Let’s talk about money, baby! And where money comes from.

Whether it’s funding or acquihires, angels or convertible notes, debt or income, money is the topic we all looooove to talk about (and pretend not to care about).

Lemme be straight with you: I love me some money. And I don’t mind admitting it.

Growing up, I lived in what should have been a firmly middle-class household, but somebody (not me) was terrible at managing money. Sure, we had a computer and internet access (yay!) but new clothes were an incredible and rare treat, car problems were financial disasters, and our power and telephone service got turned off on a semi-regular basis.

“We can’t afford” was a phrase that was ground into my brain. There were grooves. It took me a long time to get over it, and it gave me all kinds of complexes.

Today, thanks to my products, I get to enjoy the luxury of having a financial cushion big enough to buy a new car… in cash. (A fancyish new car — or 2 to 3 Toyota Yarises!) I love the sheer relief it brings to be able to wave away financial problems such as sudden repairs, unexpected bills, even the cost of same-day hotel dry-cleaning and airline upgrades… or falling in love with a one-of-a-kind piece of art on a trip. Whatever, it’s only money. No worries.

(The extra buying power is fantastic, but not worrying is the greatest luxury of all.)

The size of my cushion isn’t what gives me that relaxed attitude, though. No, I’ve known many who had greater annual incomes (personal income), with more money in the bank, who were nevertheless fearful and anxious. Always hawk-eyed, watching for the tiniest bit of excess. Nope, that cheerful, relaxed attitude isn’t about sheer volume of cash.

The root of my financial chillaxing is this simple fact:

Whatever happens to my finances, I know I can make more money whenever I want.

No shit, this is an actual fact, one I’ve proven to myself over & over through the past 4 years of product empire building. (And before that, it came in a flavor of I can get another job whenever I want, which was also a source of relief, although not nearly so empowering.)

Probably this makes me sound like a glib douchebag, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take, because sharing this shift is important to me:

Nothing makes me happier than helping other people learn this way of looking at the world. And watching them make it happen.

My hope is that you’ll read this little essay today and be inspired to figure out how you can get a little of that attitude for yourself.

A Real-Life Illustration: Hello, Last Minute Ireland!

Last year, we missed out on Funconf in Dublin. This year — the last Funconf ever! — I told myself there was no way in hell I’d miss it. But, having dropped over $130,000 for a mortgage down payment just a month before, our financial cushion wasn’t as robust and hearty as I like it. And at 999€ (times two!) for the conf tickets alone, it wasn’t a tiny expense.

My husband, Thomas, is the cautious one. “We don’t have the money,” he said. I answered him: “What are you talking about? We can make the money.”

And so we did.

We took a two-fold approach:

• reinvigorated pimping of his latest tiny tech ebook on Retinafying, through a couple blog posts and many tweets
• offering a coupon on our newly finalized HTML5 Mobile screencast workshop to our mailing list

We made the trip happen… without dipping into our cushion.

We’re talking over $5,000 in a matter of days, dear reader. My email to the mailing list alone brought in over $2,500 of new sales.

That is the true power of assets, conceived and properly deployed. That’s the power of what I like to call True Wealth. Like a relaxed attitude about money, True Wealth isn’t about the cash: it’s a combination of knowledge, skills, process, assets… and gumption.

Um, but Amy, you and Thomas are… special

It’s easy for me because I’m famous. Right?

First off, I really wouldn’t say I’m famous. Slightly internet famous in a few narrow circles, maybe. Thomas, my husband, is pretty damn hot in JavaScript land but without careful tending of his public image, even his star power is slightly tarnished.

Even so, I hear this a lot: “Well, you’re famous.” “If I had 10,000 Twitter followers like you do, I could do it, too.”

Bzzzt. Untrue, my friends. Lots of famous people can’t sell a damn thing. And lots of totally un-famous people sell lots. (Psst: I wrote a blog post about this very topic.)

Which brings us to my next story, about my student, Brennan Dunn.

Another Story: Brennan’s Last Minute Ireland!

Now, Brennan isn’t famous at all, by any stretch of the imagination. Under a thousand Twitter followers (and most of those are recent), triple digit RSS subscriber count, and no name recognition. What little fame he has, in fact, is brand new.

And that’s not stopping him one bit. To the contrary!

Brennan took my 30×500 Product Launch Class last summer, and he really put his blood, sweat & tears into it. His first product ever, Planscope, is making $3,200 a month now — and growing nearly 10% month over month.

If he can keep that rate of growth up (and he’s a marketing machine, so I know he can), Planscope will be bringing in over $120,000 a year in revenue for him when it’ll be 20 months old. That’s the power of compound growth: it seems slow, but boy does it really add up. (Planscope is even growing faster than our first app, Freckle, did!)

Obviously, as Brennan’s teacher, this makes me super proud. And it’s especially awesome when you consider that he’s only part-time on Planscope right now.

Because right now, $3,200 a month isn’t enough for him to quit consulting. So when it came to Funconf, Brennan was thinking like my husband, Thomas.

Brennan wanted to go to Funconf, too — but, after a lengthy vacation and unexpected medical bills, he found himself thinking, “We don’t have the money.”

To me, that sounded like a challenge. And call it a personality flaw, but I find it harrrrrd to resist a challenge.

So I sneak attacked him.

While we were chatting about something completely different, I dropped a subtle bomb into the conversation, talking about our plan to pay for Funconf:

Amy Hoy: the upside of having a mixture of products is we can do a sale on the infoproducts to raise some cash
Amy Hoy: which is sthg I wanted to talk to you about
Amy Hoy: you’re obviously going balls to the wall on Planscope, but have you thought about doing an infoproduct for a cash infusion?

The thing about Brennan is he never needs telling twice. He took the idea and ran with it.

Brennan realized that he had:

1. experiences he could share & teach
2. a process for coming up with profitable product ideas
3. an audience (Planscope customers) to learn from & reach out to
4. the skills to write a persuasive sales pitch
5. the confidence to choose a value-based price
6. the tools & techniques for launching

And so he made a bet with his wife. As he told me,

Brennan Dunn: but my bet with her was, “If I can make enough to cover the flight and ticket between now and then on something new, can I go?”
Brennan Dunn: I think she probably didn’t believe me, and ended up accepting the bet 
Brennan Dunn: because $4-5k in 2 weeks on something brand new didn’t seem very plausible to her (i.e. I’m not even close to that with planscope and it’s been like 9 months)

Mrs Dunn was right to doubt, don’t you think? It doesn’t sound very plausible, does it? Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that this was just a couple weeks before the conference itself? No way, man.

And yet.

Brennan took his assets & process & skills — items 1 through 6 — and he whipped up a pitch that’d appeal to the audience he already had (Planscope customers), based on what he’d learned from interacting with them (they have lots of problems; pricing is a big one).

He turned that pitch into a simple page to pre-sell the product: a short little ebook workbook. He called it Double Your Freelancing Rate:

He gave it an ambitious, value-based price. (After all of us in the 30×500 alumni group nudged him to charge more.) He promoted it to his existing audience. He tweeted. He got retweeted. He wrote one blog post about the book — then another, meta post. He contacted leaders, got interviews and links…

And that little ebook brought in $6,000 in pre-sales alone. Before he wrote it.

Ladies and gentlemen, Brennan went to Funconf. We all had a great time. And last Monday, he shipped the finished version, to rave reviews.

This Isn’t a Story about Conference Tickets

This story is about more than a trip to Dublin and a crazy conference. That’s just the way it begins.

Once you realize you can “make money happen,” once you’ve proven to yourself that it works… what else changes?

What happens when you stop thinking of money as something that happens to you, and start thinking of how you could happen to money?

Could you use this technique to quit your job, or quit consulting, months sooner? To take a sabbatical? To fund the development of a bootstrapped product, to give you runway without investment?

I’ve done all of the above.

It’s like being your own angel investor. Only there’s nobody riding your ass… and you get to maintain full control and 100% ownership.

I’ve used the Be Your Own Angel approach over & over to do the seemingly impossible. Without BYOA, we couldn’t have funded the development of Charm, or taken months off to handle Thomas’ immigration and our international move. I couldn’t have quit consulting when I did.

That’s power.

And it’s not power that’s unique to me. Brennan isn’t famous… not even among freelancer circles. He is well-equipped, dedicated, and savvy.

If you’re dedicated and savvy, you could BYOA too.

How’d Brennan get this way?

I certainly can’t claim credit for Brennan being a savvy go-getter. I also have nothing to do with his ability to teach people how to raise their freelance rates (he created a booming consultancy before I ever entered the picture).

But of this list of the experience, skills, process, & tools he used to create that windfall:

1. experiences he could share & teach
2. a process for coming up with profitable product ideas
3. an audience (Planscope customers) to learn from & reach out to
4. the skills to write a persuasive sales pitch
5. the confidence to choose a value-based price
6. the tools & techniques for launching

Items 2 through 6 were things he learned, built, & honed in my class, 30×500, the product launch class. Plus, as he said to me last night, “You definitely kicked my ass in the right direction.” (A thing I love to do!)

Amy Hoy: so how does it feel now to know that you have the ability to “make money happen” when you want?
Brennan Dunn: it’s liberating, and addicting
Brennan Dunn: liberating because, unlike with a “job” or even putting all my eggs into a single SaaS basket, I’m in complete control of growth.
Brennan Dunn: like, I could survey enough of the new audience to figure out what I have to offer them next (i.e. the freelance -> consultancy course)
Brennan Dunn: and deliver more value for more money, filling my pockets and filling their heads

Isn’t this the best virtuous cycle ever? If this sounds like the kind of addictive habit you’d like to craft for yourself, then 30×500 can help you, too.

30×500: Product Launch Class

30×500 is a class I’ve been teaching for over 2 years. The goal is simple:

Help you learn how to think & act like Brennan in the story above. To recognize the value you bring to the table; to spot opportunities, and pounce on them; to look at the world in a different (more actionable!) way; to learn how to sell things before they’re made, to preserve your precious time; to market, to sell, to ship.

It’s true, I love the financial freedom & security that my product business gives me. I love hearing from happy Freckle and Charm customers. I love having an impact; getting to do a million different things; knowing that nobody could ever fire me, or change my work against my will.

But what I really, really love is this:

Watching my students kick ass in the 30×500 Product Launch Class. Watching them learn what I’ve learned, and experience the joy of working directly with the people whose lives they touch. Disintermediating away clients, committees, and bosses, and getting straight to the quick. Watching them feel, for the first time, the joy of realizing they can choose how much they want to earn.

And watching them get letters from their customers as they help them kick ass.

Then seeing them give the same great advice and encouragement — sometimes even better! — to their fellow alumni.

There’s nothing better.

I know that, every year, I’m helping my students launch businesses which, in toto, will multiply our own yearly revenue by ten over the long run.

I get to be a human lever for awesome. And train new human levers for awesome!

Some day, if there are enough of us, we will move the world. Even if we only move the world a little bit, for a hundred people here, a thousand people there, we’re still moving the world. Which amazes me anew every single day.

This is why I designed 30×500 the way I did:

30×500 is a very nice money maker for me, but it’s not as profitable as if I’d pour that time and effort into growing Freckle and Charm. On the other hand, it has a much more powerful impact on a smaller group of people (my awesome, awesome students). And that’s what I love about it.

Which is why I don’t try to maximize my personal 30×500 ROI, but rather my student’s ROI:

When you join 30×500, you join for life. Shit happens. Sometimes you can’t finish the class you’re in “on time.” I know it. As an alumnus, you can retake the class any time you want or need.

You also get a lifetime subscription to all the updated, improved and expanded lessons. (And I don’t rest on my laurels; I’m always trying to make 30×500 better, more effective, for you. I’m not perfect, but I’m always trying.)

You’re also invited to the weekly Office Hours chats, as long as I hold them. (Which over 2 years have grown from sporadic now and then, to twice a month, to once weekly. And I foresee doing this for a long time.)

Perhaps best of all, you have access to the alumni mailing list — an awesome, involved group of motivated people, like yourself, who are there for you, to answer your questions, poke holes in your mistakes, point out things you’ve overlooked, and generally help you kick your own ass. Who are there, sharing their successes and trials, to inspire you and show you that you’re so very far from alone.

The quality of this alumni group cannot be overstated:

Right now, some 30×500 alumni are organizing a study group for those who are “behind” the official class schedule. This is amazing to me. And brilliant.

And every week (or more!) we get emails like this one from Brennan:

I just pushed a few updates based on the awesome feedback I’ve received. (Once again, this class has paid for itself and then some!)

[Later] … I pushed [changes based on your feedback] last night, and am already now getting 8% conversion rates (instead of < 2%).

I have pages and pages of quotes and comments like this.

Together, we’re building a bootstrap army, inspiration delivery network, and support group all in one. And it kicks ass.

Would you like to join us?

30×500 Winter 2012 is Opening Soon

If you want to be a part of the next 30×500 class — if you’re really ready to make this enormous change and you’re willing to put your time & effort where your mouth is…

Enter your name and email address in the boxes below:

Name:
Email address:

NOTE: Putting your email in the box above is the only way to attend 30×500.

Last class, I took a new approach to launching 30×500, in the hopes of continuing this awesome trend of ever-increasing quality, and ever-increasing student results. I set up an application process.

I intended to give the people on my list first dibs… but as it turns out, the people on the list took every single seat. So I never even launched the application process on my blog, because there were no seats left.

So:

• You’ll need to apply, so I can help ensure the class is right for you right now.
• I’m supplying self-guided learners with 100% of the materials before the class starts (after applied/accepted/paid, of course).
• You’ll have 30 days to review the material and decide if the class lives up to your expectations — if not, no problem, you’ll get a full refund.
• You’ll have access to the alumni community and weekly Office Hours chats for life
• And you’ll get all the updates to the class materials for life — for free!
• New feature in this class: intense weekend bootcamp, so you get the whole picture up front, and see how the whole 3 months of work hangs together
• And I’m making huge improvements to eliminate the stumbling blocks, and adding tons more “live feedback” and group exercises to help you make great progress on executing

It’s almost time to open up the application process. Doors open on Friday, Sept 21st. This will be first come, first served for the 75 seats available. Here are the questions, if you want to prepare. (NB: they may change slightly, based on my “beta testers.”)

What’s it cost? $2,750 — just $2,450 (Early Bird) for the 3+ month long class, all the awesome new lessons, structure, weekly chats, and alumni group for life.

This may seem like a lot, until you compare what you get to the cost of a single class at a business school: This is not lecture-and-test-and-forget-it. This class is not taught by a TA, it’s taught by a veteran (me!), with over 2 years of experience teaching this stuff, plus assistance from the awesome & savvy Alex Hillman and the alumni who are making it happen. You won’t be alone, you’ll be surrounded by people who are striving to succeed, who have a common vocabulary, and who care.

And you get to be a part of this forever.

What else can you get for $2,450? A 5-day vacation somewhere moderately luxurious and tropical? That’s nice, but it doesn’t last, and it won’t ever pay you back.

On the other hand, Jim Gay’s revenue from his very first beta product launch has paid him back more than 7-fold. You know how much Brennan’s Planscope app is making. (This is after starting at just under $100 for his first billing cycle, a few months ago. That’s the maddening beauty of subscription income.)

And Jarrod informed me that he made 242 sales of Bootstrapping Design — $8,753 — in his first 48 hours. (Current total: north of $40,000.) Like Brennan, Jarrod wasn’t even remotely famous! He exploited the 30×500 recipe, and his own internal resources, plus his own sweat & tears, to make something that people want so bad that he could get those kinds of results without fame.

Several alumni have used 30×500 to improve their consulting practice, or launch live training workshops (like RailsTutors), which have more than paid for their tuition. One alum wrote the mailing list to explain how she’s using 30×500 to slowly revolutionize the company who bought her employers — from the inside out, by spoon-feeding them the lessons she learned in my class.

30×500 is built for products, but it’s really a way of thinking which can change the way you look at everything you touch that has anything to do with money.

In short: if you’ve got the grit and the gumption, I believe this is the absolute best investment you can make right now for your future success.

Unless… you just wanna maybe learn something and explore the idea of making a product because it sounds like a fine thing. In this case, I hope I’ve priced 30×500 out of your comfort zone. I don’t want you to waste your money, and I want the class to be full of people who are really motivated to be there.

On the other hand, if you’re seriously ready to learn, to change, to implement, and to ship, there’s no reason why your investment couldn’t pay you back with your very first product.

And if you are, now’s a great time to join my mailing list so you get first dibs on the application process, and the seats:

Name:
Email address:

Funmail Guarantee: Obv there’s no obligation whatsoever. You can unsubscribe at any time. And I promise to send you nothing but information on the class, free goodies, stories, samples and discounts and awesome stuff like that!

There are only 75 seats available. I’ll be making them available first come, first serve, for those who apply. There are 1200 people on this mailing list. Not everyone on there is really ready to make that commitment and shell out that cash, but… you do the math

See you in class.

Scene: Last Thursday, at a big round table in a — no joke — Portugese-Chinese fusion tapas joint, sealed off from the rest of the room by beaded curtains made of brass. At the table, a bunch of geeks eating finger food and shootin’ the shit.

It was, in a way, a business round table. (As well as an actual round table.)

The folks I was dining with run a hybrid consulting/product business, like Thomas & I did before we quit consulting. (Though these guys are a hundred times better at consulting than we are.)

Now, what you need to know is that these are great guys. Guys I’ve chatted with before about products. Guys who’ve inspired me.

One of them told me that I am brave — brave for what?

For putting our biz numbers out there. For talking about this stuff. For my dedication to drawing back the curtain.

I thanked him, of course. What a compliment.

I’m Not Brave…

But, the fact is, I’m not brave. I’m angry.

I’m angry that the vast majority of tech biz content is so much tabloid nonsense.

I’m angry that the stories we’re assaulted with every day are statistical anomalies and nothing more.

I’m angry that it’s become an assumption that “success” means getting a big fat investment, not turning a profit. That success means founding your own company in order to determine your own destiny, then happily become an employee again when some megacorp snatches you up.

I’m angry that nobody is willing to point out the obvious, dirty truth: when you can’t fund your own projects, you are at the mercy of the money men. And the money men do not have your best interests at heart.

Most of all, I’m angry that because of all of this, it’s almost impossible to learn what it makes to build a business from nothing, on the side, to profitability.

Don’t Get Mad… Change Stuff

So, I’ve decided to do something about it.

I aim to remind everyone that successful, bootstrapped product businesses are far more common (and far more natural!) than hockey sticks and big exits. And to show folks how it’s done.

So, I blog. I give interviews (see that sidebar). I name numbers. I tweet.

And I teach a deep, involved, pragmatic 3-month course that encompasses just about everything I’ve learned from launching my own successful, profitable products.

Stacking the Bricks

Below is a video lesson from my 30×500 Product Launch Class.

It’s called Stacking the Bricks, and it’s a no-nonsense look at how 5 businesses got started, and how they grew — including a couple famous businesses, a couple nascent ones, and mine.

This video lesson is part reality check, part battlecry, part kick in the pants. It is ruthlessly practical, and it’s an investigation of patterns and systems.

Based on feedback from folks who’ve watched it, I can tell you: It’s worth your time. Make it happen. (And let it load, because it doesn’t stream.)

Watch it now, here, or download it. Rip the audio and listen to it on your commute. Just don’t fave it for later, because we both know that means never.

Click here to download the MOV file

It’s 43 minutes long, and there’s a blip in the audio part way through. (Sorry about that, but it’s too important to get out there, rather than waiting forever to re-record.)

Ready to Make Your First Brick?

If you’re a designer or a developer who dreams of having an independent income made by selling products directly to the people who use them…

…if you’re not sure where to start, or how to get over the problems that have plagued you every time you have started…

… if you’d sleep easier if you knew how to drum up customers before you ever put pencil to paper or code to git…

Then my 30×500 Launch Class may be just the kick in the pants you need.

A kick in the pants followed up by sensible, actionable advice and a process (with workbooks! so many workbooks!) you can implement yourself. And, when you join, you get access to a community of nearly 200 alumni as well as your fellow students.

This video is just one of many useful, butt-kicking, inspiring lessons in my 30×500 Product Launch Class… and I’m adding more all the time. This lesson, specifically, is an accompaniment to the heavily action-oriented, workbook-based lessons. 30×500 helps you understand the why as well as implement the how.

Tickets are on sale now. (As of writing, there are just over 20 left.)

Oh, and: the price goes up by $100 in just a couple days.

Learn more now. Grab your seat before the price goes up.