Got an email from one of our old school 30x500 students (circa 2010). They were worried about their business after deciding to leave Twitter, compounded with generally weird feelings about the wider shifts in the tech world.

They liked my response, so sharing it here. First, some detail on their questions (with no identifying information):

Essentially, they asked "How do I reach my audience without Twitter?” and “How do I convince people, who are scared their jobs are about to vanish, to spend money on the stuff I made?"

Lots of theorizing in the replies but the real answer is extremely simple:

Commercial construction is 99.9% copy paste of defaults chosen by people who never use the spaces they design or build, and most decision makers just mindlessly accept the defaults offered.

https://twitter.com/mattwensing/status/1669791937119789057

This is true of EVERY kind of construction process, not just "sterile" or medical ones.

There is no intention. None. Only carbon copy of a materials or vendor choice that everyone else makes, and "if everyone else does it it can't be wrong" is a very powerful bit of psychology.

Yesterday I found out that after more than 15 years my insurance policy for Indy Hall is being dropped in 3 months b/c our carrier isn't covering "businesses like ours" anymore. Anyway, I'm shopping for new biz insurance, general liability and workers comp. @ or DM your fav agents.

Must be able to write policies in Pennsylvania. Thx!

3 years ago today, @thetinymba started as a Twitter challenge to write “one idea or opinion per like” on a topic of my choice.

I capped it at 100.

Over 3 days wrote some of my best lessons, ideas, & opinions about building businesses.

Here they are again, in order: 1. Most people pay *way* too much attention to things that do not matter to their customers: things like press, awards, drama, and hype.

Try auditing who and what you’re paying attention to, and then cut two big things that you’ve let distract in the past.

I was around for the very early days of ConvertKit, and specifically, for this transition from Nathan selling digital products to launching his SaaS.

He’s got a lot to be proud of, but I don’t think “scratch your own itch” is the right lesson to share.

Here’s what I remember:

https://twitter.com/nathanbarry/status/1556347688676773888

Nathan had found repeatable success with a pretty well established marketing playbook:

- earn trust by sharing lessons via an email list
- create premium digital educational products
- package those products in tiers
- repeat, creating more products for the same(ish) customers

I know a non-trivial number of people who have made real money (6 figures and up) by creating resources that are better than the official docs.

https://twitter.com/davekonopka/status/1551725055939313672

There are lots of reasons why the existing docs might be “bad” including that they aren’t written with a given reader in mind.

I’ve invested more than 100 hours writing docs for the gov’t processes of starting a small business.

I’m not the expert, I’m just the translator.

Adjacent story:

In two recent convos, diff people shared their resistance to running a "kind" of business.

One insisted they get into products because they "hated freelancing."

The other insisted they stay in services because they "hated marketing."

They were both wrong.

https://twitter.com/thetinymba/status/1538147024658477057

Now, their choices are theirs alone and I'm not interested in making them do something they don't want to.

But this binary of services and products is a fundamental misunderstanding that I see hold a LOT of people back.

In reality, it's not an either or. It's a spectrum.

One of the most valuable decisions in my career of "doing things differently than most people" has been deciding intentionally whose opinions & perspectives I truly value.

This means both understanding why I value them, AND finding the confidence to ignore most other opinions. Once you know who else's opinion actually matters to you and your goals, you're likely surprised at how small that list of people actually is.

And once you know that list, the way you make decisions, and process external questions & judgements, changes entirely.

So many of our @stackingbricks students are fearful of repeation. I think it has a lot to do with the fetishization of "efficiency" in tech.

In reality, most success is just finding a thing that works and doing/saying it over and over with the same enthusiasm as the first time. I've built my entire career on a handful of things that I know work when I do them, and I do them over and over and over.

Repetition creates opportunities for:
- practice and improvement
- repeat and new impressions
- reinforcement of good ideas
- practice and improvement

Pretty interesting to see a home renovation contractor use a lightly modified "four square" to present a MASSIVELY overpriced project estimate.

Immediate 🚩🚩🚩 for me, but I bet a lot of people have never seen this tactic before and get duped. I'm a big fan of strategic pricing and negotiation in business, but I'm deeply and intensely opposed to sales tactics that are designed to manipulate an individual's emotions and cheat the buyer.

Here are the specific clues I noticed on the handwritten "estimate" they gave:

I get a shitload of email.

But most of the time, my inbox is empty and calm.

The initial setup took some time, but the payoff is HUGE.

Here's how I do it: First, I turned off almost every feature in Gmail I could. No chat, no google meet, no tabs, no stars, no priority inbox.

Then, under labels, I hid almost everything. All that shows is my inbox, my sent, and a couple of specific labels I'll explain soon.

Simple as possible.

So this week, a reader wrote in about @amyhoy's "Pizza Crust Problems" essay, specifically noting the part about how often people think they'll make $$ building a SaaS to manage hair salon bookings.

stackingthebricks.com/pizza-crust-pr…

That part isn't new.

But this next part is... @amyhoy The same day this essay hit our readers' inboxes, I happened to be getting my hair cut by my barber, Lisa.

Lisa's phone rang. She picked up.

For 90 seconds, I listened to her side of a convo where someone was clearly trying to sell her SALON BOOKING SOFTWARE.

And failing.

Bunch of replies asking how this “fixed price discovery project” thing works, so lemme break it down!

Most service biz owners approach new projects one of three ways: hourly, project based, or the most sophisticated…retainers.

But…

https://twitter.com/alexhillman/status/1514064039101583361

All three of these approaches come with tradeoffs.
- Hourly gives clients a sense of "control", but limits income potential
- Project based allows for value pricing, but requires a VERY clear scope upfront
- Retainers enable long term work, but commitment is an "advanced" sell

Working in a traditional job isn't an inherently bad experience, I had more jobs I loved than hated.

But it is a system, and the system is flawed in fundamental ways. @amyhoy paints a picture of why that system is frustrating to many:

blog.justfuckingship.com/the-factory-vs… There was a great discussion in the 30x500 chat room about why people started their own thing.

Very few of our successful alumni especially "hated" having a "traditional" job, and even fewer stuck out on their own because they wanted to run a business.

The common thread? ...

Cancelled Spotify and switched over to Tidal. A few tips from the transition!

- tunemymusic.com seamlessly moved all of my playlists over for like $5

- This free/open source mini-app puts the “now listening” in my Discord profile github.com/purpl3F0x/TIDA…

https://twitter.com/alexhillman/status/1487495552522723333

- I use (and love) my Stream Deck as physical buttons for music/media control, and the “Multimedia” widget under the System button types gave me everything I needed to set up a play/pause toggle, next track button, and volume buttons.

My weirdest hobby is testing out healthcare systems and providers, especially those who claim they could help freelancers and entrepreneurs.

In the US, we’re borderline brainwashed to think about healthcare in one way. Here are some of the lessons I’ve learned:

https://twitter.com/alexhillman/status/1485702167864479753

Apart from the entire idea of for-profit healthcare being abhorrent, it’s the insurance intermediaries to blame.

They make things worse for EVERYONE. People who are insured, people who are uninsured, even the medical professionals who provide care.

This is a GREAT question!

Lets start here:

- Focus. “Everything about X” books die in draft.
- Beta readers incl a few relevant strangers so you can figure out where readers are confused, delight them instead.
- A launch plan that begins before launch day & continues after.

https://twitter.com/grodier/status/1382025090674659330

- I would not launch a book without a warm and ready email list, even a relatively small one is a force multiplier. tiny.mba’s first 1000+ sales + referrals came from a TINY list of just ~300 people that I grew directly from watering holes in ~3 weeks.

Listening to the latest @SoftwareSocPod podcast and thinking I need to make a list of things that people assume you need to do to write and publish a book, but you don't. Okay lets start here:

- Write 1000+ words a day
- Write in private
- Spend 6-9 months editing and revising
- Deliver a “big idea"
- PR/press
- Build a big social media following
- Constant self promo
- Drip emails
- Price low
- Upsell videos, etc
- Sell talks
- Sell consulting

Chris sent me this thread, knowing I grew up in rural PA.

So I went to see if there was a #blacklivesmatter protest in my hometown.

Friends, there is not a protest in my hometown. In fact, I remembered that my high school was the subject of an A&E episode about racism.

https://twitter.com/christopherwink/status/1269325247108521984

The next major towns over - Bethlehem and Allentown - both have had BLM demonstrations. Which is very good.

Another nearby small town - Quakertown - had to cancel student demonstrations because of Facebook threats of vigilantes coming in with guns. mcall.com/news/local/mc-…

Thinking a lot about uncertainty, and related, the illusion of certainty.

Lots of things are hard right now, and much harder for some than others, but many people I’ve talked to in the last few weeks agrees on one thing: If you’re healthy and alive, one of the hardest parts is having no knowable concept of the future.

It is literally impossible to know for sure what things might look like, or on what timeline.

Here’s the thing: marketing right now...isn’t that hard.

The problems your customers (or future customers) have and need help with are RIGHT in front of you.

*whispers* try helping them

https://twitter.com/alexhillman/status/1248402748237737987

The problem is that so many folks are frozen in the mode of "marketing = promote my product"

Bzzzzzt. Nah.

You have to stop starting at the product you can’t sell right now long enough to shift your gaze entirely on your *customer* and helping them even if they cannot buy rn.