Xcode is how you build a better product, marketing is how you build revenue - never vice-versa. That’s one thing I’ve learned over my previous month or marketing. So, what happened?

Subscribers: 1,988
MRR: $7,633
Trials: 175

Subscribers: 2,220
MRR: $8,775
Trials: 193

So, looks good, right? Well, yeah. But also, I didn’t really do much of anything that I planned to do over the month 😅. The idea was to spend an inordinate of time posting things, engaging the community, writing blogs, and other similar growth stuff.

Elite Hoops is in-season, so I can just leave it alone right now and it’ll (thankfully!) grow. However, life happened over that month. Not to get too T.M.I., but I started seeing a therapist to help me work through some personal things, and that has been both incredibly helpful (good 😌!) and mentally exhausting (blah 😖!).

Regardless, I was able to do two impactful things:

• I worked with EVO Marketing and they did fantastic work. You can check them out here. Not a sponsored post or anything, I just feel it was money well spent.
• I shipped a lead gen tool called The Thompson Twin project. It’s live right here.

EVO

EVO did a few things with me, and after reaching a price I felt good about — we all hopped into a shared Slack channel and went to work. This was my first time using a marketing agency, and I was pleasantly surprised. A few Superwall clients had used them for much larger projects, so I was initially thinking that indies probably weren’t their ideal customer. But, it worked out, and here’s what they did:

• They made a banger Notion doc that summarized Elite Hoops as a product better than I could! I’ve been working on Elite Hoops since October 2023, and it’s insane seeing someone else whose mind works differently be able to articulate what you couldn’t (at least, articulate well). Who is my ICP? What kind of marketing speaks to them? How can you reach them?
• They made 20 video creatives for me.
• They taught me how to run paid ads.
• And, more importantly, they showed me how my current Meta campaign setup is, well, just very, very unoptimized.
• What’s my cost per install? Which ad works the best? LTV? When I was asked this stuff I just waved my hands and said I go on vibes bro.
• And while vibes got me to $9k MRR, it’s time to buckle up a bit more.

Here’s a preview of their Notion package:

Darren, Christian, and co. were great to work with and I’d recommend them to anyone trying to get things to the next level. A positive realization I had working through things with them was that I have clear traction, and people are converting. I just need to get the message out more to take things to that $40k MRR range.

Takeaway: Having someone who does marketing as a job, and breathes it like you do development, is like…kind of a life hack for indies? It seems so obvious, but I have a recalcitrant view on marketing. I don’t enjoy it, but I know it’s vital. They did the things I just don’t want to do.

The Thompson Twins Project

Next, I shipped the Thompson Twins project:

If you aren’t familiar with Amen and Asur Thompson, they are twin guards in the NBA who allegedly did this insane workout growing up. So, I thought it would be fun to codify it, and put it in Elite Hoops. It turned out looking like this:

• A web component, linked above.
• You give me an email, I give you the workout.
• Because the workout is insane, I decided to split it up into a 7 day progression - getting closer to the full routine each day.
• The .pdf turned out nice, I just designed it all in Sketch.
• And, it’s in the iOS app too (app review pending).

I haven’t started marketing this yet, but the email blast and socials will go out soon. The idea is to try and tap into some virality and bring people into the Elite Hoops ecosystem.

Takeaway: These little free tools as a marketing vehicle have worked well for me in the past. Plus. I just love working with next.js - it’s fun! It’s good to have fun, but time will tell if this was worth it or not.

Now What?

The last month was a learning lesson. Thankfully, I spent money on people to help me grow Elite Hoops. Those paid ads are about to start running next week, so that’ll be exciting to see how it plays out. Going forward, I’m going to try and just do a simple “Mon/Tue” marketing flow, then development on the other days. It may seem rigid, but for me, it simply reminds me to do it.

And, there’s plenty to do:

Until next time ✌️

I’ll keep it short — I’m going to focus on doing a month straight of marketing for Elite Hoops. Xcode will only open if it helps me market something. I’ll try to update this post for the next 30 days on what I’ve tried. Check back each day to see what I’m up to. Think of this post as a live journal.

Wednesday, November 5th

• Researched existing social formats to discover videos I could make for paid ads.
• I found about four or five that I think I could turn around fairly quick.
• One question I have on these - do I go with boosted posts, or actual paid ads?
• I’m also looking at blog posts that are evergreen to help with SEO efforts, the Elite Hoops website will be critical moving forward.

Thursday, November 6th

• One ephinany I had — my app is seasonal, and its season right now. So during my seasonal months, I need to triple down on marketing, and in the off-season I should triple down on feature development. I think not crossing those wires is smart.
• I have a meeting with a marketing agency Friday, exicted to see what that brings.
• One idea I have is to piggyback off of viral workouts that NBA stars used to do, maybe I could build those into Elite Hoops somehow.

Friday, November 7th

• Hired a marketing agency, a 30 day agreement. I’m excited about this - it takes the load off of me for creating content. They’re going to do it.
• That also means I’m a bit free to do other stuff, should it be content marketing? Blogs? Plays on YouTube? Where should I go?
• I’m excited about that viral NBA workout idea I had, that’s pulling me in — so I’m going to explore that starting tomorrow.

Saturday, November 8th

• Absolutely nothing, I was at kid’s sporting events all day.

Sunday, November 9th

• And nothing again, I watched football all day and it was great.

Monday, November 10th

• The marketing agency I’m working with is going to produce 20 videos for me, so content wise I’ll be posting those.
• Since that frees me up, I’m going with this “Thompson Twins” workout idea.
• That’ll include a blog post, another “free tool” I think on the Elite Hoops’ website, and I need to add the drills to the app itself.
• Then, I’m thinking an email marketing campaign, along with reels I have around this to promote. This is lead-gen, since it’ll be free.

Also, here’s how I’m kind of thinking about these 30 days in terms of marketing:

Tuesday, November 11th

• I’ve got the “Thompson Twins Workout” idea all fleshed out now. It’s a free tool on the website, and a template workout in the app.
• The website version will actually be a bit more fleshed out, the workout is insane. So I have a 7 day plan .pdf to work up to it (email gated).
• First up, I need to make the actual .pdf…and this is killing me. It’s soul crushing work making it myself, I would be faster doing it in SwiftUI.

Wednesday, November 12th

• I added some more quotes to the basketball quotes post.
• I’m slogging through this .pdf…I hate working on it and I have no idea why. I think because it’s hard for me to make it pretty, easily.
• But, it has to be done because the rest of the project hinges on it.

Thursday, November 13th

• If you were wondering, I still hate this .pdf.
• BUT also, I nailed down the design, and I’m almost done with it! It’s seven pages, so even though I had the content, I needed the design to, well, perfect. It’s the centerpiece of the whole package.
• The marketing agency has nailed down formats and creators, so that should start bearing fruit soon.

Friday, November 14th

• Game planned with my marketing agency, we should have videos next week.
• I updated some blog posts which are starting to rank and drive good SEO results.
• I had to rework some of the workouts for the Thompson Twins workout, but I’m happy with it now.

Saturday, November 15th

• Did nothing!

Sunday, November 16th

• And then I did nothing again!

Monday, November 17th

• Everyone, an announcement: I HAVE FINISHED THE .pdf! What a battle, seven whole pages. But it turned out nice, and I had to nail it.
• Met with the marketing agency, reviewed formats — we’re ready to record!
• Started in on the web dev side of things, which shouldn’t take too long to finish. Famous last words, I guess.

Tuesday, November 18th

• I put together the other assets for the landing page. Now just getting everything in place, and getting the design to look right.
• The copy is…not great, currently. I really need to sell this a bit better, so I’m working through that.
• Marketing agency has been great, they delivered a massive game plan on copy, types of videos, my ICP, just tons of stuff.

Wednesday, November 19th - November29th

• Well, not to get too personal, but…life stuff happened recently. I had to put things down since I had zero mental energy lately.
• But, the marketing agency is paying off! They’ve delivered over ten video ads, with copy, targeting advice and more for me to try.
• Next, they are delivering UGC content.
• Now that I’m back in the saddle, I’ve picked up The Thompson Twins project. Today, I’m getting the landing page design finished.

Sunday, November 30th

• The Thompson Twins project is live! Check it out here!
• Tomorrow, I meet with the marketing agency about posting strategies for the content they’ve made me.

Monday, December 1st - December 4th

• Wrapping up! The marketing agency and I had a wrap up call.
• I have clear next steps to try in terms of ads.
• And we’re done! Look for a wrap up post coming tomorrow.

Until next time ✌️

One of my goals this year was to localize my soccer app into German, French and Spanish. With the nascent String Catalogs, and Xcode’s 26 on-device inference engine for creating comments about what each String represents, it felt like the time was right.

Ah, the time was right, but my code was not. I was using plain String types in a lot of places, and a String catalog won’t pick those up for translation:

enum AppTab: String, CaseIterable {
    case teams, drills, practices
}

// Later on, a simplified example...
ForEach(AppTab.allCases) { tab in 
    Text(tab.rawValue)
}

This is easy to miss, because SwiftUI does a fantastic job and opting you into using localizable String types, even if you don’t realize it:

Text("Make localizing your app easy!")

Under the hood, that string is a LocalizedStringKey, which means a String Catalog will pick it up for translation:

init(
    _ key: LocalizedStringKey,
    tableName: String? = nil,
    bundle: Bundle? = nil,
    comment: StaticString? = nil
)

Going forward, I’ve started writing String variables, parameters, and anything else that’ll show in a UI (which, well, Strings tend to do…all the time) using LocalizedStringKey — there’s no code changes you need to make when you swap this with a String type, plus you get the String Catalog support:

// From this
struct AnotherView: View {
    let headerText: String // <-- Won't show in String Catalog
    
    var body: some View {
        Text(headerText)
    }
}


// To this
struct AnotherView: View {
    let headerText: LocalizedStringKey // <-- Will show in String Catalog
    
    var body: some View {
        Text(headerText)
    }
}

To follow up on the first example:

enum AppTab: String, CaseIterable {
    case teams = String(localized: "Teams"), drills = String(localized: "Drills"), practices = String(localized: "Practices")
}

The same goes if you have interpolated Strings, using String(localized:comment:) does the trick:

// From this
let result = model.didGeneratePlan ? "Practice plan ready!" : "Failed to generate plan."

// To this
let result = model.didGeneratePlan ? String(localized: "Practice plan ready!") : String(localized: "Failed to generate plan.")

My Localization “Stack”

It took the better part of my side project time last week, but I was able to complete a full translation to three new languages in Elite Soccer Club. It’s rolling out in v1.2.0 once App Review gives it its blessing, along with lineup sharing, Elite Hoops’ popular practice planner but retooled for soccer, and quite a bit more.

Here’s what I used to get my “v1” of localizations done:

• I converted all String types to LocalizedStringKey, and any inline Strings to String(localized:).
• I created String Catalogs, and downloaded the on-device model to create comments.
• Following Daniel Saidi’s fantastic blog post, I used Cursor and Claude to translate over 3,000 items.
• Then, using ButterKit, I paid the easiest $30 of my life, plugged in my OpenAI key, and had it translate all of the screenshot text.

• Superwall automatically translated all of my paywalls to three languages in under 30 seconds. This feature is absolutely insane.

• And finally, I died inside while updating 6,000,000 things in App Store Connect — which would randomly lose images I uploaded constantly. This was not fun.

I feel like that gave me an incredible start, and a sign of the times that I could even do all of this within a week. While I am completely sure some of the translations won’t land, it’s better than not having anything. I plan on iterating when I get feedback to make things better, but also - Xcode’s comment generation surely helped AI translation since it had the extra context. I augmented the prompt in the blog linked above to make sure they were considered.

Until next time ✌️

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like we’re seeing quite a bit more custom controls in iOS apps lately. My theory? It’s a direct result of SwiftUI, wherein its composable nature makes them easier to architect when contrasted to UIKit. Override init(frame:)? Nah, just toss a VStack out there and add what you need.

The barrier to entry is lower, but the risk for tomfoolery has scaled linearly.

Thankfully, Apple has done a phenomenal job of keeping these controls accessible. Most of it, true to form, “just works” — but some of it doesn’t. So here’s a quick guide to follow, should you consider a custom control. Our subject matter for this post? This little toggle-segment guy found in Alyx:

For custom controls, there are three rules I try to follow. Each custom control should be:

1. Learnable: If something is not obvious to use, people will not use it at all.

2. Memorable: If something has no obvious reason to be used in lieu of the system control, reconsider making it.

3. Accessible: If something can’t be used by everyone, then it probably shouldn’t be shipped to anyone.

So, back to my toggle guy.

Learnable

Is this learnable? I think so, because it passes the visual inspection test. If someone looks at it, they are likely to understand why it’s there and what it might do (regardless as to whether or not they are privy to the tech scene). Here, they are likely to think, “This seems like a toggle.” That’s not by accident, as a Picker with the segmented style is a prevalent SwiftUI control, whose roots go back to UISegmentedControl (a control that’s been around so long iOS wasn’t even called iOS when it first shipped, it was iPhoneOS).

Like other controls, if it works, then it inherently becomes more flexible, too. I have another similar variant of the same control I use to toggle dates, it’s mostly the same but just a smidge tinier:

There is a tolerance scale you have to weigh here, and finding the balance on it doesn’t come naturally to a lot of us. It’s easy to make a custom control because you can, it’s not exactly hard anymore. Always pump the brakes first, and ask yourself if the control will be understood at first glance. If the cognitive load to understand it is high, then the reason to ship it should be low.

Memorable

But (and there’s always a "but", isn’t there?)!

There is, of course, a spectrum here — because part of the joy of custom controls can be discovery. If the intent is to drive home some selective emphasis and joy, I tend to think that’s a completely legitimate reason to make a custom control. We can wax poetic about how boring software is now, but…actually — yeah, let’s keep doing that! Adding a little splash of creativity to your app can be endearing, and it can also make it memorable.

There are different ways to be memorable, though, and many of them have nothing (at least, directly) to do with jolts of pure creativity. For example, when Loren Brichter created the pull to refresh UX, I assume that it wasn’t exactly created to be splashy, nor was it the product of a need to express a creative outlet, it just made more sense than we had been doing. The rest, is of course, cemented in history on your phone right now. We all pull to refresh.

As such, my decision to make the custom toggle in Alyx was a creative one. I wanted to reinforce its branding, the roundy-ness, bouncy and playful tone of the app, that nothing is really that serious here. And, it was just a gut call to assume that this one was better than the stock one for my use case:

My version

Stock version

Accessible

Of course, if it’s not accessible then you’ll run into a whole host of issues. Empathy is the best teacher, and it wasn’t until I personally met someone who relied on accessibility features on their phone that I truly grasped how critical it is to consider. While you can easily say it’s the right thing to do, I think that’s an obvious argument to make. Of course it is!

Beyond that, custom controls that fully support all accessibility contexts also have an air of craftsmanship to them that not everyone is willing to achieve. And, it’s so easy to do that now! Apple has a killer API for custom controls and accessibility, .accessibilityRepresentation. This lets you vend an entirely different control to the accessibility engine in place of the one that you’ve made.

Why is that critical? Because you can pass off Apple’s controls! And guess what? They’ve thought about more accessibility edge cases than you or I have. So, here, that could look something like this:

HStack {
    theControl
        .accessibilityRepresentation {
            Picker("", selection: $inputMode) {
                ForEach(PresentationInput.allCases) { mode in
                    Button {
                        update(to: mode)
                    } label: {
                        Image(systemName: mode.glyph)
                    }
                }
            }
            .pickerStyle(.segmented)
    }
}

Now, the accessibility engine will see Apple’s far superior accessibility implementation. When Apple shipped this change, it became immediately obvious that this was the best way to handle similar situations — I couldn’t believe A) I had never thought of it, and B) it didn’t ship with SwiftUI 1.0. It’s a literal cheat code for a good accessibility outcome.

Even though I just mentioned there is a little hint of craftsmenship to fantastic accessibility support in custom controls, on second thought — the APIs, SwiftUI and UIKit have become so accessible by default that it’s almost harder to make something not accessible. That’s a good place to be.

So that’s my thought process. Learnable, memorable and accessible. If your custom control passes that smell test, then you’re probably heading down a good path.

Until next time ✌️

The Scenario

Create an interactive snippet view with buttons, powered by App Intents.

import SwiftUI
import AppIntents

// 1

struct FirstIntent: AppIntent {
    static let title: LocalizedStringResource = "Initial Intent"
    static let description: IntentDescription = "Boots into the snippet"

    func perform() async throws -> some ShowsSnippetIntent {
        .result(snippetIntent: CounterSnippetIntent())
    }
}

struct CounterSnippetIntent: SnippetIntent {
    static let title: LocalizedStringResource = "Counter Snippet"
    static let description: IntentDescription = "Shows an interactive counter"

    @Dependency var model: SnippetModel

    @MainActor
    func perform() async throws -> some IntentResult & ShowsSnippetView {
        .result(view: CounterSnippetView(model: model))
    }
}

// 2

struct CounterSnippetView: View {
    let model: SnippetModel

    private var count: Int { model.count }

    var body: some View {
        VStack(spacing: 12) {
            Text("Count: \(count)")
                .font(.title2).bold()
                .contentTransition(.numericText())
            HStack(spacing: 24) {
                Button(intent: DecrementCountIntent(current: count)) {
                    Image(systemName: "minus.circle.fill").font(.largeTitle)
                }
                Button(intent: IncrementCountIntent(current: count)) {
                    Image(systemName: "plus.circle.fill").font(.largeTitle)
                }
            }
        }
        .padding()
    }
}

// 3

struct DecrementCountIntent: AppIntent {
    static let title: LocalizedStringResource = "Decrease"
    static let isDiscoverable = false

    @Dependency var model: SnippetModel
    @Parameter var current: Int

    @MainActor
    func perform() async throws -> some IntentResult {
        model.count = max(0, current - 1)
        return .result()
    }
}

extension DecrementCountIntent {
    init(current: Int) { self.current = current }
}

struct IncrementCountIntent: AppIntent {
    static let title: LocalizedStringResource = "Increase"
    static let isDiscoverable = false

    @Dependency var model: SnippetModel
    @Parameter var current: Int

    @MainActor
    func perform() async throws -> some IntentResult {
        model.count = current + 1
        return .result()
    }
}

extension IncrementCountIntent {
    init(current: Int) { self.current = current }
}

// 4

@MainActor
final class SnippetModel {
    static let shared = SnippetModel()

    private init() {}

    var count: Int = 0
}

// In your app..
import AppIntents

@main
struct MyApp: App {
    init() {
        let model = SnippetModel.shared
        AppDependencyManager.shared.add(dependency: model)
    }

    var body: some Scene {
        WindowGroup {
            ContentView()
        }
    }
}

With that, the we get an interactive snippet whose view stay presented even when you interact with the buttons:

The Breakdown

Step 1
You start with an AppIntent which returns ShowsSnippetIntent. The SnippetIntent itself vends the interactive view, its return type is ShowsSnippetView.

Step 2
The CounterSnippetView is a view which takes in any dependencies it needs, here — that’s our model. It’ll have buttons which give it interactivity, but they must fire an AppIntent, and when it does — it’ll reload the interactive snippet.

Step 3
These two AppIntent structs mutate the data, and they are wired up to the button. They’ve both set isDiscoverable to false since they don’t make sense to use anywhere else.

Step 4
Finally, you must add the depedency to your intents. You do that by adding it AppDependencyManager. Then, it’s available to any intent reaching for it via @Dependency.

Until next time ✌️