00:00now this video is going to seem a little bit
strange because I never intended to release
00:04this on YouTube it's a behind thes scenes Diary
Of Us building an app product with the intention
00:09to make money from it I wanted to document all
of our mistakes our roadblocks decisions made
00:15Lessons Learned by our team as we went along and
then at some point in the future I was going to
00:21share this with our Cod withth Chris email
list but then I thought it'd be such a waste
00:25if I didn't share this with you as we're going
through the process now so here it is the first
00:30Vlog entry dated September 14th 2023 now one word
of warning it's unscripted and it's raw and I'm
00:36sorry if it's a little bit rambly and not up to
our usual production standards but it is a real
00:42unfiltered look into my thoughts and experiences
as we're going through this journey so I hope
00:49you find some value in watching this hello it's
Chris here so I thought I would start recording
00:56the journey and the process of building an app
and launching it so that you can get an overthe
01:03shoulder look at what we're doing and this is as
much of an exploration for us as it is for you
01:11uh but I hope that in recording this even I can
look back at it and learn from any mistakes that
01:17we made relive the emotions and decisions that we
made and so on and so forth so this is the first
01:23sort of like journal entry in this process and
we've come up with nap idea or and yeah it's a
01:31couple of app ideas and I want to just go through
what my thinking was so that perhaps it might help
01:38you in coming up with your own app ideas first
of all I set a couple of criteria um to guide
01:44my decision process I a couple of things I don't
want to do is to come up with something completely
01:52brand new that's not in the app store because that
to me is the highest risk way of doing it because
01:59it's never been done it could either be a grand
slam success or it could fail miserably um also I
02:07want to focus on a small idea because as a single
developer or couple of developers small team it's
02:16really hard to build a big complex app and make
sure that it's bug-free good user experience and
02:24all of that stuff and that really plays into the
success of your app I think because the apps that
02:32tend to get good reviews tend to get repeating
users coming back to the app end up rising in the
02:39App Store rankings which adds discoverability more
people finding your app and then it's snowballs
02:46so I would rather have a smaller app that's very
polished and very useful even if it's like very
02:52narrowly it only does one thing well I would
rather have that than to have some brand new
02:58idea or a big app that is harder to polish and
there's more testing involved okay so here's my
03:04criteria for coming up with an app idea again I'm
not saying this is the only way to do it this is
03:10how I went about it so it has to be something
that I'm interested in this is from experience
03:15if I'm not that interested in the topic of the app
I it's really hard to get me to work on something
03:21that's just H my personal thing it's really hard
to work on something if I'm not interested in it
03:28and I happen to be very interested in being Health
productivity and just trying to live your best
03:36life or being the best that you can and exploring
your human potential so that's the space that I'm
03:44thinking in because I know that if I can create an
app on a topic that I'm interested in that I can
03:52actually use the app to benefit my own day-to-day
life that's a huge driver because I know that I
03:59can use use it even and it would be like I would
be very happy with this app even if no one use it
04:06something I can do a little differently I think
you need some a little differentiation from apps
04:13that are already out there it doesn't have to be a
lot it could be design right it could be a little
04:18bit of gamification could be a little bit of um
Improvement on what's already out there either
04:24Improvement or differentiation otherwise it's
really hard to sell to Market the app as something
04:31that users would want right if it's the same as
everything else why should the user download it
04:38something I can launch quickly I already talked
about this I don't want to build a big complex
04:43apps that it's going to take me six months to
build only to launch it and find out that I
04:47can't get users or no one wants it I want I would
rather have a small little utility app that I can
04:55build in a week let's say and then just launch it
in it's infantile prototype phase and have people
05:04use it and tell me what's wrong with it and like
tively improve it that's what I would would want
05:11and that's the lowest risk I think because that
allows you to also change direction very quickly
05:17and keeping in mind the last thing is that don't
get too invested in this idea that I'm coming up
05:24with because in speaking with other successful
app Developers it's never your first app or rarely
05:32your first app that's going to uh have any success
it's going to take a few tries and it's very easy
05:40to get I think too invested in your initial idea
you think it's going to be the best you're going
05:46to put so much uh energy behind it and then when
it doesn't turn out like you expected to get so
05:53discouraged and then to give up completely I
would rather keep this in mind and this sort
06:00of goes hand in hand with number three right
if it it's a small app I can launch quickly if
06:04it doesn't work out I don't feel like I've lost
too much time or energy and then I can just try
06:09something else so I think finding success in the
App Store is about testing out a whole bunch of
06:17different ideas and see what sticks I've seen a
company do a stretch a stretching app I guess it
06:24has exercises to help you stretch and gives
you badges has a little bit of gamification
06:29and it was advertised by the App Store so it was
featured which means that it's probably a pretty
06:34popular app and sure enough when I clicked into
the app store listing it was pretty popular and
06:39then when I checked their developer profile I
saw that they had a very similar stretching app
06:47that they launched a year before this popular
one and when I checked that app store listing
06:54the apps looked almost similar so it that made
me realize that sometimes it's just also luck
07:04timing right has to do with it and it might not be
that your idea sucks it might just be the way that
07:10it's packaged doesn't resonate with the market at
that time or something like that or maybe when you
07:16launched that for some reason the App Store didn't
like it didn't R rank it highly and you didn't get
07:22users but maybe if you just take the same app and
repackage it change the design perhaps and change
07:26the name relaunch it you might get some traction
the second time that's number four keeping in mind
07:34that your first try may not be the one that is
successful this is what I came up with the goal is
07:43a collection of apps because keeping in mind that
one app we're not going to it's going to be hard
07:48to find success with one app so I want to already
have the mindset I'm going to build be building
07:52multiple apps a collection of apps designed to
work together and that's the part I'm going to
07:58get to this is the cool part I think for improving
your day-to-day physical and mental health through
08:04gamification reminders encouragement so all of
these different things but I think the key Point
08:10here is collection of apps that work together and
the goal of all of these types of apps as you can
08:17see is all having to do with well-being Health
like physical health mental health productivity
08:25work that sort of stuff and as you can see all of
these apps have been done there's nothing new here
08:33also take note that each of these ideas in itself
is pretty simple what could be more simple than a
08:41streak counter and I I've even done tutorial
videos on YouTube about this where you just
08:47tap a button and it adds one to your streak these
are very simple ideas they all been done but if I
08:53were to do any of these single ideas I would have
to add a little bit of differentiation or improve
08:59movement as I mentioned just now so I think
there's still room I I I don't think there's ever
09:06no room for an app idea I I don't believe that
because there are 10,000 app um water trackers
09:12on the App Store that there's no room for a better
water tracker and better doesn't always mean more
09:18features right it could just be a better user
experience it could be that you Incorporated a
09:24new Apple framework that just came out that other
developers have haven't reacted to yet things like
09:30that there's always room for improvement these are
very individual apps that help you with certain
09:36things what is this work together part that
I mean what I mean by that is insights shared
09:43through data so I plan to have one user account
across different across all the apps and by doing
09:50that you can share the data between different apps
that allows us to draw draw insights and reveal to
10:01you how various aspects affect other aspects of
your life such as does the practice of gratitude
10:09journaling or gratitude tracking improve your
day-to-day mood which is using this app or does
10:17getting more sleep improve your productivity as
demonstrated by how many pomodoros you completed
10:23the very next day after getting 8 hours of sleep
so I think a lot of the apps out there or a siloed
10:30right you sleep tracker because I want to get more
sleep I want to get better sleep so you download
10:34a sleep tracker and then you might sleep eight
hours and then get up the next day and oh I feel
10:40good this app is helping me but rarely do apps
talk to other apps right so if by releasing all
10:48of these and and sharing that data because these
would be all of our apps so we to have access to
10:54the data for all of these apps by using a single
user account we can link your sleep data to your
11:00productivity data and um be able to tangibly show
you that data be like hey did you know that every
11:07time you get seven hours of sleep or eight hours
of sleep the next day you're just so productive
11:12and just surface the own data that you logged
yourself but show it to you in a way that's oh
11:19yeah this is proof that is um the case so I
should get more sleep I'll give you more of
11:25a reason to form better habits and this also I
think once you experience that you'll want to
11:32download even more of these apps because the more
you use the more data um you log into these apps
11:39the more insights the AI can reveal about your
life and how which habits are really helping you
11:46and which habits aren't so much because it could
be the reverse so let's say when you're logging
11:52four hours of sleep we could reveal the Insight
hey every time you log 4 hours of sleep the next
11:57day your mood is foul you're in a really bad mood
right if you're tracking your mood in your sleep
12:03so things like that's the working together part
and then gamification reminders like all of these
12:07different aspects just help the single app aspect
so we can add gamification to sleep tracker or to
12:15um a Pomodoro thing so maybe every time you
finish a Pomodoro if you're not familiar with
12:20sorry I've been using this term but if you're not
familiar with pomodora it's just a time management
12:25technique to stay focused while working so every
time stay focused you might get some encouragement
12:30or like a little reward or something like that so
these are aspects that would help individual apps
12:37that's what I said right there but yeah I think
the cool thing is like the data in the insights
12:42when you add multiple aspects of your life and you
try to look at that data as a whole you can begin
12:49to see patterns in your life and how how different
aspects affect each other and I think knowing that
12:57is very powerful the app surfacing that knowledge
to you is very powerful because you can actually
13:02um act on it and uh that's lifechanging so each
app is useful on its own but together they provide
13:11a holistic picture of what's going on in your
life and gives you tangible data to make decisions
13:14about how you want to live your day-to-day life
um yeah so we just started um thinking a little
13:21bit this is just like brainstorming all this
whole document is brainstorming actually um
13:26nothing is really concrete but marketing some
technical challenges how do we even start to
13:32analyze data and draw these conclusions and draw
these patterns and things like that yeah insights
13:39engine we started just thinking about it so
on the team is joash and inaki and JC that's
13:46actually almost all of our code with Chris
team so we are working on this on the side
13:52in um addition to obviously creating the courses
and that's actually more on me and supporting the
13:59the courses supporting the students however half
of my goal is to create these useful products and
14:08actually try to make money from it because I
think that's this is what makes it interesting
14:15and what people deem usually as successful app is
how much revenue does it generate how many users
14:21does it have want to go through this exercise
where we're treating this seriously learning
14:25about how to do App Store optimization and how
to improve products and how to get user feedback
14:31and things like that I think that's a really
cool thing for us to learn because that's not
14:37something we're super duper familiar with and the
other half of my goal is to allow you guys to see
14:48how this process plays out because there's a lot
of I don't think there's a lot of information out
14:56there where it is so transparent honest and real
a lot of guides and articles say hey here are the
15:0410 steps to build an app and I'll be honest
we have a ton of those articles and videos as
15:09well but my goal with this is like I'm going to be
recording these journals and sharing my thoughts
15:16and decisions with you as this progresses so you
can really get a behind the scenes raw honest look
15:22at what it takes so I'm sure we're going to fail
at a ton of things I'm sure we're going to make
15:26a lot of bad decisions but hey I think that's
part of the process and we can learn about it
15:30together so anyways I I don't want to draw
this out too long uh I will record Another
15:35journal entry when I have something else to share
I hope this gives you a lot of ideas and um into
15:42the process of how you should approach building
your own app and coming with your own app idea
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