“Show your work!” by Austin Kleon, is the very book that encouraged me to start this newsletter, and has been one of the most influential books I have read to this day. (P.S- This summary is slightly longer than my usual articles, but trust me, its worth your time. Consider checking out the book, if you have some more time here. )
Some of my favourite excerpts and quotes from this book:
“There was always one classmate in every creative writing workshop who claimed, “I love to write, but I don’t like to read.” It was evident right away that you could pretty much write that kid off completely. As every writer knows, if you want to be a writer, you have to be a reader first.
“Carving out a space for yourself online, somewhere where you can express yourself and share your work, is still one of the best possible investments you can make with your time”
“Amateurs know that contributing something is better than contributing nothing
The book covers ten main ideas (in it’s ten chapters) :
A NEW WAY OF OPERATING
“I hate talking about self-promotion. Comedian Steve Martin famously dodges these questions with the advice, “Be so good they can’t ignore you.”
“Imagine if your next boss didn’t have to read your résumé because he already reads your blog. Imagine being a student and getting your first gig based on a school project you posted online. Imagine losing your job but having a social network of people familiar with your work and ready to help you find a new one. Imagine turning a side project or a hobby into your profession because you had a following that could support you.”
“ Imagine something simpler and just as satisfying: spending the majority of your time, energy, and attention practicing a craft, learning a trade, or running a business, while also allowing for the possibility that your work might attract a group of people who share your interests.”
“All you have to do is show your work.”
1. YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE A GENIUS.
Find a scenius.
Kleon in this chapter explains, the idea of finding a scenius - he explains that if you look back closely at history, many of the people who we think of as lone geniuses were actually part of a scenius - “a whole scene of people who were supporting each other, looking at each other’s work, copying from each other, stealing ideas, and contributing ideas.”
Be an amateur.
He explains that sometimes an amateur can teach a beginner better than an expert as an amateur understands a beginners mind better than the expert, Find something you want to learn, and learn it in front of others as you teach it to them, share your process, experiences, successes and failures.
2. THINK PROCESS, NOT PRODUCT.
Take people behind the scenes.
In the pre digital era, sharing the process for a piece for a piece of work was nearly impossible, and all people could see was the finished product in all its glory.
This all made sense in a pre-digital age, when the only way an artist could connect with an audience was through a gallery show or write-up in some fancy art magazine.
Audiences not only want to stumble across great work, but they, too, long to be creative and part of the creative process. By letting go of our egos and sharing our process, we allow for the possibility of people having an ongoing connection with us and our work, which helps us move more of our product.
Human beings are interested in other human beings and what other human beings do. “People really do want to see how the sausage gets made.”
Share your:
Become a documentarian of what you do.
Gary Vaynerchuk says, “document, don’t create”.
Take down your thoughts on paper as you create, share those thoughts. Take photos of your process and the stages of your work and share them.
Whether you share it or not, documenting and recording your process has its own rewards. 🎖
3. SHARE SOMETHING SMALL EVERYDAY.
Sharing vs oversharing - Think of it this way ‘would what you are sharing provide any value to your audience or the person viewing your content?’, If yes, SHARE IT.
Social media sites are the perfect place to share daily updates. Don’t worry about being on every platform; pick and choose based on what you do and the people you’re trying to reach.
Make yourself findable.
So, if you get one thing out of this book make it this: Go register a domain name. Buy www.[insert your name here].com. If your name is common, or you don’t like your name, come up with a pseudonym or an alias, and register that. Then buy some web hosting and build a website. (These things sound technical, but they’re really not—a few Google searches and some books from the library will show you the way.) If you don’t have the time or inclination to build your own site, there’s a small army of web designers ready to help you. Your website doesn’t have to look pretty; it just has to exist.
Don’t think of your website as a self-promotion machine, think of it as a self-invention machine. Online, you can become the person you really want to be. Fill your website with your work and your ideas and the stuff you care about.
4. OPEN UP YOUR CABINET OF CURIOSITIES.
Share other people's work - create a curation of works you enjoy and feel your audience may enjoy too. This is the reason why I share “The Weekly Link up” section in my newsletters every week.
Credit is always due- attribution = providing context for what you’re sharing.
5. TELL GOOD STORIES.
Everybody loves a good story, but good storytelling doesn’t come easy to everybody. It’s a skill that takes a lifetime to master. So study the great stories and then go find some of your own. Your stories will get better the more you tell them.
Talk about yourself at parties
It’s okay to talk about yourself if people ask.
“You got to make your case.”
—Kanye West
Tell the truth and tell it with dignity and self-respect, have empathy for your audience. Anticipate blank stares. Be ready for more questions. Answer patiently and politely.
6. TEACH WHAT YOU KNOW.
The impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes. -Annie Dillard
Teaching people what you know, and how you work or what you work on, doesn’t take from what you do, it adds to it, you’re actually in the process generating more interest in your work. People will feel closer to it because you’re teaching them what you know.
When you share your knowledge and your work with others, you receive an education in return. People that see your stuff may, connect with it, and reach out to you with recommendations and their own thoughts.
7. DON’T TURN INTO A HUMAN SPAM.
You want hearts, not eyeballs - stop obsessing over the number of people that follow you and read your work online.
The vampire test- “Whatever excites you, go do it. Whatever drains you, stop doing it.”
—Derek Sivers
Meet people IRL-
Meeting people online is awesome, but turning them into IRL friends is even better.
Meet people (if in your town) that follow your content and share your thoughts with them, have a chat, a coffee, and turn them into irl friends. If you travel let your audience know that you’re going to be in town.
Brancusi practiced what I call The Vampire Test. It’s a simple way to know who you should let in and out of your life. If, after hanging out with someone you feel worn out and depleted, that person is a vampire. If, after hanging out with someone you still feel full of energy, that person is not a vampire.
The vampire test works for almost everything not just people—you can apply it to jobs, hobbies, places, etc.
Vampires cannot be cured. Should you find yourself in the presence of a vampire, be like Brancusi, and banish it from your life forever.
8. LEARN TO TAKE A PUNCH.
Learn to take criticism well, and to deal with haters, don’t let the fear of haters stop you from putting yourself out there. They’re a small minority, and they have no real power over you.
“I ain’t going to give up. Every time you think I’m one place, I’m going to show up someplace else. I come pre-hated. Take your best shot. - Cyndi Lauper
When you put your work out into the world, you have to be ready for the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Colin Marshall says: “Compulsive avoidance of embarrassment is a form of suicide.”
Keep your balance - You must remember that your work is something you do, not who you are.
“The trick is not caring what EVERYBODY thinks of you and just caring about what the RIGHT people think of you.”
—Brian Michael Bendis
9. SELL OUT.
Keep a mailing list - give people great value for free, get great feedback, and eventually sell something when you’re ready to. There are people who run multimillion dollar businesses off their mailing lists.
Pay it forward - When you have success, help those who reach out to you. Help people who helped you get where you are.
Caveat - Don’t sacrifice your work to answer emails. Be as generous as you can, but s be selfish enough to get your work done.
“We don’t make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies.”
—Walt Disney
“Above all, recognize that if you have had success, you have also had luck—and with luck comes obligation. You owe a debt, and not just to your gods. You owe a debt to the unlucky.”
—Michael Lewis
10. STICK AROUND.
Keep creating your pieces of work and keep sharing. Don’t quit.
Don’t be afraid to change things up.
“Whenever Picasso learned how to do something, he abandoned it.”
—Milton Glaser
💡If you liked this article, you might like this one too: CRYPTO 101
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