Forty-four articles and one hundred days. Game on!

My goal is to pay people (on Fiverr) to write 44 articles for me using this 1×5 challenge format by Thursday, September 22, 2022. 

That’s in 100 days. I’m not entirely sure if that’s a realistic goal, but sometimes it’s good to stretch for something just out of reach. Shoot for the stars and settle for the moon kind of stuff.

I want to create a website with a series of articles written by real people with real examples of struggle (and hopefully perseverance and eventually success.) 

It’s not easy keeping a growth mindset when things aren’t working. But I learned from reading “Growth Mindset” by Carol Dweck that I can choose to shift my mindset from a fixed mindset (“I can’t do this”) to a growth mindset (“I can’t do this yet, but maybe I can figure it out…”)

Why commission new entrepreneurs to write these articles?

Well, I create teaching resources for middle school and high school teachers. The obstacle I found as a classroom teacher is that most students don’t really care about setting goals or delaying gratification to help their future selves.

(Well, let’s be honest, most people don’t either. How many of us make or keep New Year’s Resolutions.) 

Everyone wants the nice toys, big success and shiny bling. But, we don’t realize how much work goes behind the scenes. Constant little steps are required to add up to big strides and growth.

So, by commissioning a bunch of articles and showing the process behind the success story, maybe it will help students see the value of taking that little action every day to work towards whatever their goal is – whether it’s getting better marks, finding a relationship, living healthy, etc. 

And, hopefully, this will help convince teachers to buy the SEOT mindset handouts to make their life easier. Print, show the goal-setting slideshow, teach, and done! 

To be honest, I’m not sure if this is the best use of my time. I sell resources on Teachers Pay Teachers. It’s one way I earn a living from the internet. I should be working on improving my current TpT resources (to make them easier for teachers to use.) But, I’m excited (and easily distracted) by creating challenges and game-ifying stuff, so here we are! 

I wonder if I can create a way to “make goal-setting fun” – either through incentives or by gamifying the process (i.e. leveling up.) Maybe this will help people stick with their goals long enough to taste a little bit of success that will inspire them to keep going. (PS. I love how Duolingo has gamified language learning. I think I’m on a 45-day streak and I don’t want to break it and go back to day 1! They sucked me into making a habit…)

Why 100 days? Great question!

I just bought a Remarkable 2 writing table. They have a 100-day trial period so I told myself I can keep the device if I can earn enough money to pay for the device. And rather than working hours of labour for someone else, I wondered if I could spend my time planting money trees (assets) that produce income. 

Why 44 articles? 

Well, the Remarkable 2 costs me $650 CAD. I’m hoping that commissioning Fiverr sellers to write articles for me will eventually lead to the sales of my other related products (i.e. SEOT slideshow to teachers.) 

My thinking is that the articles showcase the SEOT mindset process, and then hopefully teachers are like, yeah, I could see myself doing this with my students… and they buy the handouts. 

My SEOT goal-setting slideshow resource makes $15 CAD. $15 x 44 = $660. If I figure one article leads to one sale, then I need 44 articles. 

Although the idea for this 1×5 challenge originally came from coming up with a way to pay for my Remarkable 2 writing tablet, when I went through this handout package, I realized there’s actually a larger reason why I need to get this done.

First of all, I don’t have a steady-paying job. As an entrepreneur and a business owner, if I don’t create content and sell stuff, I don’t get paid. 

It’s different from when you get paid a salary from an employer. I make money by creating content – so I need to earn a living by planting money trees and creating assets that I can scale up with exponential growth:

• start with one seed,
• plant it,
• grow a tree that bears fruit,
• plant more trees,
• grow an orchard…

If I reach my $650 goal in 100 days, then those articles (money trees / assets) will hopefully continue to bear fruit over time. 

The money lets me focus on other areas – like advocating for student mental health issues, but also being a good role model to show people HOW to change the world for the better (i.e. speaking up when you see something wrong and being an active citizen) – it’s important to stand up, but it’s crazy hard when you’re all alone.

I used to be a grade 8 classroom teacher in Ottawa, Canada. I had a mental health crisis from something that happened at school. That triggered the end of my classroom teaching career; now I’m re-writing my story as someone who survives and thrives by earning a living from the internet.

Bringing the incident that happened to me through the justice system is expensive. Lawyers are expensive: $15,000 to $30,000 from my life savings. But this is important to me. 

If I spend $15,000 to $30,000 now to help bring an issue to justice, maybe I can help protect students in Grade 8 who have mental health struggles and protect them from having to go through what I did.

If I can succeed at this goal and recover lawyer costs then I can succeed at anything. $650 every 100 days, is almost $2K per year. If I only make these 44 articles, in ten years, this first crop of articles would make $20,000. But, if I can figure out how to make this article farm work, maybe I can plant more trees and recover the legal fees quicker. Who knows. I’m tinkering with this!

By the way, I have no idea if this will work! Right now, I just need to start. Once I’ve been working for a while, I need to analyze what’s working and what’s not working. I have some questions to think about:

• How many conversations / chats on Fiverr do I need to start every day? How many of those chats become people who start the challenge? How many of those articles are decent enough that the person can go to the next stage?

• Is it better for me to find a few really good Fiverr sellers that I’m willing to pay more for to produce content, or should I have a bunch of people who only make it through the first 1×5 challenge? (I think I’m going to have a series of challenges: 1×5, 2×5, 3×5, etc with increasing rewards.)

• What kind of web traffic can I get to my website with these articles? How many visitors will read the articles? How many will click through to find out about my SEOT goal-setting slideshow? How many of those are teachers who end up buying the resource? 

Time will tell. But, every journey starts with one step. Here’s my first step. Wish me luck!

Cheers,

Mike Fuchigami

Oops. This was supposed to be 500 words. It ended up being 1200. But, I think I have greater clarity into why I’m doing what I’m doing. Let the games begin!

PS – If you’re interested in trying the SEOT 1×5 Challenge, leave a comment.