Stacking The Bricks - Real Entrepreneur Confessions

In this episode we talk about the second 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.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! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

2015 was the best ever for Amy's SaaS business Freckle, with $625k of gross receipts, and so far we’re on track to hit close to $800k annual run rate (ARR) before this year is out. Those are some big numbers, but we didn’t start out there, and it hasn’t been all smooth sailing.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 wildfireHow to avoid post-launch depressionWays to keep making money until your SaaS is paying the billsAmy's favorite acorn squash recipe & Rudy's Rutabaga Rule...and a lot moreListen up, and subscribe to get the next episode:Teams are NOT 'just add water' See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

When Kai Davis sends you an email, there's a good chance he's asking for something. Amazingly...he does it without looking like a total jerkface. Is he some sort of wizard of persuasion? No, no. He has a process.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 LinksYear of Hustle RoadmapKai's outreach course<3 Amy & Alex See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Let us show you how most of the "risk" in starting a business isn't really risk at all.Related LinksJust 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 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Got 5 minutes? Then let Amy give you a swift kick in the ass.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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Got 5 minutes? Then let Amy give you a swift kick in the ass.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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Last year was dedicated to renovating 30x500, and it's already paying off for our students and for us. Yayyyyy!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 allWe barely have a marketing funnelAnd 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 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Amy has talked about starting Freckle. Alex has talked about starting Indy Hall. But NEITHER of these were our first brushes with business.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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Scott Hurff - who you met back in Episode 2 of this show - just released a new hit book through O'Reilly called "Designing Products People Love."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 pro

Hey brick stackers, Amy here.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 cl

Why are we talking about Amy's pants on a business show? There's a connection, we promise. You know this is gonna be good.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! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

"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'

Click here to watch the video of the ebomb that you hear in the intro of this episode -> https://unicornfree.com/2015/so-youve-got-some-safari-and-ebombs-now-what-pain-to-product-coaching-part-2ebomb, 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

"I just need someone to hold me accountable.""If only there was a community where I could get advice…""Let me tell you my plan…"Have these phrases ever passed your lips? And then you failed to 1. executeyour 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 co

Newsflash: Lean Startup and Customer Development are inherently broken.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 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Jim Gay is a busy dad. A REALLY busy dad, with 4 kids.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 don

Amanda has learned the hard way that publishing beautiful books on the Kindle and other e-readers is a pain in the ass.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 firstHow to develop marketing content (we call them ebombs)How to use audience jargon to connect with your audineceHow to figure out what your audience already knows (and use that to your advantage)...and a lot moreThis recording originally appeared on: https://unicornfree.com/2015/from-pain-into-a-product-a-real-live-coaching-session See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Want a different result than you've been getting? Then you need a different approach.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-startupLinks mentioned in this episodeManaging the Absurd on AmazonAlex's guide to writing for your audience See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Right now I'm reading a book called The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, by Japanese organizing expert Marie Kondo.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

Earlier this week, Alex and I were stuck. Hard. I was crazy unhappy with the lessons I'd been trying to design. What I was doing… wasn't working.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 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.