
Ask HN: Who has done year of hustle roadmap - quickthrower2
Just wondering if anyone has done the Amy Hoy year of hustle free course. I am doing it while waiting for the paid course to open up. I&#x27;m stuck so would be nice to talk to other people who have completed it for some tips.
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rpeden
I've found a lot of the advice useful, but it's important to remember the the
year of hustle is also an extended sales pitch for the 30x500 course.

And that is absolutely, totally fine. 30x500 has worked successfully for lots
of people. And it's definitely one way to build an audience and sell a
product.

Just remember that it's not the only way. The material put out by 30x500
students is good, but the way they go about selling it seems to follow a
formula that really turns me away. There are a few instances where I would've
purchased someone's e-book, but the almost-but-not-quite-useful e-bombs and
the smarmy long form sales copy turned made me decide against purchasing. This
isn't meant as a scathing indictment of 30x500; just as a note that no
marketing method will endear you to every potential customer.

So as you get the year of hustle e-mails, keep in mind that a lot of the
lessons are the same ones you'll learn in a college Marketing 101 course. I
finished a business degree before I came to my senses and became a developer,
and the one thing I remember most strongly from the marketing courses I took
is that market research might just be the most important part of marketing,
because you do it _before_ you start working on your product to determine
whether the product is viable (or you do it to survey the market to find ideas
for viable products).

To sum it up: I think Year of Hustle provides valuable advice, but you might
find it useful to pick up a used marketing textbook as well. The bits of
advice in YoH are specific instances of more general concepts. As you read
through YoH, try to identify the general concepts it is applying. You might
just come up with some creative marketing that hits your target market more
effectively than the specific advice in YoH.

I realize that marketing is a huge topic, though. It might be easier to try to
just apply the advice in YoH before trying to generalize it. And that's a
completely valid approach. Just keep in mind that it attracts some members of
your target market while potentially alienating others. But the same is
probably true for any marketing technique you choose.

Best of luck in your marketing and product endeavours! :)

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quickthrower2
This is a brilliant, detailed and encouraging answer.

I'm not from a business background but have done some online sales stuff
before.

I am finding the most value is in the general concept of spending a decent
amount of time identifying problems and getting to know your customer.

Even though I am a developer for example there was a question about losing
patches. So what that's code not in source control?! To me this is
unfathomable! But that _might_ be a common problem out there. Something I'd
never have guessed from introspection.

So I'm going to generally flow the course but add my own flair to it. I'll
probably do some phone calls for a deeper dive rather than just relying on
forums for example.

Thanks again.

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quickthrower2
First question is for part 3 of plan i.e. "data" do you try to find an
audience first to get this data or is it just out of your own head.

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tmaly
I just signed up a few weeks back, I just got email 6.

I am interested in it mainly to pick up tips and tricks

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quickthrower2
Thanks. Are you following the plan at all?

