As creators, the essence of our job is earning attention on the internet.

Yet attention is only the first half the equation. Anyone can get attention by shouting louder, or being more provocative. But that rarely leads to an enjoyable, thriving business.

What's far more difficult is getting internet strangers to genuinely care about your work, stick around for the long haul, and happily purchase your products.

This is why most creators struggle to make a sustainable living.

Not because they don't work hard. Nor because they don't earn attention from time to time.

But because their creations rarely resonate in a meaningful, lasting way.

This course—Stand Out & Connect—solves that problem.

In it, you'll learn the art of Fascination Stacking, an iterative process that will help you...

  • Create work that reliably resonates with the right people
  • Differentiate yourself in brutally competitive markets
  • Build an online presence that reflects your values & personality
  • Become a magnet for your ideal fans, while repelling people who don't vibe with you
  • Create feedback loops where your messaging (and business) grows stronger over time
  • Stop over-thinking, and start creating, learning, and iterating

You know that old Maya Angelou quote?

“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

That's what this course is about. Emotion, and how to harness it in your creative business.

You'll learn to break away from useless platitudes like "provide value" and get to the heart of what people actually care about.

You'll learn to create work makes people feel something, and that makes you yourself come alive.

In other words, if you care about building a delightful 1,000 True Fans style business, this is the way.

Emotion is the ultimate power tool in businesses like ours, and Fascination Stacking is the key that unlocks that toolbox.

Wtf is a "Fascination Stack" and how do you build one?

A Fascination Stack is a tapestry of emotionally resonant ideas.

You weave it together over time by being curious, testing ideas, and seeing what actually resonates with your people.

Instead of searching for one big thing to stand out—which is what most positioning, differentiation, or "category creation" experts will tell you to do—Fascination Stacking is about the accumulation of small differences. It's about finding one thing that resonates, then another, and another.

Do that for a few weeks, and you'll soon find that the DNA of your business has changed. At an atomic level, your work will no longer be optimized for clicks, or "engagement," or sales. But for pure emotion.

Something incredible happens when you make resonance your guiding principle.

Internet strangers will start actively choosing to spend their time with you, even if there are hundreds, or thousands, of other creators talking about the exact same topics. In a world of unlimited choice, the most resonant option wins.

Not only will people choose your work, but they'll stick around. They'll start leaving thoughtful comments. They'll tell their friends about you. And they'll happily buy your products—no manipulative sales tactics required.

When emotion is the foundation for everything you do, the game of creative business is hell of a lot easier and more joyful to play.

So if you're ready to optimize for resonance, this course will arm you with new tools to uncover it.

Here's what's inside.

Module 1: The Architecture of Emotion

In which we lay a foundation for everything to come.

In this module, I'll walk you through what a "Fascination" is, along with the principles required to build a stack of them.

I'll also walk you through 13 distinct principles that you can reliably use to connect with people, and stand out in a noisy world. Plus you'll get a boatload of examples from my work on Ungated.

Module 2: Personal Archaeology

In which we dig into your own emotional life, so that you can unearth resonant threads that'll make your work more personal.

This module will help you inject your work with authenticity and vulnerability. It'll help you be yourself on the internet, instead of feeling like you're mimicking others.

Module 3: Competitor Archaeology

In which we discover what's already working (or not) for your competitors.

There's no need to reinvent the wheel. So in this module, I'll show you how to borrow resonant ideas from competitors, and build on them.

I'll also show you how to pinpoint meaningful differences between you and competitors, so that you can create emotional contrast.

Module 4: Market Archaeology

In which we learn to listen to the market, and find the emotional pulse that's driving behavior.

In this module, I'll teach you two simple methods of market research that are rooted in curiosity, active listening, and empathy.

This will help you build a powerful feedback loop into your business. As you listen and iterate, your products and marketing will become more magnetic and resonant over time.

Module 5: Testing for Resonance

In which we put ideas to the test, to see what reliably resonates with the people you serve.

When you combine the three tools above—personal, competitor, and market archaeology—you'll unearth an unlimited supply of resonant ideas.

In this module, I'll give you a simple testing framework that will help you find things that light your people up. Truth is, you can't think your way into a resonant brand. You can only act and learn and iterate.

And that's what you'll do in this course. You'll find what actually resonates with your people instead of guessing.

Finally, I'll give you a handful of ways to use your Fascination Stack, so that you can weave emotion throughout your online presence.

And that's it.

If you're ready to stop being a commodity online, and you yearn to create things that matter to people, Fascination Stacking will get you there.

Excited to bring you along for the ride.

-Rob Hardy

How long will it take to complete this course?

I don't know about you, but I hate massive courses that come with dozens of hours of video, and take weeks or months to complete. Ain't nobody got time for that.

For all of my courses, you can get through the material and do the exercises in about 3-4 hours.

Personally, I'd recommend setting aside an afternoon to blast through it. Or if you'd like to go at a leisurely pace, take it over the weekend.

What's your refund policy?

You have an entire year to test this thing out, worry free.

If, after 364 days, you don't feel this was worth every last penny, I will happily refund you.

Do you offer scholarships?

You bet! If you believe this course will unlock the next step of your creator journey, or help you get unstuck, I don't want finances to stand in the way.

That's why I offer scholarships to anybody who needs one. If you're interested, here's what to do.

  1. Send me an email at rob@ungated.media with "Course Scholarship" as the subject line.
  2. Tell me which course you're interested in, and how you think it'll help you take the next step as a creator (the more detail, the better).
  3. Share how much you're comfortably able to pay, as a sign of your commitment to the course. (It's also perfectly fine if you can't afford anything. But in my years of teaching online, I've seen that even tiny financial sacrifices can lead to deeper commitment, and it's the commitment that leads to results.)

I will honor 100% of the requests that follow these directions.