Show #003 – Johnny Quach – App Entrepreneurship Lessons Learned

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Today’s guest is Johnny Quach, he’s the co-founder of Scoopd which is an app that helps you get hook-ups at your favorite restaurants.  His appventure takes him all the way from game design to fashion design to app design and entrepreneurship.  Johnny has started several business, some have succeeded and some have failed.  Ever spend $120k in 4 months just to see it all disappear?  Johnny has, and he shares many valuable insights.

Links:

Where to find Johnny:


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Show #002 – Doug Sjoquist – 15 Years of Indy Consulting and Still Lovin’ It

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Today’s guest is Doug Sjoquist, a software craftsman who basically took his first programming job the same  year that I was born!  Doug went out on his own as a consultant 15 years ago, and for the last two years he has been focused on iOS.  In this episode I ask Doug to tell his story and share his insights.  If you are a full-time consultant of any kind, or you want to be, then you should definitely tune in!

Links:

Ferris Bueller video: “Life moves pretty fast”

 

 

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Show #001 – Noel Chenier – Adventures of a Newb App Developer

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Today’s guest is a self-admitted “Newb App Developer”.  Noel Chenier is like many of us, new and inexperienced to the realm of app development. As a  photography teacher, Noel wanted to make an app to inspire students with creative photography assignments no matter where they are.

Links:

We will be giving away some promo codes for Noel’s Photography Assignment Generator apps. If you are subscribed to the My Appventure blog then you are automatically entered to win the promo codes.  If you are not subscribed then you can sign up here for your chance to win. Thanks!

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Show #0.1 – Introducing the My Appventure Podcast!

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I’ve got some exciting news!  I’ve decided to start a My Appventure podcast to compliment the blog.

As you’ll hear, the format of the show is intended to be short (20 mins), motivational and include one main takeaway for the listener.  The topics will range across all of the various disciplines involved in creating and selling apps successfully.  I haven’t figured it all out yet, so this is just as much a learning experience for me as it is for you!

Please let me know what you think so far! Thanks friends!

Audio Transcript:

Hello and welcome to the first episode of the “My Appventure” podcast! I’m your host, Scotty Ruth, and this is episode 0.1. This is a podcast for those who love to make iOS apps. You could be a designer, a developer, a marketer or an entrepreneur with great ideas. This podcast is for anyone trying to figure this thing out.  So let’s get started…

Ok everybody I’m back. As I said, my name is Scotty Ruth, first of all, who am I? That’s probably pretty important to get those details out of the way. I live in Grand Rapids MI, I work out of my own home, making my own apps, and I do a lot of other consulting projects on the side as well to help pay the bills. But my big goal, in terms of work, I should say (I’ve got a lot of goals in my life) but in terms of work I want to do great work that sells while I sleep. That’s one of the attractive things about the iTunes app store. It’s that you can spend your day making an app and then at night it sells while you’re asleep. It’s just a beautiful thing. So far I’ve been doing this for a couple years. For the last year and a half I’ve been on my own as an Indie designer and developer. As I said, ya know, working with other clients on their projects has been the main thing that pays the bills for me, but I’ve got three apps of my own on the store. I’ve got another one one the way called Quotely, which you guys will hear about in some of the following episodes.

But I really want to make this thing work. And ya know what, it’s actually pretty hard.
There are a lot of disciplines that go into making a successful app, and I haven’t it figured it all out yet. So I’m not here to be an expert, I’ve got a lot of experiences that I can share with you, that will hopefully help you. And in my appventure I’ve come across a lot of really cool people who are experts at what they do. Either design, development, marketing, business. I’m going to bring people like that on because I think all of those disciplines are equally valuable if you want to be successful. You can’t say “I’m just a developer, and all I do is write code.” Ya know, you might have to do some marketing stuff. And I know that sounds dirty or sleazy to most of us, but it’s not. Ya know the more I learn about marketing the more I like it. It’s a pretty amazing skill, and once you acquire that skill and start flexing that muscle it actually feels pretty good. I don’t see it as an evil in the world. It’s a necessary skill to develop. That’s just one example. There’s tons of stuff we’re going to cover in this podcast.  So let me just set your expectations, OK?

I’m going to do my best to deliver a podcast episode every single week. So my appventure is going to be a weekly podcast, and I want you to go to iTunes and subscribe to it if you haven’t already. Now these aren’t going to be LONG episodes. These are going to be pretty short, because one thing I’ve noticed and others have noticed is that podcasts have been pushing 45 minutes to an hour now days, and that just gets kinda long. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have a ton of time to listen to podcasts.  I work from home.  So it’s not like I have  a 2 hour commute to work,  maybe that’s how some people can squeeze in those really long beefy podcasts, but I can’t.  I only have about 20 minutes to take a walk around the neighborhood and get fresh air after putting in a long day, and sometimes I’m washing dishes and I can squeeze in 15 minutes here or there. So that’s one of my main goals, to keep it short and dense, packed with lots of meat that you can chew on throughout your day. And I’m also going to try to keep it regular like I said, so you can always depend on it to be there.  Except with a few occasions when I need to take vacation or whatever to give myself a little break.

Another thing you can expect, I really want every episode to be motivational. Because I know how hard it is. It’s really hard stuff, isn’t it? If you’re like me and you got into this because you learned how to build websites at some point. You figured OK, I’ve done HTML, I’ve done CSS, and I can kinda use jQuery and be a little dangerous at JavaScript. How bad could this be? Objective-C, Cocoa Touch?  I mean you open it up and start tinkering around with Interface Builder.. “Oh this looks easy, I can make an app just by dragging these buttons on the screen and hooking them up.” Well it looks simple at first, but if you’ve gone this far then you know it starts getting really complicated after that.

For me Objective-C was enormously challenging to grasp and learn .There were times when I just felt so lost and so alone and so overwhelmed by it. This podcast is based on the My Appventure blog, because I started this blog a couple years ago when I first got into it. I wanted to chronicle all of the ups and downs so that other people could see my experience and know that hey, if it’s really that hard for you, it’s normal because it was that hard for me. I don’t want to discourage anyone from starting or trying, but with anything in life if you take on a new challenge it’s important to count the cost  to evaluate if you’re up to it. This is not something that you can succeed at if you just put in a few hours a week into it. I’m sorry, it just wont work. Maybe you can succeed at certain aspects of it, maybe if you focus on one of the different aspects of it (design, development, marketing) pick one, then maybe you could put in a little less time. But each one of them requires a lot of time.

So it gets hard, lonely and a little frustrating sometimes, which is why I want you to come here for inspiration. I’m going to try to inspire you, either through my own story or through others. Another things is I want these stories to be actionable. I want there to be something you can do at the end of it.  It’s not always going to be literally going out and changing or doing something, might be as simple as changing the way you think about something.  That might be all you have to do. I kinda want to give some kind of homework, something you can do.  When I listen to podcasts I notice that it might be an hour long, and I’m trying my best to keep up and absorb all of these great nuggets, but if there’s 5-10 really good things I should do in one episode then I start to feel overwhelmed. I start to feel like I can’t do any of them, I don’t even know which one to start and do first. There’s just too many to remember and too much pressure to do them all. I want to keep this podcast light and easy to digest. So we’re going to have one thing where you can change the way you think about “this” or the way you do “this”. So don’t think it’s going to be a whole list of things you need to go change in your life, because that’s overwhelming.
Couple other things you can expect, some of the things that aren’t going to be in the podcast… Waffling. I’m going to try not to waffle. Even if I’m doing an interview with someone I’m going to try not to goof around too long. I want this to be fun and funny, I’ll tease myself plenty, because I’m a total dork and I don’t mind saying so.  But a lot of podcasts start of with 20 mins of waffling around, and if you anything like me that just feels like a waste of time.

It’s typically just going to be me, one host, a lot of time I’ll be doing interviews. I think that there’s going to be a couple different formats. If I do an interview it’ll probably be 20 mins long, max, so yeah, even the interviews will be short.  And if it’s just me and I don’t have a guest on the show I’m not going to be talking for 20 mins. I’m not that smart. But I’ll talk for 10 mins and explain some of the things that are going on in my business, my apps, or my side projects that hopefully spark ideas for you and your projects. And hopefully there will be takeaways that you can apply to your business.

I’m also going to try to start coming up with some additional content that you can also find at my blog, which is myappventure.com. I’m thinking of 5 minute videos that show off products that I use in my tool chain, things that really help my in my day. Showing you how to use those, based on how I use those.  I think that will be kinda interesting,  And that will be outside the podcast.

So for stuff like that, and the blog, and the community definitely check out myappventure.com that’s where it’s all going to be.

So until next time, you all take care and God bless!

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Live Attendance App

Hey everyone, I’m really excited to announce the release of a new iOS app that I worked on in 2012.  It’s called Live Attendance, and it helps event planners check-in their guests and manage assigned seating in real-time, without an internet connection!

In the good-old days, customers needed laptops, barcode scanners, and internet access at their event, but not anymore. Check it out…

There were a lot of new technical challenges for me on this project, including pulling down large amounts of data from the web, getting lots of devices to exchange data with each over a local WiFi network, multi-threaded processing, child view controllers, and tons of custom UI including an interactive table chart. Wheew!

While I did most of the development work on the app I certainly wasn’t the only one involved in this project. There were a couple other amazing iOS programmers who did some heavy lifting towards the end and really pulled things together. This project was a Goliath, and on most days I felt like David. I can’t claim credit for the victory, because this project wouldn’t have happened without everyone else on the team, and especially the good Lord’s help. HE DID IT!

If you take a look at Ministry Sync, you’ll see that they commonly serve Christian non-profits, many of whom are crisis pregnancy clinics that are helping women to choose life for their unborn babies.  Lives are literally at stake and I firmly believe that Satan wanted to thwart our efforts on this project (1 Peter 5:8), but God’s will prevailed in the end as it always does ;)   It’s wonderful to see so many Christian ministries using and loving this app. Praise the Lord!

Live Attendance is a universal iPhone & iPad app from Ministry Sync that is available on the iTunes app store for AttendEasy customers.

iTunes App Store Logo

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Mobile OMT Apps

I’m excited to announce some work that I’ve done recently for Clinically Relevant Technologies, a group of physical therapists delivering training materials via mobile and desktop apps.

In 2010 they launched their 3-part “Mobile OMT” series which stands for Orthopedic Manual Therapy and includes apps for the Spine, Upper Extremities and Lower Extremities.

 

These apps are a powerful teaching tool for any student, clinician or educator involved in the practice or teaching of therapy for musculoskeletal disorders.

In 2012 I had the privilege of re-designing and developing the UI of all three apps for the iPhone and iPad.  The primary goal of the project was to improve the user experience through a cleaner, more intuitive interface.

There are 9 major body regions that are split between three apps, but each app is designed to feel like part of a unified suite.  They all they share the same base colors, user experience, and they use URL schemes to quickly launch and switch between one another.

I’m really pleased with how the project turned out.  Praise the Lord!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Speaking at Detroit Mobile City iOS Conference

Detroit Mobile CityIf you live in or near my home state of Michigan you should come out to Detroit next Month for the first annual Mobile City iOS Conference.

There are going to be some amazing speakers, such as my iOS Studio sensei Daniel Steinberg, and other buds from the Ann Arbor CocoaHeads meetup such as Jeff Kelley, Chris Adamson, Tom Crawford and Dave Koziol.

Yours truly will be offering two talks that are a bit more design-centric:

  • Photoshop for iOS
  • UI Customization

It’s an easy one-day conference coming up fast on Saturday, February 2nd.  Register Online.  Hope to see you there!

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Top 5 iOS Podcasts

iDeveloper LiveiDeveloper LiveFormerly known as the MDN Show this magazine style format podcast covers a wide range of topics of interest to independent iOS and Mac developers.

This podcast is by far the most entertaining, but they also manage to stay on topic as well.  Typically the format includes an interview, and Scotty keeps things moving.  They offer a live chat room for those who want to listen in and participate.


Developing Perspective PodcastDeveloping PerspectiveDiscussing news of note in iOS Development, Apple and the like. Hosted by David Smith, an independent iOS developer.  Never longer than 15 minutes.

David Smith makes a living from his own iOS applications, so essentially he’s living my dream.  He shares a generous amount of insider knowledge about developing successful apps and managing a healthy Indie lifestyle.  I love the format of the shows because they are brief, to the point, and usually twice a week.


Core Intuition PodcastCore IntuitionDaniel Jalkut and Manton Reece discuss Mac programming, independent development, Apple news and more.

I like listening to this podcast when I’m in the mood for something more on the human interest side of things.  Both of the hosts are very witty and their personalities balance each other out.  They talk a lot about trials and tribulations of managing their own apps, and much of the tech content centers on Mac development, which is nice to hear once in a while since I only work on iOS.


NSBrief PodcastNSBriefSaul Mora travels the world to meet and chat with dedicated members of the Cocoa community.  Discussions revolve around a wide range of topics that every indie developer cares about.

If you’re looking for a deep dive interview with a developer who specializes in something specific, then NSBrief is a great listen.  Due to the nature of the traveling mic format, the sound quality is often a bit unsatisfactory, but if you can listen over the background noise you’ll learn a lot from the top-notch guests that Saul interviews.


Identical Cousins PodcastIdentical CousinsBrent and Michael Simmons make Mac and iOS apps – except when they just talk about making apps.  Like on this podcast.

This is a new podcast that started this fall, and so far I really like it.  These guys are amazing at what they do, and both of them have a flare for good design and development, which I can relate to.  They have great insights, and are humorous.

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Introducing: Quotely!

If you’ve read the last couple posts then you know it’s been a bit of a rocky summer.  But the good news is that I’m finally back into making my own apps again!  I’m really excited about it, and it feels good.

A couple weeks ago I started a closed beta for my latest app called “Quotely”, a personal quote-keeping assistant for life’s most quotable moments.

Quotely launch imageHere’s my little spiel…

When you come across a brilliant or hilarious quote that you never want to forget, then that’s what we call a “quotable moment”.

Whether it’s something funny you read in a book, or something life-changing you hear at a conference, or something adorable that your kid says, you want to be sure to keep that quote forever and always.

This is just the current splash screen for now, but I’m dying to show more screenshots since I think the UI is going to look pretty fun and unique.

I really want Quotely to be special, and in some ways more of a social app than just a reference app.  I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve, but I’m also looking for suggestions of how Quotely can be a fun and useful app in your life.  Please help me make Quotely a hit by sharing your ideas in the comment thread!

I want to make sure that Quotely has rock-solid features and a smooth finish, so I expect that the release date will be sometime early next year, since I still have consulting work going on as well.

In the meantime, if you would like a sneak peak at Quotely and are able give your feedback, then please comment below, tweet me at @heyscottyman, or email scott@bravebit.com to get in touch.  Thanks, God bless!

Core Data Editor Fantastical for Mac - Mac App Store
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Surviving the Flames of Burnout

After I could see that Catch a Match wasn’t going to sustain any sort of living whatsoever, I had to embrace the fact that I would be consulting for a while.  At that time a company came to me with a very exciting iPad project, and we figured it would take about 3 months.  I would be the only developer (initially), and there would be some very challenging aspects to the project.  To make a long story short it ended up taking me 5 months to complete, and we had to bring in some additional help along the way.

During this time, I was challenged as a programmer more than ever before. I can’t say much about the project itself at this point, but I wanted to touch on some of the more personal aspects of the experience.

I pretty much stopped blogging because this new project I took on was all-consuming and I couldn’t really talk about it publicly anyway.  The project literally took over my life.  It wasn’t bad at first, but it slowly started taking over and eventually became so stressful that it choked out all the joy in anything else.  All of this stress had me questioning my own abilities, and somehow the pressure just started to crush me.  I honestly went through a season of struggle and at times deep anxiety and depression.  It clicked for me one day that I was on the verge of “burnout”.

It took a while to identify the signs because it came upon me slowly over 5 months.  One day I remembered a post I had read about burnout.  It seemed irrelevant to me at the time, but somehow I remembered it and went digging around until I rediscovered this post from Victor Widell.  The article hit me at a whole different level this time reading it.  I found other good articles that helped to read as well: Steve Blank, Scott Boms, Steve Klabnik, and Colin Nederkoorn.

Colin’s post was particularly useful in pointing out that resentment is often the cause of burnout.  I did find myself feeling resentful because I was working so long and so hard, and it never felt like it was enough or that it was appreciated.  I felt like the expectations on me were unreasonable, and that I would never have the endurance to finish the job.  Notice the choice of words here, while the job was tough I certainly let my feelings get in the way.  Ultimately I am the one who is responsible for my own attitude and emotions.

During this time I pulled away from everything that had once given me joy.  I stopped working on my own app ideas, stopped blogging (obviously), I skipped a couple CocoaHeads meetups, and stopped chatting with friends on Skype and Twitter.  I didn’t feel like I had the time for these things, so that meant they weren’t options, which fed the resentment I was feeling.

Ultimately I decided I needed to stand my ground on a few things with my client, but the more I tried to control the scope the more we butted heads. This client is a long-time friend, so it was very painful to have this relationship so strained.

Before I go further, I want to pause here to make it clear that I wasn’t dealing with a cruel client, and many of the things that caused me grief are my own doing.  For example, I could have scoped the project more thoroughly, I could have had a more formal process for handling change requests, and I could have established better habits of communication. I don’t hold anyone else responsible but myself.  Now, where were we?…

I’m not normally a very emotional person, but something was seriously going wrong with me.  I’m a bit embarrassed to say that this experience brought me to tears, but it did.

My friends and colleagues weren’t the only ones I neglected during this time, my personal walk with my Lord Jesus was also weakened.  However, God often uses stuff like this to draw us closer to Himself because we need Him, and we’re better off if we let Him help us through life.  I finally stopped trying so hard to succeed in my own strength and I threw myself at the mercy of God.  Psalm 25:17 says “The troubles of my heart have multiplied, free me from my anguish”.  The Bible says that if you come near to God, then He will come near to you. (James 4:8).  This is true, because after I put my focus back on Him the weights slowly began to fall off my back, and He started to turn the situation around in some miraculous ways.

God showed me that I was too self-reliant, that I really can’t do it on my own, that I need His help, and that He is generous to do some of the ‘heavy lifting’ for me if I will only ask.  I got in the habit of asking God to loan me just a tiny drop of His brilliance for the day’s work, and He never failed.  After all, Objective-C is no big deal for the God of the universe!  He is a programmer after all, and the heavens and earth are full of His many “design patterns” :)

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” (James 1:5).

I made a lot of mistakes on this project, but I took all of my mistakes to God and let Him work on me.  God has since allowed me to finish my contract!  And my friend the client? Well, God even repaired the damage between us, in fact my client was the first to read this post and gave it his blessing before I published it.  I’m so thankful that God has given me new hope for the future and restored the joy I used to have for designing and developing apps.  My family and I have grown and matured through this experience and we have the Lord to thank for that.  He had my back on this, and I give Him all the credit!

“This is what the Lord says: ‘Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD’”.  Jeremiah 9:23

Since completing the project, I decided to take it easy for a while and allow myself to heal physically, emotionally and spiritually through the month of September.  I reduced the amount of hours I was putting in behind my computer, took more walks to the park, and also started a weekly Bible study group.

In addition to all that positive stuff, I’m also happy to report that I’m back into making my own apps!  I’m really glad that I managed to avoid a total burnout, and it feels good to enjoy programming again.

In my next post I’ll be announcing a new BraveBit app that I have in the works, so please stay tuned!

God bless :)

~ Scotty

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