January 19, 2025

B. Show Your Work

10 ways to share your creativity and get discovered

Austin Kleon

It’s not about finding an audience, they will find you… but you need to be findable.

::Senius:: - a collection of talented individuals that support each other by contributing and stealing ideas
- It’s about what you contribute, not how talented or smart you are
Good work isn’t created in a vacuum
Think like an amateur by experimenting unapologetically
An amateur remembers the struggle more clearly and can more accurately guide others than an expert
Don’t wait for things to happen

Take people behind the scenes
- Connect with people while you build not at the end
Put things out there consistently to reveal more of yourself
Become a ::documentarian::
- There is an art to what we all do, find a way to creatively present it to people
- Start with the scraps from your process
- Keep a Professional/Work journal

::Daily dispatch::: Review your work each day and identify one piece you can share
- Early on —> share inspiration
- Middle —> share methods
- End —> show final product / what you learned
Pick one platform with an audience you want to connect with and stick with that
The ::so what? test:: - ask this every time you post something, don’t overshare, always try to provide value or entertainment
- Unsure —> let it sit for 24hrs
Pick a domain name you can own where your voice and thoughts can live… and stick with it

Cherish your influences
- it reveals more about you and people can be interested in what interests you
- Ira Glass quote
Protect your curiosity, it leads to new explorations which will lead to good work
- What you enjoy is up to you, celebrate them because it’s authentic to you and will attract authentic relationships
Leave breadcrumb trails to your inspiration and sources
- Attribution without a link is almost always useless
- Don’t share things you can’t properly credit

How you present something deeply affects how people feel about its
- Your work doesn’t speak for itself
- People want to know how things are made, where they came from, and who made them do
Every “pitch” is a story with the endings chopped off
- Act 1: the past, where you’ve been, what you want, what you did
- Act 2: the present, where you are now
- Act 3: the future, where you’re going and how the audience can help
Talk about yourself at parties
- These aren’t interrogations, use it as an opportunity to connect
- Be able to explain your story to anyone with dignity and self respect
- The emotion you feel when asked this will reveal your satisfaction with where you are

Keeping what you know to yourself is bad sportsmanship, ::sharing is freeing::
- Learning isn’t knowing and in most cases brings you more business not less
What in your process could help someone else? Teach them what they want to know

“…brings you into contact with people whose opinions you should have canvased already” - Christopher Hitchen