Today's Maker: Michele Hansen - Author with #1 Product on Product Hunt

WHY SHE'S FEATURED:

• Built Geocodio with her husband which reached $1 million in revenue in 5 years.

• Recently wrote and published a book, Deploy Empathy: A practical guide for talking to customers which reached #1 on Product Hunt and has sold over 600 copies!

• Cohosts the Software Social Podcast which was nominated for Best Podcast, Best Episode, and Best Hosts in the 2020 SaaS Podcast Awards.

Admittingly, I'm new to Michele's work. It wasn't until Marie, our previous Maker of Habit, tagged her on Twitter that I discovered the HUGE successes she's had as an indie maker. Her accomplishments speak for themselves. Writing a book is no easy task, so you know she has some effective habits going on behind the scenes.

Read on to learn about 3 habits that have changed her trajectory as a maker 👇

3 Habits that changed Michele's trajectory:

• ✍️ Writing in public. Starting with a newsletter gave me velocity and feedback, and made writing a book — a famously lonely process — a social and interactive one.

• 🚀  Writing what I wanted when I wanted, and not editing first. I used to fret over writing for weeks before releasing. With the newsletter, I told myself I was just writing an email, not a book. This blog post by Joel Hooks was super helpful for me. https://joelhooks.com/on-writing-more

• ⏳ Bringing the community into the process and asking for help. Throughout the whole book process, I’ve talked it out in real time with my co-host Colleen Schnettler on Software Social, brought in other friends to the podcast for advice, and talked to readers on Twitter, email, and by interviewing 30+ them during the writing process. I received so much help from readers all over the world and I am enormously grateful for that. I feel like this book is just as much theirs as it is mine.

Seems like a lot can happen when your thoughts and ideas are shared externally with others, and don't just sit in your head! So get out there! 🌏Follow Michele @mjwhansen on Twitter to stay updated on her endeavors. And as always, thanks for reading.

One more thing: Maybe you're like me and you've tried writing consistently, you've tried engaging and growing a community around your product, but you struggle to build the necessary habits.

Well there's one proven thing that can help you build habits. And that's tracking them. But that too can be hard to stick with! That's why I built Harold, a habit tracking bot that makes tracking effortless and easy to stick with. The results will surprise you. No download or login required. Try it for free 👉 https://heyitsharold.com/