That seems like a sensible approach.

The whole area around selfhosting not just the deployment keeps me in somewhat of an analysis paralysis. Like what a reverse proxy is and why it is beneficial, how to set up and configure ssl and the whole area about not using a compromised service kind of keep me from starting.

Locally and not connected to the Internet might be the best way to get started and then I will hopefully someday be able to remotely use my services.