While researching how to run a buisness The State of Things #1 | the company I work for no longer exists, I was once again inspired to post more of my work online.
Show Your Work is described as “a book for people who hate the very idea of self-promotion”. Show Your Work! Its the followup book to Kleon’s New York Times bestselling guide to creativity, Steal Like An Artist. If Steal was a book about stealing influence from others, Show is about influencing others by letting them steal from you. I shudder at the thought LOL. But after reading the book and seeing its applications by other artists and entrepreneurs, I know I want to push myself more to show what I do behind the scenes.
Here’s How to Show your work according to Austin Kleon
- You don’t have to be a genius.
- Think process, not product.
- Share something small every day.
- Open up your cabinet of curiosities.
- Tell good stories.
- Teach what you know.
- Don’t turn into human spam.
- Learn to take a punch.
- Sell out.
- Stick around.
The Book in 3 Sentences
- Sharing your work online is more than just a way to showcase your finished pieces. Its a way to build an audience who likes what you like, and who can support you for what you want to keep doing.
- Share your learning journey and knowledge, you can gain an audience to then leverage when you need it.
- Share what you love, and the people who love the same things will find you
Impressions
Really phenomenal book. A lot better than I was expecting.
It inspired me to start writing my blog in October 2022.
How I Discovered It
Recommended by Ali Abdaal
Who Should Read It?
Artists, anyone afraid to post their work online, people who want to learn a healthy mindset around sharing themselves and their work online.
How the Book Changed Me
How my life / behavior / thoughts / ideas have changed as a result of reading the book.
“Some people are natural self-promoters. For others, it’s painfully difficult to put their work out there. In this creatively designed pocket-sized book, Kleon offers the latter group effective strategies”
- It inspired me to start my blog
- It kept me from deleting all my social media that I spend so much time building up
My Top 3 Quotes
If you look back closely at history, many of the people who we think of as lone geniuses were actually part of “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.”
When you share your taste and your influences, have the guts to own all of it. Don’t give in to the pressure to self-edit too much.
Share what you love, and the people who love the same things will find you.
Resources
- This blog post follows Ali Abdaal's system for book notes - a Notion template you can get for free.