End of an era

Yesterday, I published the last episode of Build & Launch's first season.

It's been an incredible ride.

In the past month, I've launched 4 personal projects:

1. the podcast itself

2. The Product Hunt Handbook

3. Network Effects: a web app for notifying groups via SMS

4. Productify: make a membership site on WordPress using Gumroad

Building and launching a new project every 7 days taught me the value of starting now, and starting small. Shipping is addictive.

Here are a few other lessons I learned during the process:

1. Partner up - this year, I've been forcing myself to quit being a lone wolf, and find people to partner with. When I partnered with Carl and Marty, the end result was far better than what I could have done on my own. Two heads are better than one. ;)

2. Set a deadline - the Build & Launch challenge is to create a new project every 7 days (start on Friday and ship on Thursday). Having that hard deadline is really motivating. Setting aside each week to focus on one thing was also helpful.

3. Share the process - I've been sharing everything (including my bumps and bruises) with this mailing list and the podcast. People love being a part of the journey.

4. The only thing that matters, is the work - when you're building a product, there are a lot of things you can spend your time on: tweeting, answering email, fiddling with analytics. With only 7 days for each project, I quickly learned that the only thing that mattered was sitting down and doing the work. No procrastinating. Building a product is like pushing a rock uphill: your whole focus should be getting that rock to move a little farther. Everything else is a distraction.

The best part about doing the podcast was the amazing response I got from listeners. Tweets like these kept me inspired to keep making the show.

I'm already getting ready for season 2! In the meantime, I'll spend the next two episodes answering your questions. Have a question about one of the projects we launched? Trying to figure out how you can build and launch your own thing? Email me, or get me on Twitter.

Thanks for being a part of the journey. Now, let's go make some stuff.

Cheers,
Justin Jackson
@mijustin

PS: You can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes here.