08 Oct 2025 #writing
The first days of writing or creating anything online are the hardest.
Nothing seems to work. Nobody seems to care. You feel like what you’re doing is pointless.
I know that feeling. Just a couple of my coworkers read my first blog posts. And when I started on LinkedIn, two likes and one comment felt like going viral.
But to endure that phase of obscurity, Jeet Mehta shared three points. The second one really resonated,
“Your audience is just you, pushed outwards.”
You are your own audience. Create for your past self. Write a book for who you used to be. Write the tutorial or guide you wish you had found. Create to help one person. And that one could be your past self.
07 Oct 2025 #writing
You don’t need a publisher and 100,000 words to write a book that matters.
Chris Stanley was the one who finally debunked my ideas about writing books. He’s the author of 20 Amazon best-sellers. He lives off his books, traveling around the U.S. in a boat. He’s the “Mini Book” guy and now he teaches how to write them.
Today I attended a workshop with Chris, where he showed a glimpse of his method. Here are 10 lessons I learned:
#1. Don’t think of funnels, think of a flywheel. Think of an ecosystem of content, with mini-books at its core, that changes people’s beliefs and turns them into fans.
#2. Forget about writing the next New York Times best seller. When Chris started publishing his books, he noticed his shorter books did better. It’s not a coincidence. 75% of people don’t finish the books they buy.
The solution? Write mini-books. Just the good parts of a traditional book.
#3. A mini-book offers one solution to one problem for one person. Your solution should be something you’ve tried and proven yourself. The more specific your person, the better.
#4. A mini-book should be SMART:
- Structured: It should be well structured and easy to follow.
- Mini: A word count isn’t the goal, but a mini-book usually has between 10-15K words. Write a book readers can finish in one or two hours.
- Actionable: It should offer a solution your readers can apply immediately.
- Repeatable: It should present a message easy to remember and share.
- Transformational: It shouldn’t only teach something, but should change beliefs.
For example, Chris’ Mini Book Model has only 129 pages and he breaks down his model so you can write a book in days, not months.
#5. There are only 3 people to write a book for:
- Who you were: That’s your past self. Maybe that’s a first-time business owner or a junior coder.
- Who you are: That’s your current self, your identity, and what you do now.
- Who you love: That’s someone you care about and want to help. Chris once wrote a book for his wife. And we could write a book for our future generations.
#6. Write a clever title and a clear subtitle. Once you have a problem and solution, your title should create a hook and your subtitle should create a promise. For example, Mini Book Model: How to Write Your Big Ideas in Small Books
#7. There are three ways to outline a book:
- W’s: That’s the what, when, where, why, and how. Write a chapter to answer each question. For a book about mini-books, the first chapter could be what a mini-book is. The next chapter, why write a mini-book.
- Step by step: Write one step of your solution per chapter.
- Problem/solution: Each chapter presents a problem and offers a solution.
Again, in Mini Book Model, Chris used the W’s technique to present his mini-book concept.
#8. Make your solution memorable. If you’re using the step-by-step outline technique, use an acronym or a visual metaphor to guide your readers and help them remember your solution.
#9. As a bonus, use chapters of your next book as preview. It makes your book thick enough to display your name and title on the spine.
#10. Not only write books, but create a whole identity and brand around them. After 20 books or more, Chris is the “Mini Book” guy. His emails, tagline, and even book titles use the same concept. Mini-books everywhere. That’s how he stands out.
05 Oct 2025 #misc
My blog is my time capsule. Today, I opened it to find out what I was into. Here’s what I found.
In 2020, exactly on this date, I wrote about comparing dates without the time part in SQL Server. At that time, I was learning SQL Server performance tuning with Brent Ozar’s courses and his writing style inspired most of my SQL posts.
In 2022, I was contracting with an American client and we were trying to implement DDD in their new projects. I shared my notes on the book Hands-on Domain-Driven Design with .NET Core.
And in 2023, I was already compiling four interested links about coding every Monday. That was the seed to later start Friday Links.
At that time, I was playing the SEO game. I can notice it: I wrote question/answer posts with a bolded paragraph answering the post question. I was hoping to win the target answers on Google search results. Since then, I moved away from the SEO game and changed my blogging strategy.
04 Oct 2025 #writing
It took me 131 days to finish the first draft of my next book.
That’s 4 months and 8 days from creating a new file to typing the last word. I could have finished two books in that time. James Altucher challenges his podcast listeners to finish a non-fiction book in 30 days. By that standard, I could have even finished four.
Looking back, two lessons could’ve cut that time in half.
#1. Make it a priority
At some point, finishing the first draft felt like a mission impossible.
I was balancing multiple projects at the same time: I was blogging, growing my LinkedIn account, staying active in a ghostwriting community, and coding on the side.
After realizing I was exhausted from juggling all those projects, I focused only on my blog and the draft to keep momentum, even when all other projects suffered.
#2. Take one step a day
Of course, writing a book is a daunting task. It’s worse when you try to finish multiple projects.
Some days, life gets in the way and you can’t write. But take a small step toward finishing your book every day. Maybe it’s finding beta readers, scrolling Amazon for cover inspiration, making promotional material, or running a poll on social media to choose a title.
One small action every day. That’s all you need. Even if that action is not writing. Your book will thank you. And I would have finished my book in half the time.