, like you said, you can choose so you can choose your working hours if you’re mostly productive during the evening, then work then or at a time to to work around other commitments or engagements obligations you have as a husband as a dad, you know,
Maarten
just the fact that you can go to the store. Yeah, not when everyone else is there because you can choose your own time.
Qing
That’s such a luxury.
Maarten
Yes, exactly. Yeah,
Qing
I like yesterday afternoon, we went to the cinema to watch the latest film of Felix Van Groningen, De Achtbergen. Such a luxury to go to the cinema at 1:45 in the afternoon. Yeah, when you’re pretty much the only one
Maarten
And if you can separate it well, then this, the fact that you can do this contributes to your happiness, which means that you will be more productive when you’re working.
Qing
But that separation requires disciplines, routines, and good time management, and so on and so forth. I was very much drawn into two things on your blog and your website. So one is this transparency report of your business. And the other one is your well personal and all combined personal professional year in review series, where you look back and reflect on different aspects from the previous year, be it business growth, personal health, your travel experiences during the year, or even investing. So are you a big fan of journaling on a daily basis, or you just pile up these two, in the most important reports, once a year, let’s say,
Maarten
Yeah, I do them once a year, because I’m not a very good writer. And I’m too busy to journal. But I do I like it to reflect back on a period of time. And for me, I chose a year but other people can do it weekly or monthly. But I do like to reflect back and then just think about what you’ve accomplished during that period. And then also set some goals for the next period. And then at the end of that period, you can see you know, Did I did I do what I said I was going to do, and it really works for me just to take that time to reflect because as a, as a business owner, it’s easy to just, you know, look ahead and get lost in the day to day and there’s so much to do and so much work. But then at the end of the year, I really like to take that time, when it’s quieter, because everyone’s partying, I’d like to take that time and then reflect on on everything really personal and business growth.
Qing
I feel really, I feel really pumped Yeah, to have learned a lot about a field that was completely unknown to me before. So thank you.
Maarten
You’re very welcome.
Qing
Before we wrap up, there are three questions that I would like to ask all of my guests on this show. Next thing to accomplish on your bucket list.
Maarten
Personally, I would like to swim 1000 metres in 20 minutes. I’m very close, but not there yet. And then professionally, I really need to work on a plan of action for content. Because that’s the whole the SEO and marketing side of the business that’s easily forgotten when you’re a typical programmer. So I need to work on that. And those are the top goals I think for this year.
Qing
Are they grand enough to be listed on your bucket list? Because
Maarten
you actually yes, because they have the marketing parts. I know it sounds silly, but I’ve already tried it for two years. And I’ve said for two years that you know, I’m going to sit down and I’m going to do this properly. And somehow I fail. So I need to I need to force myself to find a solution for that. And probably the solution will be to outsource it. Because by now I should face the fact that I am not a marketing person and I cannot help my business by doing it myself.
Qing
It’s still quite an approachable bucket list. I would say yes.
Maarten
Let’s start small, right?
Qing
If you could choose any person from history to have dinner with who would it be and why? Well, you can list to three. Okay, you have three now.
Maarten
The first one would be my dad because he passed away before I started a business and I think he would be proud of the accomplishments that I that I made throughout the years.
Qing
No doubt. He would be very proud.
Maarten
The second one is easy; Kamakawiwoʻole. He’s a Hawaiian musician and he’s famous for playing the ukulele and singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow. And so he’s had a tough life. And he died of heart failure, but he died at a very young age. And I just I don’t know, his voice is so captivating that I think I could learn a thing of two by just sharing a beer and hear him talk. And so that would be cool. And a third person is Margaret Hamilton. There’s a famous photo of her where she stands next to a stack of paper books, which is equally high as her. And she is a software she was a software engineer on the NASA team. And they programmed the whole Apollo mission back then. And so it’s a really high stack of books. And that’s the code for that mission. And I would like to, I would like to sit down with her just to learn about how it was to, to code back then because it’s so different than it is now if now we have an issue, we just run our programme. And we see Ah, no, it failed. Let’s fix the issue. But back then it was so different, you know, they printed code on paper, just so that I could read and you know, debug
Qing
everything was still done manually, I guess.
Maarten
A lot of it Yeah, a lot of it was done. So at that will be interesting that those would be my top three, I think very fascinating.
Qing
And the last question, what is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Maarten
What I have already shared here, which is don’t try to be perfect launcher as soon as you can. And don’t overthink it. There’s a lot of information out there on how to do something but don’t read everything. Start today.
Qing
Grazie mille. Thank you so much Ratan for coming to today’s show. Very welcome. Happy New Year of the rabbits and I hope this new year can bring you a lot of carrots.
Maarten
Thank you
