What's up, everyone? This is Cortland from IndieHackers.com, and you're listening to the

IndieHackers podcast. There's been an explosion in a number of people who are using the

internet to build cool stuff and making a lot of money in the process. And on this show,

we explore the latest trends, ideas, and strategies these indie hackers are using to get ahead so the rest of us can do the same. If you've been enjoying the show, do me a favor and leave a quick rating for us in Apple Podcasts. Not only does it help other people find the show, but it also leaves me feeling pretty great. Today, I sat down with James Trath. James is a designer and a serial indie hacker,

and he recently created a set of icons in just a couple of hours that made him over $100,000

in six days. That was about a month ago. Today, his revenue from those icons is well north

of $100,000, and so I asked James how he did it and how this all came to pass. And I think

what really stands out from this conversation is our discussion around luck. How much of a role does luck play as an indie hacker? What kinds of tools and strategies are people using nowadays to spot these opportunities and take advantage of them? And how can you really press on the gas pedal and make a boatload of money when you have one of these lucky situations like James did, rather than just having a quick flash in the pan.

James Trath, welcome to the Andy Hackers podcast. Thanks for happening, man.

Last month, you made over $100,000 in six days, and this was not from some course that you had meticulously prepared.

This was not from a mailing list that you grew over the years and you sold them some e-book. This just kind of happened all at once unexpectedly. And we're going to get into the backstory of how this went down, but like right now I'm just curious, what are you going to do with all that cash? That's a lot of money to just show up in your bank account at a week. Yeah, you know, people ask me that, but I don't really have a solid answer. You know, I bought a new comforter. I picked up the iPhone 12, you know, bought some pillows, you know, so little things here in there. Dang, I hope you splurred. You got some real nice pillows at least. Comfortable for sure. So what else? I mean, this is a lot of money. How is it going to help you in life? What are you going to do with it? Yeah, it's definitely the most I've made in that amount of time, no doubt. The biggest thing that comes to mind is just using it to buy myself some more time, you know, so I'm able to now not take on as much client work or if any at all, really, and focus on the thing that I actually enjoy doing. And so the real value of money for me is what I can afford to no longer do versus what I can afford to buy. Yeah. That's a great way to put it. Let's say you had enough money to not have to do anything you don't want to do. You don't have any bills to pay. Everything's taken care of. You're completely free. Do you still work on the same projects that you're working on? Do you still take the time to come on this podcast? What do you change and how do you think about spending your time and your freedom? Right. Yeah, that's a good question. And I think, you know, I would be doing more or less the exact same thing just because, you know, my cost of living right now is quite low.

And so technically this whole influx of revenue from my icons and all this super sidework,

it's giving me a nice pillow in a sense where I can have the time to do whatever I want any day of the week.

I don't keep much of a schedule either. And so every day is sort of

different. I work on really what interests me. And so money, if I'm breaking it down a little bit more

fundamentally, obviously it's different for everyone. But for me, it really does three things.

One, it allows me to buy things that I think will have an impact on my life, but really don't.

It frees up my time so I can focus on things that I want to do and not have to do. And lastly, it'll relieve any stress that may have been caused by the lack of money beforehand. Yeah. I think those last two of the big ones. And the first one is the thing that everybody chases. Exactly. And you've got to go through that. Yeah. So one of my friends

splurged and bought an Eames chair, E-A-M-E-S, and these are like just super outrageously

fancy, expensive chairs. It's like a lounge chair and an ottoman and it costs like $5,000 or

something. He was super excited to get it. He just wanted to, I guess, sit in his chair all day and

read books and play video games. But these are also kind of the kind of purchases that I think you just, you just acclimate to it. Eventually, this is just what a chair feels like to you. Whereas the freedom type of things, like when you're buying time and you're buying the ability to stop having to do things you don't want, even if that means a job you don't want to go to anymore,

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