I Almost Quit. Again. Instead I Built Something to Keep Moving Forward.

This blog was created only a couple of months ago. Like anything new, it takes time to build up. There are good days, and then there are days when the blog feels like shouting into an empty room.

No comments. No shares. No real sign that anyone is reading. Just me, staring at my work, something that I know could actually help people, and wondering that quiet question that every person building something asks eventually: is this actually going anywhere?

That was me this week.

I had been following a training on selling courses and ebooks through a platform called Hotmart. Low barrier to entry, no upfront cost, and the idea of creating a bunch of digital products on different topics felt like momentum. Like doing something. Like maybe this was the thing that would finally work.

Before launching into it, I decided to bring it to a conversation with one of my favourite AI's: Claude. Although I write all of my blog posts, I regularly use AI as a thinking partner for everything as it often comes up with patterns, ideas, and corrections that I haven't seen. As I discussed what seemed like the perfect opportunity, it only took a few exchanges for the pattern to be seen clearly.

This wasn't a new opportunity. It wasn't going to make me scrillions of dollars. It wasn't the one thing that I was missing to be able to launch my online business to new heights. It was just the same old escape route wearing a different hat.

When things feel slow, it feels like your idea is dead. As though nothing that you are doing will work. So the instinct is to try something new. A new platform. A new area. A new strategy. Something that looks and even feels like success, feels like movement. But in reality it is just starting again, with all of the fanciness and emotion of the first rush.

What I was facing was actually the problem that slow growth at this stage isn't a strategy problem. It's a time problem. And more products without anybody buying them is just more work with the same result.

I've been here before. More times than I'd like to admit.

So this time I made a different choice. Instead of pivoting and spending all of my time focused on something shiny and new, I sat down and asked a better question: what's the one thing I could build today that actually moves me forward, and not sideways?

The answer was sitting right in front of me.

I had a story. One from our family, about bedtime routines and a daughter who knew exactly which button to press to turn her father into a grizzly bear. I had been meaning to write it for weeks. I kept waiting until I felt like writing.

So I wrote it. At a time that I didn't feel like it. When I thought I wouldn't be able to complete it. When it felt wrong. When I should have been sleeping. It was tough to start, but I wrote it.

And when I was finished something unexpected happened. I looked at the post and realised that it should have a lead magnet, a practical guide for parents that goes with the story. So, tired, with the clock well past midnight, I decided to build that too. A five page PDF in Canva, a download link through my own subdomain, a Ghost paywall that actually works. A complete content upgrade loop, built in that one sitting.

This happened, not because I suddenly had more energy or more motivation, because it was now 2am at night. Instead, I recognised my behaviour of looking for something shiny and new and instead of running down that worn pathway yet again, I stopped looking for a way out and started doing the next small thing in front of me.

After doing this, the idea of Hotmart doesn't feel anywhere near as attractive today. In fact, I am happy with building my blog again. Things feel like they are moving again.

If you're building something and it feels slow... and it will feel slow after the rush of beginning, probably even for longer than it should feel reasonable... I want to offer you the same question that turned my afternoon around:

What's the one thing you could build today that actually moves you forward in what you are already doing?

No big pivot. No new platform. Just the next thing where you are right now.
Start there.

I wrote a post on Why It Feels Like You'll Never Get There (And Why That Feeling Is Actually a Good Sign) for those who want to know more.