Thanks for a great season, and for all of the positive comments. If you love the show, consider leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts: https://lovethepodcast.com/stackingbricks

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But as a self-published digital author himself, Jonathan also wanted to grill me on exactly how we launched The Tiny MBA and sold thousands of copies without a publishing deal...and without boxes of books sitting in my basement.

So I indulged him!

In this episode, you're going to hear my answers to Jonathan's questions about:

• Why we decided to make The Tiny MBA a physical, printed book in the first place
• How and why we picked our printing and distribution partner (and why it's not Amazon)
• And Jonathan and I riff on my new "secret weapon" for building pre-launch momentum, and why it created a 90% conversion rate and some of the fastest sales I've ever seen.

I also learned that Jonathan went to music school, and the comparison he draws in the first few moments between learning both business and music through style practices still has me thinking about it weeks later!

I'm excited to see Jonathan ship his first paperback book in the future, and if you're inspired to consider self-publishing a print book, I hope the stories and suggestions in this episode help you too.

WIth that, let's get into my conversation with Jonathan Stark from the Ditching Hourly podcast.

Ready? Here we go.

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In the next 30 minutes, you'll hear Eteinne and I talk about:
- the surprising origin of Sales Safari itself
- what we really mean when we say "customer pain" and the many forms it can take
- why strategically choosing an audience is actually a lot more straightforward than most entrepreneurs make it
 

...and a whole lot more.

In the full interview, we also talked about a bunch of other topics related to entrepreneurship and some of Eteinne's favorite lessons in The Tiny MBA, but you're here for the Sales Safari so I'm jumping straight into that here on the podcast feed!

This is some of the most in-depth information we've ever published about Sales Safari outside of our paid courses, so I'm excited to share it and hope it helps you understand and reach your audiences.

Ready? Here we go. 

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Dave is one of the best people I can think of to talk to about this because as a designer and a strategist, He spent a lot of his career thinking about the implications of bias on our work as creators.

And one of the things I've heard Dave talk about over and over and over is how so many of the ethical problems we face in business today might actually be designed problems that we can better solve. And in some cases only solve. If we first understand to the cognitive biases that those problems are rooted in.

Dave has spent so much time thinking about bias that he literally wrote a book about it called Design for Cognitive Bias, about how to understand the impact of biases on our customers, our teams, even ourselves. 

The book is amazing. Everyone who makes things should absolutely read it.

Back to ethics and capitalism. Seemingly opposing forces. Right? 

Well, in this episode, we're going to be talking about:

•  the impact of survivorship bias on the kinds of businesses that people start and grow
• the relationships that exist between money and power 
• and a very unexpected segue into an episode of the nineties TV show dinosaurs that I promise is more relevant than you could possibly imagine.

If you enjoy this conversation, I highly recommend going and checking out. Dave's aptly named Cognitive Bias Podcast for other similar in-depth discussions with industry experts, and then go back and check out these super bingeable back catalog of his 5 to 10 minute episodes where he explores one bias in each one. It's truly a treasure trove of how our we're human brains work. 

But now, and here, I hope you enjoy this wide ranging discussion about the get rich quick scheme that we call America with David Dylan Thomas. Here we go. 

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One of the things I don't think we talk about enough is how the bosses we've had inform the bosses we become, and that includes becoming our own bosses too.

A few weeks back I had the chance to sit down with Lauren Williams from Workplace Harmony and the host of a very fun show called "Caffeinated Convos and Horrible Bosses" where she asks her guests to share their best stories about the worst bosses they've had, and try to learn lessons that can make us better bosses today.

Lauren and I talked more about my backstory and The Tiny MBA on her show, which you can go listen to at anchor.fm/horriblebosses, and dig into her archive for more horrible boss catharsis.

But in today's mini-episode, I share:

- My horrible boss story, and how it informed my approach to business
- As well as the impact one amazing boss has had on my life in ways that still impacts me, more than 15 years later.

All that and more inside this caffeinated conversation with my new friend, Lauren Williams. Here we go.

Find Lauren on Social Media
Twitter: @LaurenShazzam
Instagram: @workplaceharmonyHR
FB: Workplace Harmony

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I'm bringing you an episode from a brand new show called "Grow the Show" by my friend Kevin Chemidlin and his podcast company, Cue 9 productions.

As you might imagine from my repetition of the word "show" this is a podcast about...podcasts. More specifically, it's FOR podcasters. Ya see, Kevin is a professional podcaster himself, now producing successful shows of his own as well as for others. He recently started helping his fellow podcasters - as the title of his new podcast would suggest - grow their show.

GTS is a little less of an "interview' show and more focused on making sure each episode teaches a very specific lesson, from a very specific aspect of starting, growing, and even making money with podcasts. 

The expert just before me was Eric Nuzum, whos name you might not know but whose work you likely do: it includes a bunch of NPR shows like Invisibilia and TED radio hour.

On my episode of Grow the Show, we did something I hadn't had a chance to do yet: we looked at the lessons in The Tiny MBA through a very specific lens, exploring how the book applies to podcasters! We go very deep and specific into:

• how to find your audience on the internet
• the specific, concrete elements of audience building and effective self promotion
• and how to reach them without feeling (or looking like) a spammer.

Kevin's new show is great, and I'm excited to see what he does with in the coming months, so if you enjoy this one go search out "grow the show" wherever you get podcasts.

If you enjoy this deep dive on audience building with Kevin Chemidlin, make sure you go check out my full episode of Grow the Show along with the other episodes. Here we go.

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Nilofer comes with some serious credentials:

• She's worked as an executive and strategic consultant at massive companies like Apple, Adobe, Autodesk, Nokia, and many more
• She's shipped 18 Billion (with a B!) dollars in products across her 25 year career
• She's famous for (but not always known as the source of) the phrase "sitting is the smoking of our generation" from her viral TED talk by the same name
• She's written three business books, and currently writes an advice column about making hard business and life decisions that I highly recommend subscribing to: https://atwork.substack.com

But don't get it twisted: unlike many voices in positions of corporate power, Nilofer is a creator like you and me, and uses her position and experience in the business world to make the business world a better place for more people.

Nilofer is one of us :)

Which part of why I asked her to write the forward for my book, The Tiny MBA.

And here's the thing: whenever I have a conversation with Nilofer, we end up somewhere much deeper and more meaningful than where we started. We have a rapport that lets us skip the pleasantries and get right to the real stuff.

So in today's episode, Nilofer and I are inviting you into one of those conversations.

In this conversation we talk about everything from:

• How we learned to seek and understand patterns in business
• What we've learned from our careers of giving professional advice
• And why peeing in the pool is a problem

And a lot, lot more.

With that, let's get into this very special episode with Nilofer Merchant. Here we go.

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And this time, I took a virtual trip to India to visit to my friends Mayur and Shai-zada on the Remote Explorers Podcast where they talk about remote work and more generally, the culture of work.

In the full episode that you can find on their podcast feed, we talked a lot about the current and future state of coworking, but here on Stacking the Bricks I pulled out some of the highlights about business, entrepreneurship, and education that are most relevant to you, including:

• The three most valuable parts of a college education, and why it might be more valuable for some people than others
• Where the "Tiny" in Tiny MBA came from
• And since this is a podcast about remote work, a few of my best tips for adapting to remote work (hint: it's got nothing to do with software)

So with that, I hope you enjoy this very special presentation from the Mayur and Shaizada, the Remote Explorers. Here we go!

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And this time, I paid a visit to Will Toms and the REC Philly community here in Philadelphia. 

REC - which stands for "resources for every creator" - is a pretty incredible community and resource center geared towards helping artists, musicians, and other creators turn their creative skills into real business opportunities.

Just last year, they opened an amazing facility for that community of creatives, sort of like a gym but with digital audio stations and recording studios instead of treadmills and weights.

I also admire their dedication to education, and making sure that their community knows how to make the most of having access to those incredibly powerful tools.

But most of all, I love the people. The staff, the leadership, and every community member I've met at REC is smart and creative, some of the best Philly has to offer.

So I was excited when the team invited me to one of their "creator sessions" to share some stories and lessons surrounding one of my personal favorite lessons in The Tiny MBA: Audience Building Building Trust at Scale.

The entire session is more than twice as long as what's here on our podcast, and includes parts of my personal business story. You can check that out on REC Philly's youtube channel.

But here on the feed, I jumped straight to the lessons. In fact, you'll hear me give details and context for ten of MY favorite lessons that I hand picked specifically for this audience of creators, and why I picked each one.

After sharing these lessons, I was joined on the virtual stage by REC Philly co-founder and my good friend Will Toms. Will is one of my favorite interviewers and moderators to watch work, so for me, being on the receiving end of his questions was a LOT of fun and for you, you're gonna get some new answers that you definitely haven't heard me talk about anywhere!

Some of my fav questions from Will and the audience include:

- The importance of listening as a business skill, and how you can practice it.
- Where I learned how to sell people back their time and confidence.
- And how much sharing is oversharing.

I love any chance to jam with the REC Philly crew, and I'm very excited to share this session with you.

So with that, I hope you enjoy this very special presentation from the REC Philly archives. Here we go!

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We'll not necessarily JUST like you, because you might have noticed that these last few conversations have been visits to podcasts hosted by dudes!

Thankfully, I was able to end this white-male-podcast-host streak by visiting with Colleen Schnettler and Michele Hansen on the Software Social Podcast.

Among a sea of white dudes talking about how awesome they are, Michele and Colleen's show stands out as something...special and needed. It feels less like an interview, and more like two smart professional friends offering weekly stories and support about what's going on in their respective businesses.

I love shows like this, that feel more like a human conversation that we, the audience, just get to listen in to.

So if you're into software and business, and like me want to hear more diverse voices talking about the things we're interested in, I highly recommend checking out their podcast backlog after you're done tuning into this one.

So, about this episode!

Like the last several podcast hosts I've visited, Colleen and Michele have recently read my new book The Tiny MBA, and true to form we had a great time going deeper into their favorite lessons from the book to help you get an even better understanding of how these lessons might be valuable for you.

I found it especially interesting how Michele and Colleen both took valuable lessons from the book, even though they are at very different stages of their businesses!

So in this episode, we talk about:

- Why education is the most effective marketing you can create
- How psychology can be thought of as "debugging, for people"
- And why one question in The Tiny MBA left Colleen feeling TERRIFIED.

Don't worry, by the time we were done with the conversation, she wasn't feeling terrified anymore, and maybe even excited to take on the challenge I proposed.

So with that, let's get into this...maybe my favorite episode of The Tiny MBA podcast tour to date.

I hope you enjoy this in depth conversation I had with Michele and Colleen on the Software Social Podcast. Here we go!

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In THIS episode I visited with Tony Lopes on the Self Made Strategies Podcast, where he  explores modern collaboration, craft, and persistence.

In this shorter excerpt from the longer conversation you can find on his site, we talk about:

- The biggest hurdles and challenges in publishing a book (hint - it's not writing a book).
- Making reversible decisions
- And what people get wrong about risk - keep in mind that Tony is a lawyer!

And a whole lot more!

With that, I hope you enjoy this in depth conversation I had with Tony. Here we go!

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In THIS episode I visited with Matthew Arnold on the Iowa Idea podcast, where he  explores modern collaboration, craft, and persistence.

We talk about:

- Why businesses - especially agencies - get distracted by awards

- What it means to "flintstone" your work

- And what people get wrong about passion

And a whole lot more!

With that, I hope you enjoy this in depth conversation I had with Matt. Here we go. 

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In today's episode, I visit with Brendan Hufford from the SEO for the Rest of Us podcast to talk about some of his favorite lessons from The Tiny MBA.

We talk about:

• Learning and feedback loops
• Building in public
• The valuable knowledge that's often locked up behind closed doors

In the full episode (which you can watch on Brendan's youtube channel) we talk more about the backstory and design of the book, so you can go check that out over there if you like. 

But for here on the stacking, the bricks feed, I jumped straight to the part where we start talking about the lessons that Brendan learned from the book and wanted to share.

I hope you enjoy this in depth conversation with Brendan and I. Lets go!

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And today I'm sharing an episode from a live stream that I did with Ken Rimple and Becca Refford at Chariot Solutions, an enterprise tech consulting firm right here in Philadelphia. Chariot is a big force in the Philadelphia tech community, doing lots of great things for technologists in the region.

In today's episode, we riffed on a few of Ken and Becca's favorite nuggets from the book, including:

• The power of slowing down to take a look for hidden C
• The real reason self-promotion feels achy to you. 
• And we explored a hidden theme of "wellness" in the book!

Also, a quick shout out to Hannah Litvin, the designer behind The Tiny MBA. In this episode, we talk a little bit about her designs and the design process that we went through together. 

If you're thinking about creating a book of our own, and are interested in hiring a designer, you should absolutely check her out: https://www.behance.net/hannahlitvin

If you're interested in my full backstory, you can and should go check out the full episode The Tech Cast youtube channel: 

But for here on the stacking, the bricks feed, I jumped straight to the part where we start talking about the lessons of the book.

I hope you enjoy this in depth conversation with Ken Rimple and Becker Refford from Chariot Solutions.

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Over the coming weeks I'm going to be adding new episodes to the Stacking the Bricks feed to highlight conversations that I've been having across the internet with creators and entrepreneurs.

Why have I been having these conversations?

One: I'm stuck at home, just like you!
But two: I have a new book, The Tiny MBA

• 100 Very Short Lessons about the Long Game of Business
• Short enough to read in 20-30 mins
• Available as an ebook but also for the first time, a paperback book!

Today's episode is one of the first conversations I had about the book, with Louis Nicholls from the Sales for Founders podcast.

Louie was one of the beta readers, and invited me to kick off a new seasons of his show to talk about the book and to go deep on a few of the lessons inside.

I'll let him introduce the episode in a moment, but if you want to get your own copy of The Tiny MBA, you can go to https://tiny.mba to order it in paperback or ebook formats, OR find it on the amazon kindle store.

With that, here's Louis. Oh, and go subscribe to his show too: https://pod.salesforfounders.com

Enjoy.

Full and Interactive Transcript available for this episode: http://stackingthebricks.com/podcast/ep30-sales-for-founders--the-tiny-mba/

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Find out how he changed course to build a different business that DOES let him travel and spend more time with his family, while helping his growing audience of professional photographers.

Links & show notes

• Nate's website: http://natephotographic.com/
• The Film Guides that started it all: http://natephotographic.com/vsco-film/
• Nate Johnson's Twitter: https://twitter.com/firstnate
• Nate Johnson's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/firstnate/?

Additional Episodes, Essays, and more

• Stacking the Bricks: http://stackingthebricks.com
• Amy Hoy: https://twitter.com/amyhoy
• Alex HIllman: https://twitter.com/alexhillman

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Brennan has come a long way since he joined 30x500 with the idea to build and AirBnB for homecooked meals...and in this episode you're going to learn how he built his empire by stacking the bricks.

Links & show notes

• Brennan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/brennandunn
• Brennan's Double your Freelancing: https://doubleyourfreelancing.com
• Brennan's Drip Automation & Personalization Course: https://doubleyourfreelancing.com/drip-course/
• Rightmessage: https://rightmessage.io/stackingthebricks
• Churnbuster: https://churnbuster.io

Additional Episodes, Essays, and more

• Stacking the Bricks: http://stackingthebricks.com
• Amy Hoy: https://twitter.com/amyhoy
• Alex HIllman: https://twitter.com/alexhillman

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Today, $15,000 in sales of his book "Pure React" later, he knows how to create new, bigger products for his loyal and growing audience.

In this episode, you'll find out how he stopped thinking of himself as a "lifer" at a cushy job to being in control of his professional future.

And - YES - the Stacking the Bricks podcast is officially back!

Links & show notes

• Book recommendation: Personal MBA by Josh Kaufmann
• Book recommendation: Badass by Kathy Sierra
• Dave's Website: https://daveceddia.com
• Pure React: https://daveceddia.com/pure-react/

Additional Episodes, Essays, and more

• Stacking the Bricks: http://stackingthebricks.com
• Amy Hoy: https://twitter.com/amyhoy
• Alex HIllman: https://twitter.com/alexhillman

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NICE.

To learn more about how Donovan did it — including specific techniques for getting traffic to his blog posts — listen in right now…

Show Notes

• Donovan's blog - http://hop.ie/
• CSS Animation Rocks Course - http://cssanimation.rocks/
• Amy's Book, JFS - http://justfuckingship.com/

Save 10% off JFS during the month of October using the code STACKER.

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• All the “features” in the world will not matter if you don’t have the customer pipeline.
• It is better to lose many customers over a missing feature than spend a month on a feature that people say will make them sign up.
• Yet there really are features you’ll require in order to get and retain your best customers.

OK, so maybe it’s a triple edged sword. Or maybe a citrus reamer. Shut up.

I understood this in an intellectual sense, and I tightly managed our list of features for a long time. But we still built stuff that didn’t matter, while at the same time not building fast enough some of the things that really did.

But we did not at any point do enough marketing. Never. Not once. Not even now. (It’s #1 on my agenda for this year.)

So we will have these new features that our best customers really, truly need — features that will remove objections, and help us land some big fish, and retain them, too.

But it’s not like overcoming an objection will magically draw new eyeballs in. New features do not fill your marketing pipeline. The value is in the features only once your customer owns the product. After they learn your name, read your sales page, sign up for your free guide, open a trial account…

If there’s nobody to object, does a missing feature make a noise? No.

In this episode we talk about the marketing vs product conundrum, the third of five things I wish I’d known when I started Freckle, things that would have made my life so much more profitable and pleasurable.

• Missed Part 1? Listen here.
• Missed Part 2? Listen here.

Subscribe here or at http://unicornfree.com for new episodes of Stacking the Bricks every Friday!

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Missed Part 1? Listen here.

Adding people - partners, employees, contract staff - is one of the hardest parts of growing a business. It doesn't get talked about enough, and partly, because it's hard to talk about openly.

In this episode we talk about the reasons why working with people falls apart so often and some things we've learned along the way to make wise decisions when adding people to the team.

Subscribe here or at http://unicornfree.com for new episodes of Stacking the Bricks every Friday!

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In this episode we talk about the first of Five things I wish I’d known when I started Freckle, things that would have made my life so much more profitable and pleasurable.

Up first is "There is always another inflection point coming" aka the myth that "everything gets easier when..."

In this episode, we cover:

• Why this original article seemed to catch on like wildfire
• How to avoid post-launch depression
• Ways to keep making money until your SaaS is paying the bills
• Amy's favorite acorn squash recipe & Rudy's Rutabaga Rule
• ...and a lot more

Listen up, and subscribe to get the next episode:
Teams are NOT 'just add water'

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Kai is an outreach consultant - which we'll let him describe in this "live masterclass."

But you're going to want to listen to this episode because unlike prior Masterclasses where Amy and I coached one of our students, Kai is actually coaching ME (Alex) through building an outreach strategy to get our new Year of Hustle Roadmap in front of new audiences.

Let Kai break it down one step at a time - and then you can use these strategies next time you're trying to get a guest spot on someone's blog or podcast, get a testimonial, or simply ask a colleague for a favor.

Related Links

• Year of Hustle Roadmap
• Kai's outreach course

<3 Amy & Alex

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Related Links

• Just one instance of infamous tweet mentioned in this episode: https://twitter.com/amyhoy/status/699722679788703744 (notice the replies)
• "Petting puppies with Peter Drucker" also mentioned in this episode

<3 Amy & Alex

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Learn why "accountability" doesn't work the way you think it does, and how to change your mindset to get more done.

Need another swift kick in the ass from time to time?

Subscribe to Stacking the Bricks for more and join our spam-free email list for more stories from the trenches of building our businesses, interviews with real entrepreneurs like us, helpful (and free) how-to resources, and a whole lot more.

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Listen to this quick, bite-sized episode of Stacking the Bricks to learn why business is unlike any other game you've ever played.

Need another swift kick in the ass from time to time?

Subscribe to Stacking the Bricks for more and join our spam-free email list for more stories from the trenches of building our businesses, interviews with real entrepreneurs like us, helpful (and free) how-to resources, and a whole lot more.

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But if we're honest...some of the most crucial parts of our business are a mess. A mess that makes money, but messy still:

• Our website isn't optimized to help new readers and listeners - it's kind of a miracle that people can find anything at all
• We barely have a marketing funnel
• And our launch strategy needs to be revamped now that 30x500 Academy is a self-study course.

So for the rest of this year, we're turning our attention to making sure the cobblers children get their shoes, and in this episode you can learn exactly how we're going to do it.

p.s. check out the detailed numbers and specific launch content from the "C+ effort launch" we talk about in this show:
https://unicornfree.com/2016/the-good-enough-launch

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To get our true origin stories, you'd need to see what we were doing to earn money while we were still in grade school. And it wasn't from babysitting...

Jump into a time-traveling DeLorean with us to go back, back back in time and learn how our EARLIEST experiences with business, making sales, and understanding customers and their behaviors shaped the businesses we run today.

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But Amy and Alex aren't interviewing Scott about his book or his launch in this episode. In fact, the opposite.

In this episode we turned the tables and Scott interviewed us, digging REALLY deep into our combined backgrounds in business and how we do research, conduct "Internet Ethnography" a.k.a. Sales Safari, and how we build learning systems to help our customers and students. You can even learn some of the "expert-level" Sales Safari techniques that we use.

Note: We didn't plan to make this a podcast episode so the audio quality isn't perfect, but when I found this recording buried in some folders a few nights ago I realized that there wasn't anything even close to this comprehensive anywhere out there So it's time to change that..

Click play to tune into this fun, fast-paced, and multi-layered conversation with an alumni we're very proud of, as we share what goes into creating the products that people love, and how we help others do the same.

Links mentioned in this episode

• Designing Products People Love
• How to create a product people want to buy
• Desmond Morris
• LineIn
• The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up - Part 1, Part 2
• Learn Startup is Backwards
• Freckle Time Tracking
• Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

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Last time we talked about resolutions (which are easy). Now let's talk about motivation (which is hard).

Realtalk: How many times have you started a project with a burst of motivation and dream and then it just… fizzled out? Not with a bang, but with a whimper?

(Or dreamt about it and planned it, but never started it?)

Believe me, I'm not wielding the Scepter of Snooty Judgment here. I used to be a total creative flake. My Someday Maybe file was so thick it could have served as furniture. I started everything and finished nothing.

I sure felt motivated… but it didn't last.

I dreamt about riches and acclaim… but they weren't enough to get me off my ass. Much less keep me there.

My life was littered with undone projects and frankly, it felt like shit.

Obviously in 2008, this all changed — I designed, co-developed and shipped my first app (after literally years of telling myself "I should build a SaaS"). Then followed a technical book. Then workshops. Then conf calls. Then this class. Then conferences. And another book.

What made the difference? The right motivation.

The right motivation is a fire under your ass, not a Happy Place you retreat to in your mind when things are hard.

The right motivation is enduring, meaningful, and personal — and often times, painful.

Here's what the right motivation is not:

• fantasies of acclaim
• fantasies of riches and luxury
• fantasies of retiring early to a Mojito Island

They're fun, but actually destructive to your ability to keep going.

Why? Why can't these shiny Lamborghini Goals keep you going?

What will?

Listen to the latest episode of Stacking the Bricks to find out!

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Stacking the Bricks is back for 2016!

Special thank you to everyone who reached out and told us that you missed the show in the time since our last episode. We missed making them for you!

The good news is that with the new 30x500 Academy "construction" complete, we're able to focus our attention on you this year and that starts with bringing back the show. It felt SO GOOD to get back on a microphone!

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"The idea that, oh well, I shouldn't charge money for this because… some reason.

Justin spent years noodling on side projects. He made every excuse in the book for not charging for them, including some we haven't often heard:

At the time, it seemed like, 'Why should I charge money for this? This is a passion project of mine.' So I should just release it for free."

But last year, he decided to make a change.

Justin took 30x500. In the first 3 weeks of droppin' ebombs on his blog, he added his first 50 mailing list subscribers. (ebomb, n: our special brand of educational content marketing.)

He kept at it, just an hour or two a few times a week. He researched his audience using Sales Safari; he wrote ebombs; he came up with a simple formula, really, to make writing those ebombs dead simple.

He started a book on the wrong foot; threw it away. Twice. Then he went back to basics and wrote, launched, and presold a beta book. He revised and shipped a finished book. He's made nearly $20k in sales so far. He didn't get on Hacker News or Product Hunt, just built his blog, built his list, and sold from there.

All on an hour or two a few times a week, in the morning, on the side

Justin also has a job and a little kid.

If my prose seems rote and workmanlike, it's because that's exactly what Justin did: He used 30x500 to take something people angst about, that they treat like their BIGGEST EMOTIONAL STRUGGLE EVER, and turned it into something he could simply do, the same way, over & over until he had created a wonderful result.

It's not that his book itself is formulaic, but the process to create it could be a formula. And maybe his ebombs have a distinct pattern to them, but they help people, and people share them, and nobody's complaining.

The process isn't exciting. The results are.

If I could snap my fingers and teach the entire world something, that would be it: The drama of "creative work" rarely helps, and often hurts. It's energy and value just… burning off.

If you're in the place now where the "fun" and "excitement" has worn off and you want to get real and make a product that helps people, and one that earns you money… well, you definitely want to listen to Alex's interview with Justin today!

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ebomb, n -
our special 30x500 term for "actionable educational content marketing". Yeah, cuz that's a mouthful. So drop a knowledge bomb on 'em. Ebomb 'em.

Sooo… you've got some Sales Safari data, you've got some quality ebombs under your belt, now what?

• How big should your ebombs be?
• What if it feels like you're exhausting a small watering hole?
• How do you go from ebombing to a product?
• What thing should you try, if your ebombs aren't getting great traffic or signups?
• What's the best way to open up (and sell) a (free) ebomb?
• When's the right time to start on the product, anyway?
• Ummm soooo… if you hear things over and over in the watering holes, what do you do with it?
• What if the pros in your audience… uh… aren't in love with you?
• How is it actually kind of magical and productive to be annoying?

These are all topics we talk about in our newest "Pain to Product" coaching session with Nick Piegari from Fixing Your Video. Since taking 30x500, he's been doing Sales Safari and using the results to create great video ebombs!

He actually made us a special "pop-up-video" version, just for you, that includes all of the elements of Sales Safari that went into creating the ebomb – pains, dreams, fixes, worldviews, and more. P.S. VH1 please don't sue us, or Nick.

If you remember back to our last coaching session with our friend Amanda (not a 30x500 student… yet?), we worked with her at the very beginning of the 30x500 process. Nick's further along — by a lot! — so we can dig into the meatier issues that you'll need to tackle once you're in motion.

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Have these phrases ever passed your lips? And then you failed to 1. execute
your plan, 2. take action on the advice you received, or 3. be accountable?

I'm going to assume the answer is "Yes," because it's a mistake we've all made before. Although some of us longer than others.

That's what I did for about a decade before shipping Twistori, before Freckle, before JavaScript Performance Rocks! — before 30x500. I used to talk about the business I would build, some day. The software I would design, some day. I had HUGE ambition.

I was always looking around for something that would make me do it.

And I learned: There's no such thing.

There is no force on earth that can make you do something. Really — nothing.

Even if a moustachio'd highwayman held you at gunpoint and demanded "YOUR LAUNCH DATE OR YOUR LIFE," you would still be choosing between consequences: Do I ship? Or do I take the bullet? You get to choose. You cannot be truly forced.

And why would you want to be, anyway? Why would you want to put yourself in that position?

Nobody does, not for long.

So you say you want "an accountability partner," and that lets the pressure off, and then… nothing gets done. No surprise there: you relied on the pressure, and then you let it escape. Accidentally on purpose.

This is a pattern I've seen over & over in myself, before I decided to get over it. And in the last 5 years I've seen it in so many of our students.

It's one of the core causes of failure and if you want to succeed, you need to address it.

To help you, I recorded a little Amy Productivity Psychology Story Time for you. I explain the why, the wherefores… and what to do about it.

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If you ask me, the whole process is functionally bankrupt. Why? Let me answer your question with a pair of questions:

Why do you create good things… but nobody buys?

Worse: Why do you feel the thrill of a great idea, then get stuck before you even finish the damn thing?

In short: Why all the struggle? And why do people worship the struggle?

This lil mini-episode I made walks you through the problem, and the solution. It’s only 13 minutes. It could just be the 13 minutes that’ll end the idea-fail cycle for you forever. This mini-episode is from a video that appears here, if you'd like to "see" what Amy is talking about: https://unicornfree.com/2015/video-failure-vs-creating-a-product-people-want-to-buy

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He really wanted a product business so he could spend more time with his family instead of working endless stressful hours to pay the bills.

But this episode isn't actually about making time at all...it's about clearing a path for success.

Do you remember the approach to tidying we talked about in episode 6 and 7? We learned that the path to a tidy home is deceptively simple...and part of the process involves letting go of things that are holding you back.

In this episode, 30x500 alum Jim Gay talks about going through exactly that process, and how hard but important it was to start his product business with a clear perspective.

You'll learn how he rebooted his approach, immersing himself in the community to learn what they care about most.

Jim did so many smart, strategic things to build his audience: from turning his most popular ebombs as talks for conferences, to being really intentional about the KINDS of blog posts he wrote in the first place. And he's done very well for himself - his launch weekend topped $10k and he's earned over $60,000 from his first product since the first beta release.

But Jim made some mistakes, too. One mistake in particular had big emotional costs in additional to delaying his financial success for over 2 years.

It's a mistake that Amy and I have seen countless people make, and we've even made ourselves. You're going to have to listen to see what that mistake was, and how he recovered from it, and how selling products is helping him achieve his goal...having more time to spend with his family.

Links mentioned in this episode

• http://clean-ruby.com
• http://twitter.com/saturnflyer
• http://sivers.org/obvious
• http://baconbizconf.com

Interested in being part of our 30x500 Pioneers program? Sign up here and we'll send you details about the launch next week: http://30x500.com/pioneers

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In this hour long masterclass, Amy and I help Amanda through her first steps in turning this deep vein of pain into her first product.

We talk about:

• Choosing and narrowing an audience (including some critically counterintuitive lessons)
• How to spot evidence of a market (where's the proof that lots of people have the same itch you're trying to scratch)
• Designing who your product will resonate with first
• How to develop marketing content (we call them ebombs)
• How to use audience jargon to connect with your audinece
• How to figure out what your audience already knows (and use that to your advantage)

...and a lot more

This recording originally appeared on: https://unicornfree.com/2015/from-pain-into-a-product-a-real-live-coaching-session

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Enjoy part two of our 2-part conversation to learn the revolutionary approach that Japanese organizing expert Marie Kondo teaches for tidying, and how those lessons apply to your startup, too. Bonus: life (and business) wisdom from ancient Chinese philosophers, 500-year-old French noblemen, and the Bible.

If this is your first episode of Stacking the Bricks, we'd recommend going back to Episode 6 to listen to the first part...it'll help set the stage for this episode. But...if you don't mind your listening to be a bit more of a jigsaw puzzle then by all means...keep listening. :)

Get BOTH parts, all of the background on this show and all of the show notes in one place: https://unicornfree.com/2015/what-a-japanese-organizing-expert-can-teach-you-about-your-startup

Links mentioned in this episode

• Managing the Absurd on Amazon
• Alex's guide to writing for your audience

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It's amazing. I can't recommend it enough. Already, I'm feeling an increase in lightness, beauty, and joy in my home. But that wasn't the reason I started reading it to Alex during one of our Skype calls last week. Nope, I shared it with him because of a deeper truth, and its masterful presentation.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying up isn't just about tidy homes, it's about life.

The book itself is so good because it throws out every traditional piece of advice. Marie proves it: Little by little won't solve the problem. Storage won't fix the problem. Fancy boxes and shelves and "one thing a day" won't get you there, ever.

You have to do something radically different to get a radically different result.

Most startup advice is on the day-to-day level: the little tactics. Try this, try that. Pivot. Split-test. But like tidying, the problem occurs upstream. These tactics will never fix the broken strategy.

The lessons from this book? Virtually the same lessons we have learned ourselves in business, and what we do our damnedest to teach our students. The previous failures, the negative self-talk, the self-perpetuating cycle, the backsliding that terrifies our students… it's all exactly the same as Marie describes in her students. Only the implementation details change.

Sound at all familiar? It sure sounded familiar to me.

Listen to part one of our 2-part conversation to learn the revolutionary approach Marie teaches for tidying, and how those lessons apply to your startup, too. Bonus: life (and business) wisdom from ancient Chinese philosophers, 500-year-old French noblemen, and the Bible.

-Amy

Links mentioned:

• The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up on Amazon
• Why running a consultancy doesn't prepare you for building products
• Amy's 500-years-ago essayist doppelganger, Michel de Montaigne
• The 7 steps to failure - How do you create a product that people want to buy?

This recording originally appeared at: https://unicornfree.com/2015/what-a-japanese-organizing-expert-can-teach-you-about-your-startup

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Why was I stuck? What did we do to get unstuck? What on earth is the "voicemail effect" and why is it the source of so much writer's block?

If you find yourself stuck in a project — and therefore avoiding it — then this episode might give you the inspiration you need to figure out why. That kind of thinking can save your project.

More insider peeks at https://unicornfree.com/2015/watch-us-build-our-next-product

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Don't feel bad about it - DO something about it.

On this show, you’re going to be hearing a short story from my business partner and co-host Amy Hoy admit something....there was a time when she wasn’t so great at shipping. That's right, the author of Just Fucking Ship used to be a serial procrastinator.

As she describes, "I could ship work and projects for other people - bosses, clients - but when it came to shipping my own things I was the worst." Amy goes on to describe the sequence of events that snapped her out of her nasty habit and started her down the path of shipping, including the story behind one of her most famous projects http://twistori.com and how it helped her career.

This episode is just a tiny excerpt from a longer interview hosted by one of our friends and alumni, Sean Fioritto, who has been writing a series called “Github Ghost-towns” where he’s been talking about all of those side projects that we spin up…and then leave to rot.

You know what I’m talking about. ;)

The FULL LENGTH interview with Sean is action-packed with stories and advice from Amy and I, including a bunch of tips that we use every day to make sure we keep shipping the products and ebombs that you all seem to love so much.

Get your own copy of Just Fucking Ship

There are 21 principles that we used to Just Fucking Ship the book Just Fucking Ship. You can learn what they are here and pick up a copy for yourself: https://unicornfree.com/just-fucking-ship

Coming later this month JUST for Stacking Bricks subscribers...

Over the next month, podcast subscribers are going to start getting an exclusive listen to behind-the-scenes conversations between Amy and I as we build the next version of our bootstrapping course, 30x500.

These will be real conversations between us as business partners - not staged for effect - as we make crucial decisions about the launch of our next product and a glimpse at the very process we teach in action.

We've never done anything quite like this before so we're excited to invite you a bit further into our world. Subscribe now so you don't miss it, and we'll see you next time!

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We let deadlines slip, and probably let some people down.

Amy got really sick. :(

So of course, looking back on 2014 feels like we didn't get all that much done.

But when Amy and I sat down and spent an hour going over the stuff we did do...we realized that holy cow, it was a lot.

A bit further down on this post, we've put together our comprehensive review of 2014. It's complete with revenue and subscriber numbers, where we have them readily share-able. You'll see that 2014 might not have been as unproductive as we'd felt.

After pulling this list together, Amy and I sat down again to talk about how the year went, and talked about the difference between how we felt... and what the facts actually showed.

And this time, we recorded that conversation so you can listen in! You can expect more audio stories and conversations like this one in 2015! That'll include interviews with successful bootstrappers (and not just our own students) and more chances like this one to peek "behind the curtain" and see how Amy and I truly work together, using our unique strengths and differing approaches to actually compliment one another.

Links mentioned

• Meditation and mistakes on goals

This recording originally appeared on UnicornFree.com in an article titled "2014 Year In Review – The year that sucked, or did it?": https://unicornfree.com/2015/2014-year-in-review-the-year-that-sucked-or-did-it

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By his own measures, Scott's first product - a technical course for designers wanting to use Quartz Composer - was far from "perfect". But even without perfection, his launch still exceeded his expectations and earned him $10k on launch week.

Then, when he improved his launch by incorporating ebombs & our 30x500 launch sequence technique, Scott more than tripled his launch revenue.

Also, like a lot of us, money isn't the only motivator. Scott's learned that there's some amazingly good feelings that come from being in the business of helping people succeed.

Tune in and learn a whole lot from Scott's experience. Check out his blog at scotthurff.com.

This recording originally appeared on UnicornFree.com in an article titled "What if your product launch fails? This interview will give you $10k reasons to do it anyway.": https://unicornfree.com/2014/what-if-your-product-launch-fails-this-interview-will-give-you-10k-reasons-to-do-it-anyway

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Then Pat shares how he ruthlessly followed just three steps every day for 10 days to get from from barely making rent to having over $3000 in MRR from paying customers and over 1000 subscribers on his mailing list.

Tune in and learn from Pat. Check out his blog at patmaddox.com.

This recording originally appeared on UnicornFree.com in an article titled "From zero to $3k MRR in 10 days, the story of RubySteps": https://unicornfree.com/2014/from-zero-to-3k-mrr-in-10-days-the-story-of-rubysteps

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