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by rpastuszak 359 days ago
OK, this is a very interesting post for me because in the past 5 years I've met 200+ people via my Say Hi page:

https://untested.sonnet.io/notes/say-hi/

and many of my speakers suggested that I should charge for the calls.

Many of my calls involve tech/product advice (often from people with a ton of experience in other areas, e.g. ex FAANG managers, already accomplished founders, designers). Many of the people who message me with concrete questions, asking for my expertise are often already well-off, established and happy to pay.

The thing is:

1. I often get calls from students or people struggling financially 2. I enjoy serendipitous interactions with beautifully weird people

I can probably solve 1. by adding two call lines. But I worry that adding a commercial aspect will prevent 2. from reaching out. I don't live in London any more, and most of my nerdy/artsy/techy/hacker friends live allover the world.

Ah, and:

3. I genuinely love speaking with people in this manner, and personally, I'm getting so much of my Say Hi calls. I just finished a call with a very clever engineer setting their first steps as a solo-founder. They're not "indie hackers", they're people with genuine curiosity, talent and will to help people. It feels amazing to be able to help someone like that, and even better -- to become infected with that enthusiasm!

I am very much aware that I'm rationalising this and perhaps even preventing myself from letting people pay for my work. Whether it's impostor syndrome or the fact that this is such a precious subject to me is a question that I'm trying to answer.

4 comments

Paying ⇒ customer ⇒ expectations
> I enjoy serendipitous interactions with beautifully weird people

Gosh, I wish I could articulate that into words when I was younger. I remember having a fun conversation with a batshit insane lady who walked into a porch party, and one of my friends thought that I actually thought she was sane.

I'm also liable to think insane people might be sane
When the whole world is insane, who is to judge who is sane?
I'm more liable to think everyone is insane.
Also fair
The symbolist doodle illustrating that is great. The freaked-out worm in the top hat is being followed by a black cloud of anxiety, and it wants to eat him for dinner. The other worm, in a bowler and dark glasses (probably indicating modesty and chill), is supplying support and a pat on the back.
you can simply make another page that is commercially oriented
A/B test it and let us know which group is more interesting...