Have you used any Stacking the Bricks courses from Amy Hoy?

[Two Dog]

Amy's pretty well known in the internet online marketing / courses area. Prolific writer. I really haven't found any areas to disagree and have a specific interest in her market research strategies for launching new products. Aside from much less pricey materials, the flagship 30 x 500 course is offered roughly twice a year. Not coaching, just DIY material.

If you've purchased any of her stuff, I'm interested in hearing how it worked out for you.

Stacking the Bricks

shop.stackingthebricks.com

The 3-part 30x500 Taste Test

## 1. How will you come up with a workable product idea? How do you come up with a fantastic product idea? Better yet - how do you come up with lots

stackingthebricks.com

 

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[Vadim26]

Quickly opened a link to see what it’s all about.

30x500 - a course teaching you how to do market research and find ideas.

Has anyone here taken it, is it worth it?

 

[Andy Black]

I’ve not taken any of her courses but did pick up a great line from her years ago:

“Help the people in motion.”
(Amy Hoy)


What are you guys trying to learn/achieve?

 

[Hong_Kong]

Amy's pretty well known in the internet online marketing / courses area. Prolific writer. I really haven't found any areas to disagree and have a specific interest in her market research strategies for launching new products. Aside from much less pricey materials, the flagship 30 x 500 course is offered roughly twice a year. Not coaching, just DIY material.

If you've purchased any of her stuff, I'm interested in hearing how it worked out for you.

Stacking the Bricks

shop.stackingthebricks.com

The 3-part 30x500 Taste Test

## 1. How will you come up with a workable product idea? How do you come up with a fantastic product idea? Better yet - how do you come up with lots

stackingthebricks.com

I've watched her lecture (freely available on youtube) that shows her process for how to find ideas. Pretty good. Her approach was to observe online communities, create lists of what they talk about => link these topics to potential recurring problems people keep mentioning. Then solve these specific problems, and you already know your audience because you started with that.

This is much better than starting off with a problem because you might choose a problem nobody cares about. Its also has advantages over customer interview. If you ask someone "would you use a product that does ___ " you get a biased answer. Ideally, you want your customers to be looking in advance for solutions to a problem.

 

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[Two Dog]

I’ve not taken any of her courses but did pick up a great line from her years ago:

“Help the people in motion.”
(Amy Hoy)


What are you guys trying to learn/achieve?

Narrowing down product ideas.

I believe her approach is agnostic with regards to market research. It sounds like you analyze internet chatter in groups, forums, blogs, tweets, etc. followed by some magical spell to identify problem(s) and solution(s). Followed by the usual new product launch stuff.

The intriguing part is a minimum of domain knowledge is required. I'm fascinated by the idea of using internet crowd sourced research to identify a product that will likely sell and selling it a market that I barely know. It seems more direct than landing page + traffic + signups process that I'm familiar with for testing product ideas.

That's 100% my interpretation from a couple of course videos and might be completely off base.

 

[Andy Black]

You might find these related then:

• How to use forums (and Facebook groups)
• Just start already
• How to get profitable or fail fast with AdWords

 

[loop101]

Amy's pretty well known in the internet online marketing / courses area. Prolific writer. I really haven't found any areas to disagree and have a specific interest in her market research strategies for launching new products. Aside from much less pricey materials, the flagship 30 x 500 course is offered roughly twice a year. Not coaching, just DIY material.

If you've purchased any of her stuff, I'm interested in hearing how it worked out for you.

Stacking the Bricks

shop.stackingthebricks.com

The 3-part 30x500 Taste Test

## 1. How will you come up with a workable product idea? How do you come up with a fantastic product idea? Better yet - how do you come up with lots

stackingthebricks.com

You might want to verify she is still actively teaching the course, I think she was side-lined with some illness for the last 1-2 years.

 

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[Alexhillman]

You might want to verify she is still actively teaching the course, I think she was side-lined with some illness for the last 1-2 year

Howdy friends! I'm Amy's business partner.

You're right that Amy has been dealing with her health for a while, and both she and I appreciate the concern. @Chris Sciora already knows this b/c we've emailed, but I just wanted to confirm that we're still running our classes! Though more people know Amy by name, she and I have been teaching and co-authoring together since 2009 (and both run our own businesses separate from StB/30x500).

The good news is that Amy's health has been trending in the right direction recently, enough that we've been working on new material and lessons together. It's so great to have my partner back!

You might find these related then:

• How to use forums (and Facebook groups)
• Just start already
• How to get profitable or fail fast with AdWords

Andy, I love that how to use forums and facebook groups thread in particular. You totally hit the nail on the head about the problems with thinking through the lenses of "content marketing" and lead generation but instead, helping one person as deeply as possible in a way that has the potential to help others.

I personally like the framing of "audience building is really just building trust at scale" for exactly this reason. Lots of overlap in our core philosophy and approach. Looking forward to digging into more of the things you've shared along these lines.

 

[Two Dog]

I'm both mightily impressed and slightly terrified of your superpower in just finding this thread.

 

[Two Dog]

How to get profitable or fail fast with AdWords

@Andy Black Is this link behind a paywall or otherwise hidden?

 

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[Alexhillman]

I'm both mightily impressed and slightly terrified of your superpower in just finding this thread.

Haha nothing sneaky just a few keyword alerts that help us know when we're popping up in discussions!

 

[Andy Black]

@Andy Black Is this link behind a paywall or otherwise hidden?

Hmm. No. Let me link to it again:

MARKETING - How to get profitable or fail fast with AdWords

(Originally posted on the inside here.) How To Get Profitable Or Fail Fast With AdWords Here's how I often determine whether a project, niche, seed, or keyword has legs, or needs a bullet. Note1: I use blanket bid prices throughout the steps below, meaning the bid price within a campaign for...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

 

[Andy Black]

Haha nothing sneaky just a few keyword alerts that help us know when we're popping up in discussions!

That’s smart. Welcome to the forum.

Glad to hear Amy’s health is trending in the right direction. I’ve quoted (and attributed) her “Help the people in motion.” advice many times inside and outside the forum.

 

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[Andy Black]

Andy, I love that how to use forums and facebook groups thread in particular. You totally hit the nail on the head about the problems with thinking through the lenses of "content marketing" and lead generation but instead, helping one person as deeply as possible in a way that has the potential to help others.

Thanks Alex.

Marketers do indeed ruin everything. They come up with little phrases and ways of thinking that screw people up… like “content marketing”, calling people “traffic” or “clicks”, and thinking landing pages convert.

I swear business is as simple as: help people, get paid, help more people.

And instead of “content marketing” we could:

1. Help people.
2. Be seen helping people.
3. Be seen by community owners helping their people.

A related thread:

• The biggest landing page mistake

 

[Alexhillman]

Thanks Alex.

Marketers do indeed ruin everything. They come up with little phrases and ways of thinking that screw people up… like “content marketing”, calling people “traffic” or “clicks”, and thinking landing pages convert.

I swear business is as simple as: help people, get paid, help more people.

And instead of “content marketing” we could:

1. Help people.
2. Be seen helping people.
3. Be seen by community owners helping their people.

A related thread:

• The biggest landing page mistake

100% agree, and another great reframing re: landing pages. Those mental models seep into everything!

Glad to be here and thanks for the warm welcome. I really enjoyed this convo, looking forward to digging in more.

 

[SinFa]

I've watched her lecture (freely available on youtube) that shows her process for how to find ideas. Pretty good. Her approach was to observe online communities, create lists of what they talk about => link these topics to potential recurring problems people keep mentioning. Then solve these specific problems, and you already know your audience because you started with that.

This is much better than starting off with a problem because you might choose a problem nobody cares about. Its also has advantages over customer interview. If you ask someone "would you use a product that does ___ " you get a biased answer. Ideally, you want your customers to be looking in advance for solutions to a problem.

Hey HK,

Do you have the link to the exact video by any chance? She got a few but can't find one on ideas based on the title alone.

Also, I'm from HK too!

 

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[Hong_Kong]

Hey HK,

Do you have the link to the exact video by any chance? She got a few but can't find one on ideas based on the title alone.

Also, I'm from HK too!

Its from the 2013 La Conf Paris. The video is called "Sales safari". I found the link but it seems like she deleted her youtube channel. I will link it if I find it, cheers!

 

[Alexhillman]

Its from the 2013 La Conf Paris. The video is called "Sales safari". I found the link but it seems like she deleted her youtube channel. I will link it if I find it, cheers!

Oh dang, that video wasn't on our channel but you're right it seems to be gone.

I'm looking to see if we have a backup somewhere, I hope we do because that video was very popular!

 

[Alexhillman]

Its from the 2013 La Conf Paris. The video is called "Sales safari". I found the link but it seems like she deleted her youtube channel. I will link it if I find it, cheers!

I had to pull in the big guns (aka a data recovery subreddit) but we found it and put it on our channel!

Thanks again for letting me know the video had gone missing. This process has been improved and adapted a LOT since the talk was recorded almost 10 years ago, but this is the foundation of it all! Enjoy.

View: https://youtu.be/67JVkG4dpj4

 

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[Hong_Kong]

Hey HK,

Do you have the link to the exact video by any chance? She got a few but can't find one on ideas based on the title alone.

Also, I'm from HK too!

I had to pull in the big guns (aka a data recovery subreddit) but we found it and put it on our channel!

Thanks again for letting me know the video had gone missing. This process has been improved and adapted a LOT since the talk was recorded almost 10 years ago, but this is the foundation of it all! Enjoy.

View: https://youtu.be/67JVkG4dpj4

Thank you so much! Btw the 30x500 material looks awesome, I got the free ebook from the website. I actually have a membership style site I'm working on right now and I will definitely apply this. I was wondering "how much content should I build" and the guidelines and simple rules make a lot of sense.

 

[Alexhillman]

Thank you so much! Btw the 30x500 material looks awesome, I got the free ebook from the website. I actually have a membership style site I'm working on right now and I will definitely apply this. I was wondering "how much content should I build" and the guidelines and simple rules make a lot of sense.

Right on!

"How much content should I build" is one of those questions that makes some intuitive sense, but if you stop to think about it...it's kinda like asking "how long should a piece of string be?"

How long does a piece of string need to be, to be too long? Or too short?

Like a piece of string, it's less about "too much" or "too little" but instead, if your content is doing its job.

You can accomplish a lot with a small amount of content, almost as easily as you can create SO much content the extra stuff gets in the way.

So instead of wondering if you've made enough (or even too much), try asking yourself: what is the job of the content you are creating?

Does the reader know that the piece is for them?
Does the reader have a reason to believe you are trustworthy?
Does the reader feel a sense of progress, or momentum?
Does the structure make it easy for them to skim ahead and see where it’s going?
Does the reader leave with a fix for their problem, or a salve for their interest?
Does the reader know what they can do next, if they want more?

Remember that it’s not the length or amount that matters, it’s if the content is doing it's job!