The Lunar New Year nearly knocked me sideways. Things got chaotic, life got loud, and for a moment, I lost the thread.
But I’m back with the Zero To $1M Challenge, and it is now my number one priority. Not because someone told me it had to be. Not because I’m chasing clout or proving a point to the internet.
So yeah. The challenge has officially begun.
What I’ve Set Up So Far
Starting from zero means exactly that. Zero dollars, zero shortcuts, zero paid tools. Here’s what I built with nothing but free accounts and a bit of stubbornness:
- Buy Me a Coffee page is live and linked right here ($0)
- A dedicated email address for account creation ($0)
- A free Notion workspace (I don’t use it personally anymore, but it has its place here) ($0)
- Google Drive, organized and ready ($0)
- Canva account for visuals ($0)
- Gumroad account set up, not fully completed yet ($0)
Everything you see above costs exactly nothing. That’s the whole point. This challenge is about proving that the tool doesn’t make the craftsman, the will does.
Now, Buy Me a Coffee wasn’t my first choice. I’ve always had a soft spot for Gumroad. But honestly?
Once I got into it, I found it just as frictionless. And when you’re trying to get from $0 to your first $100, the platform matters a lot less than the action you take on it. Zero becomes one, and everything accelerates from there.
What’s My Immediate Plan?
My first instinct was to dig through old hardware and flip anything worth selling on the second-hand market. Fast cash, low friction, done. Except… I don’t really have anything left.
Most of my gear has already found new homes. Passed on for free to friends, students, and anyone who needed it more than I did. No regrets there. Just not the revenue stream I was hoping for.
So that plan went straight into the bin.
Here’s where I’ve landed instead: Three options, all of them honest and low-overhead:
- Reader support and donations: Leaning on the people who already show up for this blog
- Coaching or consulting: At rates so accessible they’re almost embarrassing
- 1-on-1 English teaching: semi-professional, beginner-focused
That last one has some real history behind it. Even after I left Tandem, a handful of people reached out wanting to continue learning with me, and to compensate me for it. I kept putting it off.
Now? It might be exactly the bridge I need.
The goal isn’t complexity. It’s momentum. What bothers me most right now is that zero is sitting on the scoreboard. The moment it changes, even by a little, the whole energy shifts. I want to prove that small can move fast, if you let it.
What’s My Biggest Disadvantage?
No social following. None. My Instagram exists, but that’s a private world I keep for L. Not a marketing channel. Outside of this blog, nobody knows this challenge is happening.
And here’s the thing: I’m actually choosing to see that as a feature, not a bug.
If I had 50,000 followers, sure, the first dollar would come easier. But it would also be noisier, more performative, more reliant on an audience that already trusts you.
Followers can throw support your way out of loyalty, not because you’ve genuinely created something worth paying for.
Starting with nothing forces a different kind of discipline. You have to earn it from strangers, one honest offer at a time.
That, to me, is the more interesting experiment.
Final Thoughts
I’m on a roll this week. Blogging is back. Story Brew is launching. And now the Zero To $1M Challenge is officially underway, starting Monday.
I want to complete this challenge. For whatever it is becoming. Because this isn’t really about money, is it? It never was.