Any introverts trying to #buildinpublic?

Introvert(ish) here. I don't have a quick fix for this, but I also don't think a quick fix would do for growing a product.

In short I think it comes down to changing your mindset and habits in ways that help you "become" the kind of person who can put yourself and your product out there. (Sure, you have a launch coming up in a few days, but this won't be the end of your product growth activity — it'll be the beginning!)

1. So imo the first thing to consider is your mindset.

You'll notice I added an "ish" at the end when I called myself an introvert in the first sentence above. That's because though our character traits are somewhat stable through life, they can swing wildly from moment to moment and from one context to the next. Psychologists distinguish long-term "traits" from short-term "states" in this way; you and I may have introverted traits, but we can enter into states of extraversion. For this reason, I try to be cautious about labeling myself in a way that doesn't give me flexibility.

A couple of good books here are Mindset by Carol Dweck and Me, Myself, and Us by Brian Little.

2. The second thing to consider, which might be more helpful in the short term, is habit formation.

Here's what works for me. When I know I should do something that doesn't come naturally to me, I like to break that thing down into little pieces (sometimes so little that it seems silly) and commit to at least doing one of the little pieces on a regular basis. Basically: exposure therapy. It becomes easier over time. And then as it becomes easier, I gradually add more pieces to the habit until I'm regularly doing the large thing I originally struggled to do.

Again: you have time to grow into the roles that your startup demands of you.

I'm a bit shy in that I've never liked building in public on super public channels, e.g. Twitter. However, in the early days of IH, I didn't mind doing it on my newsletter. I would send out progress updates every week on what I was working on and what had changed with the site. Often, I'd get replies from people who were excited, supportive, or who had questions or suggestions. It was extremely motivating, because I never wanted to have a week go by where progress hadn't been made.

So perhaps it comes down to just picking the right channel for yourself.

Another tip is that it helps to start by doing what's comfortable and easy. If you are posting a certain type of update in a certain type of place and it feels hard for you, then it's lose-lose. Worst-case scenario, you burn out. Best-case scenario, you build a big audience who's used to getting this type of content, and you're locked into doing something you don't like, until you burn out. You should build the type of audience who wants the type of content that you'll feel comfortable producing long term.

Finally, building in public is not necessary. There are plenty of other ways to market and grow your business! I'm a fan of finding something that works well and sticking to it, and saying no to most other things.

Hi,

I decided not to chase the big release, but to build a waitlist slowly and try to get more and more people excited about my product. I also want to see how my target users will look like. Still something I need to explore more. Maybe it’s also as I have a hard time going for a Big Bang release.

I think my approach can take a lot of time, so your release strategy can be quite a good one. I believe, in the end there is no right or wrong here, but trying and grinding and finding a need that you can fill.

Ferhat
http://exploo.com

I've started scheduling Tweets a few hours/days in advance, it takes some of the nervous energy out of it. It also helps with consistency.

Read "Show Your Work" by Austin Kleon. Best pill to cure impostor syndrome

omg so many great thoughts here! really sad i missed these during my existential crisis 😂

Woot woot, nocode in the house!

I actually just launched my first nocode project into the wild today (posted about it here on IH).

But more relating to your question, I made the switch on Twitter to change my personal account into one that posts my #BuildInPublic topics about 2 months ago.

It feels so weird, and I definitely cringe at my own stuff sometimes.

My thinking is that:

• The best way I learn something is just by doing it
• If I post stuff that's genuinely interesting to me, maybe someone else will find it interesting
• I've told myself to stop thinking of it as "self-promotion" and more of "here's everything that I think is cool". It's allowed me to be more of myself online.

Oh, and we're all imposters haha. You've got this!

Yeah. Understand. My simple advice would be just show up the main feature of your product and prepare upfront before the launch. Read a few articles/Twitter threads on how to launch on Product Hunt, Betalist, Reddit, etc.

Learn how others launching and take notes. With this in mind you have great chances to be on top of the list.

Participate in communities/ channels that best suit you. E .g I'm not on Twitter, but love networking on slack channels, and via events/webinars

I decided to create a newsletter as a way of interacting. Talking to people directly is not easy for everyone . I think just sending an email /tweet regularly is a good starting point.

Going through same problem 😅

👋👋👋

I know the feeling of struggling to build buzz and generally get the word out.

No tips, sorry, other than to just keep trying and learning.

Once you've got over whatever fear you may have had of putting yourself out there, it can be hard to keep on going when almost nobody is watching. But, if you give up you get nowhere.