EP14 - What are your New Years Pants?

Explicit content warning

01/26/16 • 24 min

Stacking the Bricks: Creators and Entrepreneurs You Can Relate To

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!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

EP13 - Justin Weiss's shift from side projects to successful product launches

"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!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Next Episode

EP15 - Why "Lambo Goals" never keep you motivated

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 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: