It’s been about a month since I first introduced the 0 to >1 Bedroom Challenge, the IRL zero-to-hero/something-from-nothing challenge to not only prove how my consulting strategies using applied game theory work, but to address problems and obstacles in my own life while I do it.
Moving forward, the challenge will be referred to as 0→1BrC because that looks cooler and is easier to type.
This will be the first of the series’ monthly updates, establishing the baseline to which all future updates will be compared against. I’ll review concepts from the previous entry, explain what’s going well and what isn’t, and how to troubleshoot one of the problems I may have encountered to give you an idea of where to start coming up with your own solutions. For this entry, I’ve got a few friends ask me about knowing how to pace your progress: how do you know how fast or slow to move on your goals?
With that in mind, I’ve been eager to share this first update with you. It’s been a minute so let’s dive into it.
In this post, we’ll explore the following…
A quick refresher on the 0→1BrC and my starting strategies.
What opening moves I chose based on those strategies and any early progress so far.
How to determine the speed to pursue your goals and leveraging foundational actions to move multiple goals forward simultaneously.
What’s next for both the series itself and my next moves for the challenge.
The Challenge Thus Far…
In the last article, we covered a lot of ground (which makes sense, what with it being the setup for this whole challenge). Here are the highlights:
Game theory is the source code of life and has five parts (players, outcomes, restrictions, strategies, and variables).
To solve a problem or overcome a challenge using game theory, first name the challenge… In this case, the 0 to >1 bedroom challenge will be where I try to find financial stability while upgrading my living situation.
Then, choose four goals (outcomes)…
Eliminate my outstanding debt and establish a safety net.
Buy a house/condo/duplex/townhome OR find a new place to live in general.
Become more creative and calm, focusing first on creating something for myself to then share with others.
Develop better cooking, meal prep, and nutrition habits.
Then, choose 5-8 non-negotiables (restrictions) to build habits around…
I’m not required or expected to work at a specific place at a specific time with the exception of meetings.
I refuse to people please anymore.
I have to be able to create things and follow my various muses.
I must create at least five pieces of media each week.
I will not eat in areas designated specifically for work.
I will work out at least 3-5 times a week in any way I choose.
I will express gratitude or appreciation to at least one person a day.
Once you have your outcomes and restrictions, choose your opening strategies. Mine are…
Start buying in bulk and setting aside time to meal prep in advance.
Stop ordering take out and eating out (with the exception of special occasions or meals with clients).
Create more content to increase visibility and authority.
Experiment with better ways to serve my current clients.
Experiment with new ways of outreach.
Turn those strategies into actions…
Start posting weekly blog posts and content; repurpose old articles and create some videos from the first 0→1BrC article.
Choose 2-3 recipes to meal prep what I currently have on hand and store them in the freezer to maximize shelf-life.
Go through prospect lists of commercial clients and identify content and outreach opportunities with an A/B test campaign for mailing.
Test a retainer arrangement with current clients to establish better monthly recurring revenue (MRR).
Test a pay-what-you-want resume writing service for people who need help finding more work.
No matter what you do, just do things.
Perfect is the enemy of good; start imperfectly and adjust and clean up later.
Now, to keep me accountable, I’ve come up with a few measurable stats for each of the goals. This will be our starting benchmark:
Eliminate outstanding debt and establish a safety net.
Balance between expenses vs. total income: -5.79% (negatives mean I’m short by that much each month)
Money left over each month (cashflow): -6.14% 💀
Credit utilization ratio: 97.51% 💀💀
How much of my income goes to housing, utilities, and insurance: 48.38% (should be decreasing to less than 33%)
Savings (days/% to one month’s expenses): 2.7 days/9% to one month’s expenses
Buy a house/condo/duplex/townhome OR find a new place. PAUSED TO FOCUS ON GOALS 1, 3, and 4.
Become more creative and calm.
Create five pieces of content a week: March 2026 average was 0.5/week (at least we’re starting somewhere).
Develop better cooking, meal prep, and nutrition habits.
Consecutive days of not eating out (except for special occasions or work functions): Long streak was 2 days.
Opening Moves: Setting Up a Solid Foundation
Over the past few weeks, I’ve already made some progress on the initial strategies I listed:
Start posting weekly blog posts and content; repurpose old articles and create some videos from the first 0→1BrC article. I already posted one article last week on using whimsy to overcome executive dysfunction and existential dread. With this one plus two more in the chamber, that’ll bring my average up to one post a week (I’m only counting from the first full week onward). I also plan on releasing 2-4 shorts based on this content and at least one long-form video based on the first 0→1BrC article. We’ll see if I’m successful but that’s a good chunk of content to start with. If I can create at that pace, I’ll maintain it for the next two months and increase from there; if not, I’ll ratchet it down a little bit.
Choose 2-3 recipes to meal prep what I currently have on hand and store them in the freezer to maximize shelf-life. I’ve started by buying a few pounds of chicken thighs, lightly seasoning them (salt, pepper, and Oktoberfest spices from Spice House which is nice on its own but versatile enough for different cuisines), baking them, and then using the chicken for other dishes. For instance, tonight I used two of the thighs for dinner alongside veggies and mashed potatoes. The other thighs will either be shredded for quesadillas, soup, and tacos or diced up nice and small for chicken salad for sandwiches and wraps. The shredded chicken will be frozen and thawed as needed to maximize shelf-life.
Test a retainer arrangement with current clients to establish better monthly recurring revenue (MRR). Two of my clients were happy and willing to test out a monthly retainer model which, in turn, improved my MRR. These two clients account for roughly 75% of my income to break even on expenses; the other 25% is usually filled by ad-hoc work, Discord subscription revenue, and the occasional merch sale, though this isn’t guaranteed (you might have noticed I was short by about 6% of what I needed last month). Still, MRR is what breaks the feast-and-famine cycle. Once I do that, I’ll have much more flexibility with that extra income and how to use it.
These are the strategies I listed but haven’t started quite yet:
Go through prospect lists of commercial clients and identify content and outreach opportunities with an A/B test campaign for mailing. I have a couple hundred businesses across six lists to go through. Needless to say, it’s a lot but I want to get the content and digital groundwork done first so that when I start my test campaigns, I have landing pages to send them to with calls to action that get them moving in the right direction.
Test a pay-what-you-want resume writing service for people who need help finding more work. This remains an idea for now but I hope to move on it closer to the end of the month or early May.
Finally, these are strategies I didn’t initially intend but grew organically from others I was working on:
Update my internal project management to remove friction and decision paralysis. With the new client retainer model, I needed to adjust my workflows in Notion to generate reports and track projects better. I’ve also started using what I call a “ladder” method where I alternate between different sets of projects; one set is client work, the other set is S2C work. The alternation also helps with my executive dysfunction issues by creating novelty, making me more productive and engaged.
Update the website with new information, testimonials, and an intro to services. To support my marketing push, I need landing page for new leads. That’s currently the “Start Here” page. I also updated the site’s template, layout, and internal analytics to better track performance (I’m still dialing things in so if some colors are a little off, it’s a ✨process✨).
Limit myself to only one food delivery and three in-person takeout meals a week. While it’s not fully jumping into cooking solely at home, shifting the balance more to that is better than no change at all or trying to change, failing, and the habits remaining unchanged. This gives me a little bit of wiggle room and grace so that I can build better habits while respecting the struggle of executive dysfunction compounding by not eating regularly.
Tuning Trajectories: Knowing How Fast or Slow to Move Towards Your Goals
The short answer to finding the right pacing is to go as fast as you’re comfortable.
In my case, because I’m working with few resources and within a tiny margin of error, every choice matters. And while I don’t want to multitask to the point of burning myself out, I’ll start by breaking big actions into smaller steps (and, in some cases, those small steps into even smaller components). However, I wrap these components back up into what I call foundational actions that, instead of multitasking, a single task or action checks multiple boxes.
Take meal prep and cutting down on eating out for example. Instead of cutting out restaurants entirely, I limit myself to one meal delivery and three in-person takeout meals.
However, just this one change has a staggering positive effect in saving money just on food costs:
Ordering delivery, which was once the default, was about $30-$40 every meal.
Getting food in-person at a restaurant is usually about $15-$25 every meal.
Ready-to-eat meals from the grocery store are roughly $8-$12 a serving.
Prepping meals from scratch is even cheaper; my dinner of chicken thighs, mashed potatoes, roasted green beans, and juice was about $6.
Keep in mind, it’s not like I was DoorDashing three meals a day. I’d often eat only once which, as you can imagine, isn’t the healthiest habit. Still, three meals from scratch at home is cheaper than a single delivery meal. So, let’s make grocery shopping the foundational action.
Though this fits in with Goal #4 (meal prepping and cooking more) and Goal #1 (cutting down expenses to then eliminate debt and build savings), it can also satisfy parts of Goal #3 (be more calm and confident which is helped by working out more). To get my 3-5 times of weekly exercise (one of my non-negotiables), I’ll only go to restaurants I can walk to within a 25-minute window one way.
I also have two grocery stores within walking distance. While I usually set up a big delivery order on a biweekly basis for canned, dry, and frozen goods in bulk, I don’t mind making smaller grocery trips for specific items I prefer picking out myself while taking advantage of in-store sales.
By changing habits and bundling them into one foundational action, I’ve managed to move the progress needle in a few ways:
I’ve more than halved my daily food expenses while increasing my daily meals from one to three.
Eating more regularly has helped with my executive dysfunction, making me more productive and better able to handle other tasks.
I’ve become more skilled at meal prep, leveraging what dopamine I have to make big batches of food or prep ingredients to then turn into other dishes to keep things from getting boring or wasting food.
Walking saves money on gas while providing exercise, sunlight, and time for me to clear my mind (I won’t look at my phone at all when I’m out, sometimes even leaving it at home since I’m so close by).
The balance between a biweekly bulk grocery order with multiple small trips makes it easier for me to manage my pantry, knowing what I need and minimizing waste.
While I’m not exactly at where I want to be (there’s still some eating out beyond my non-negotiable allowance of client meals and special occasions), the point is to build consistency. As someone who’s dabbled in strongman training, if you want to be able to carry over 300 pounds on your back, you need to start with 50. There’s no shame in starting as low as you need to, nor taking the time you need to get to where you want to be.
Consistency always wins, for better (in the case of good habits and foundational actions) or worse (in the case of bad habits you struggle to shake).
What’s Next?
As this is my first benchmark to 0→1BrC, next month will provide the first update we can get some comparisons and check progress. I plan to update this series once a month while I work on other content that dives deeper with some of the concepts I mention here. I’ll keep these all the same format: a quick review of the last post, what’s working, what isn’t, and troubleshooting some problems.
As always, if you have any questions, leave them in the comments or ask me when you talk with me next (if that’s the kinda relationship we have). I’ll be happy to answer them or even write up some content about it if I think it can help more people.
And if you’ve decided to start your own IRL zero-to-hero challenge, share that with me too. I’d love to hear about what you’re working on and have more accountability buddies.
But no matter what, remember: it’s better to take imperfect action that you can improve upon than stay stuck in a place you don’t want to be.
And, like I just said, you don’t have to do it alone.
Game in thumbnail: Evil Genius 2 (Rebellion Developments)