30×500 Academy

“What if I launch a product that nobody wants to buy?”

Most of us, when we want to ship a product, we start at the beginning and with the most obvious ingredient: the product.

Because when you can create, the act of creating feels most natural and straightforward.

But it makes it so easy to end up with a product that nobody wants to buy.

And isn't that every new entrepreneur's worst nightmare? All that work, and nobody cares.

Failure. Not even dramatic failure — a flop, a fizzle.

A product that nobody wants to buy.

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Let's press pause that horror scenario for a moment and consider the alternative...

What if you knew that your product would launch to happy customers and predictable sales on day one?

If you knew exactly what your customers want, you could simply show them how to get it.

You could stop cringing, "But I'm not an expert…" because you'd know exactly how to help people.

You could stop worrying, “Will anyone want this?” because you'd know they do.

You could stop wondering, "What if they don't like it?" because you made it just for them.

You could kick your fears to the curb and get shit done.

You could launch your new product to an excited list of people who trust you, who happily pay for things, and who want what you have to offer them.

You might even hear the magic words: “SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!”

You could make sales your very first day.

You could revel in that magical feeling that only comes when you round-house kick your fears in the face and watch 'em run away, sobbing for mommy.

Plus, earning money by helping people.

Freedom from the hamster wheel of hourly work. The taste of success that comes from a stranger on the internet buying a thing that you made.

Imagine never worrying and wondering "will anybody buy this thing I made?"

What if it was more than possible....what if it was repeatable?

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How can you create predictable, repeatable sales?

When you start out by making something – that something being the "product" in your product business – the best you can do is hope that someone will want it enough to whip out their wallets and buy.

Cuz the goal of a business isn't just to make things.

Alone, as the last person on earth, you could make things.

You can't sell things unless you have people who want to buy.

Customers.

Customers are the pivotal ingredient in success. The one thing you cannot succeed without.

So, if you want to launch to instant sales, you must start with the customer.

Figure out what they need. And what they want. And what they're willing to buy — to pay for, to read, to use, to share, to recommend.

Then figure out a way you — yes, you! — can give it to them.

When you learn what your would-be customers need, want, and are willing to buy (read, share, use, recommend), you also learn…

• ...what content will attract them. No more begging for traffic! 🙏
• ...what CTA will compel them to subscribe. Watch your email list grow. 📈
• ...what you can do to earn their trust. People who trust you want to buy. 🤝
• ...what price will seem fair — or like a steal. Set premium prices with confidence. 💸
• ...what emails they'll open. 25-40% open rates? No problem! 💌
• ...and what sales copy will open their wallets. 💰💰💰

When you start with the customer everything becomes clear and a whole lot easier.

You can redirect the energy you would normally pour into fretting, freaking out, and thrashing into kicking ass.

You can make a plan. Execute that plan. Get shit done. Build your list.

And of course, build a product that your audience needs, wants, and is ready to buy.

And then launch, to sales sales!

Learn and practice focusing on your customer, from the comfort of wherever you are, by joining 30x500.

When you enroll in 30x500, here's exactly what you'll do:

• You'll pick your audience. It's easy, promise.
• Then learn how they tick.
• And understand what they need, want, and are ready to buy.
• You'll create valuable content and resources that help build your reputation, earn trust with your audience, and of course build your traffic!
• Then convert your new readers to subscribers, and then into enthusiastic buyers.
• You'll learn how to use the most systematic process ever to generate infinite product ideas, with no genius or flash of inspiration required.
• And practice drafting persuasive sales copy that opens wallets, even if you "suck" at writing!
• You'll create your product, of course, using our techniques for keeping scope in check and shipping on time.
• And you'll execute a launch that builds momentum and anticipation

The systems, techniques, and processes you'll learn in 30x500 have been developed over 8+ years and by observing the successes and struggles of 1,000+ students with their launches generating $10+ million in combined student earnings.

If you use the process, the process works.

Yes, process — it's the least sexy word in the world, but the right process will help you conquer your fears, get you out of your own way, and do the most valuable work of your life .

The 30x500 map will show you where to go, when, and most importantly, how! Instead of flailing around trying random things, you'll be able to follow a clear path. And, with our active alumni community, you won't be on that path alone.

You could start shipping to your audience within a day....

When you enroll you get instant access to:

• Nearly 100 action-packed lessons: 60+ video lessons, over 20 step-by-step exercises, and 15 step-by-step tutorials.
• A collection of hand-picked book recommendations, 9+ self-study guides, and additional bonus lessons from the vault of past 30x500 versions.
• A digital watercooler to meet your product-shipping peers, to share, and ask questions in our 24-hour, alumni-only chat room.

• And free updates to course material as we make 30x500 better and better!

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30x500 Alumni Success Stories

• Richard Felix had built over a dozen apps. What was different about Stunning?
• How Brennan Dunn’s product empire started with a challenge (and a trip to Ireland)
• Justin Weiss put his side-project energy into building a side-business.
• Scott Hurff went from stuck to launching two courses for designers…
• Jason Forrest used 30x500 to transform his SaaS for truckers
• Chris Hartjes used our advice to negotiate a 4 day work week.
• Emile changed his entire lifestyle selling products. But first, he had to try.
• Jim Gay had a product, but it wasn’t selling
• Rob Williams launched to one subscriber, and almost gave up. Almost.

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Syllabus Details: Here's exactly what you'll learn…

The entire 30x500 curriculum is designed for action, to help you get positively addicted to success, and to do it one tiny win at a time. Our video lessons are carefully edited to brief, bite sized chunks (generally between 7 and 15 minutes each) and organized to give you results as fast as the laws of physics allow.

And we've ruthlessly cut anything that might stand in your way: you won't find a lick of hand-wavey theory or rehashed Medium advice in here.

If you put in the work, you can get your little wins from the very first hour. Really!

Here's how the lessons are are organized, across two parts:

Part 1: Read Their Minds

Your first assignment will be to find your audience and read their minds...stat!

No customer = no product. Customers come first. So in Part 1 of 30×500 Academy, you'll start building your customer base right away.

Scared you don't know how? Don't worry, we'll show you exactly how, step by step. You'll jump right into Sales Safari, our battle-tested research technique.

Cuz you're already surrounded by solid gold market research, it's just invisible. With Safari you'll finally learn to see it. You'll become a quick study at spotting pain points… pain points you can start addressing within the very first hour.

By the end of Part 1: Read Their Minds, here's what you'll have done:

• Tap an infinite, endless list of ways to reach and help your audience with bite-sized marketing magnets (we call them Ebombs), and start shipping Ebombs right away
• Earn readers trust and start to grow your email list, the PROVEN best sales channel ever
• Start creating and writing in ways that makes your audience go “OMG, it's like you read my mind!”
• Creating a connection, reputation, and relationships with your audience and building a long term source of traffic, straight to your site.

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It's amazing to see how much of business is: put your ear to the floor, listen, analyze, create, test, repeat. h/t to @amyhoy circa 2011!

— Brennan Dunn (@brennandunn) May 31, 2017

Read how Brennan Dunn's product empire started with a challenge (and a trip to Ireland).

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Every 30x500 lessons is designed to get you into action.

You'll complete guided (and timed) practice exercises, with a practice audience that we've assigned you. And then you'll put it into action on your own audience, without a minute wasted.

We'll help you see the big picture of how each step connects. How the marketing content you create today will keep working for you, and lead you to launching products you can be confident your audience will pay for.

By the end of Part 1, you'll be stacking up the little wins left and right. 💥

Get psyched, cuz in Part 2 you'll build on your momentum and go after bigger wins and shipping your product to paying customers.

Part 2: Build the Business

You're starting to really understand your audience. You're growing a following. They're loving your work, and want more. Awesome! Go you!

Now it's time to Build the Business.

Now you're gearing up to design a product and ask your audience for money. The stakes are higher. The level of detail needs to be higher, too.

So in the second half of 30x500 you'll learn to analyze and understand the more complex, nuanced pain in your audience. Sometimes that pain is less obvious, other times it's downright hidden. You'll learn to find and use it all. You'll learn about the words, worldviews and beliefs that repel and attract your people like magnets. You'll master Safari ne plus ultra.

By the end of Build the Business, you'll have practiced and be able to:

• design and create more types of successful of Ebombs.
• reverse engineer your audience's pain into the products they need and want.
• write pitches (aka persuasive product descriptions) that make your customers reach for their wallets.
• plan and scope your very first tiny product, one you can ship in weeks instead of months.
• plan and create your very first launch, using all of the techniques you've learned to create a symphony of sales.

And every element will be specially tuned to your audience.

What type of product? What will it look and feel like? How will people use it? How should you price it and launch it?

No guessing. It all comes from your Sales Safari data.

And once you experience how the “boring” Sales Safari gives you mind-reading superpowers, you'll never again revert to “great idea” spray & pray. You'll never again waste time building something nobody wants.

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moaaaaar #30x500 success stories. i'm not hamming it up for the launch close monday, this one JUST came in :D :D pic.twitter.com/P8z0uNVoM4

— Amy Hoy (@amyhoy) February 13, 2016

Read how Justin went from shipping side project to his first four-figure product launch.

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The 30x500 Guarantee: Our promise to you.

We care more about our students' success than taking their money. Easy to say, but for years we've actively turned away students who had to borrow money to take the course, students with unreasonable expectations for their financial success, students not equipped to make a product, and students who don't seem willing to do the slow work to build a business incrementally.

We're honest to the end about the level of effort, skills, and other ingredients required. Here's a list of the top reasons you would NOT want to do 30×500, including personality types and audience types that are not recommended for this course and approach.

We expect you to be honest about your best effort to apply the process that you learn. This is NOT a get rich quick program, or a startup lottery. Following the 30×500 process takes time, and effort… but it does work. Your wins might seem small at first, but if you keep going, they'll become bigger wins before you know it. You don't even need to get things perfect to get great results. In most cases, doing things 20% right will get you better results than doing nothing.

If you take the small, unsexy steps: if you follow the steps to do Safari research, take notes, and review them; if you ship Ebombs that help people in your audience and add them to your list; if you practice each element of the 30×500 process and still DO NOT feel like you are making progress 90 days after you begin doing the work, we will try to work with you to identify what's missing. And if that doesn't work, we'll give you a full refund.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is 30×500 right for me?

Most of the time, if you're asking this question you're really asking one of the following:

1. Will it work for my existing idea/product?
2. Will it work for my audience?
3. Will it work for me, personally?

We've answered all three of these questions in detail for you here.

If you've read that page and still are unsure, please email us team@stackingthebricks.com before signing up!

What happens after I buy?

When you log in for the first time you'll see a few special lessons that we've created to welcome you to the 30×500 Academy: some recommended reading to help you get ready and some mini-assignments to help you hit the ground running.

Will you (Amy & Alex) be available if I get stuck?

Our priority is for you to succeed, so when you have specific questions about understanding and applying what you're learning, we'll absolutely do our best to help!

But to keep expectations clear, enrolling in 30×500 Academy doesn't turn Alex & Amy into your private 24/7 business or life coaches. If you email us for help, we ask that you're respectful of our time and more importantly, that you're actually doing the work and not just asking questions to avoid the work. :)

For students who are further along, additional coaching options are available.

Can 30×500 help me validate my existing idea?

Nope. Validation is backwards, and a technique for the land of wishin' and hopin' and we don't teach that here.

Okay… can I learn how to make more sales with my existing product?

If you already have a product That's ALREADY MAKING SALES, the 30×500 techniques can help you make MORE sales and grow your product empire further, by understanding your market even better, and marketing and selling more effectively. Read more here to see if 30×500 is right for you or email team@stackingthebricks.com with more details about your existing product business.

Is there a "community" component to 30×500 Academy?

You'll get access to a private chat room for you to meet & connect with fellow 30x500 students. But be careful not to let the community become a distraction from the real work!

What's the story behind the name ‘30×500’?

30×500 is a formula, a simple bit of arithmetic.

Before we created 30×500 we noticed that a LOT of our very talented friends were stuck—miserable—at startup and corporate jobs they hated. They looked longingly into the world of having a product business of their own, but were faced with the chasm of how to replace their existing income.

If their income was something like—say, a healthy $180k/year salary—they could never imagine themselves building a business to replace that. Until we broke it down for them: you only need to deliver $30/month worth of value to 500 customers to gross $180k/year. That's 500 customers, on the ENTIRE INTERNET.

When you see those numbers, success as a bootstrapping solo entrepreneur starts to look so much more achievable. Hence, 30×500. Of course, both of those numbers are variables. Deliver $100/month to 150 customers, same outcome (with less support!). Introduce a second product, especially one that your existing happy customers are likely to buy, and the numbers start to… well, stack up.

That's why this little bit of math is at the heart of Stacking the Bricks to build your business.

I’m NOT a designer or a developer. Will 30×500 work for me?

Probably! You don't need to be a designer, developer, or writer to successfully use the concepts that we teach in 30×500. You do NOT need to have technical or programming skills. You SHOULD have the skills to create a product without outsourcing the product creation itself. Do you have those skills?

Hint: if you're currently paid to perform a skill, you can create a product.

If you're not sure, read this first.

And if you're still not sure if 30×500 is for you, email us at team@stackingthebricks.com and ask us!

What if I'm based outside of the United States? Will 30×500 still work if I live in a different country?

You won't find any US centric concepts in 30×500. All of the Sales Safari work you'll be doing you can do from anywhere, on audiences from anywhere. That's the beauty of using the Internet.

We have success stories from all over the world, and 30×500 students are enrolled from everywhere you can imagine.

Some countries DO have specific needs for their software (especially once money starts changing hands), but we don't focus much on tools because they're such a TINY part of the process. Any tool we recommend, however, almost certainly has an international-friendly equivalent.

And since 30×500 Academy is something you can complete on your own time, you don't have to worry about time zones. Any “live” events we host for our students are also recorded for watching when it's easy for you.

If you're concerned about language issues—specific to the course or the exercises—or if you're still not sure if 30×500 is for you, email us at team@stackingthebricks.com and ask us!

How long will the course material be available?

Forever! Once you're enrolled, you'll have continued access to the 30×500 video lessons, PDF workbooks, and exercises.

How much time will I need to dedicate to this course?

Naturally, the more time you invest, the more and better results you'll get in less time. Duh :)

Some of our students have diligently tracked their time and reported approximately 40 hours of actual course material to "complete" - so roughly equivalent to a semester long college course.

But 30×500 is designed so that you can start seeing results within your first couple of hours of work, and if you keep working your results will build over time.

It's more important to set a pace that you can keep up so you achieve the results than to “rush” the 40–50 hours and do a poor job.

How soon will I be able to launch my first product?

Part of what you'll learn is to redefine what a "product" actually is. Within the first couple of hours of 30×500 lessons, you'll have learned enough to start shipping Ebombs, which are really just tiny, free products.

Your first PAID product will take more work, but the timeline is entirely dependent on your willingness to apply the steps (remember, 9 out of 10 failures in our class are the result of not doing ANY steps).

If you're motivated and focused on your audience, it's entirely possible for you to get results faster. But we're not here to tell you when you can or can't launch. Your results are entirely based on the work you put in: doing Sales Safari, shipping Ebombs, backwards planning, and actually launching.

I still have questions!

I'm sure we have answers for you—just drop us an email at team@stackingthebricks.com.

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