Where do I start? What do I talk and write about? What should I put on my page, website, and blog?
Before I read Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon, I was unorganized. I had ideas, but I had no idea how and where to execute on those ideas. I was afraid, too, of oversharing – and of not being welcome.
I didn’t know what it meant to show my work.
I’ve come to learn that showing my work means more than just showing what coffee I drink while I work, and what my workspace looks like.
To show your work means literally that – to show what it is that you’re working on.
So, what are you working on? Why are you working on it? What makes you excited about it? Are you afraid of anything going wrong? Are you afraid that people might not like it?
There’s this fear that if we show what we’re working on, somebody is going to steal our ideas. There’s ego in that. It’s like saying, “all my ideas are going to change the world.” They’re not. So please, show us what you’re working on.
There’s many of us, myself included, who enjoy looking behind the scenes of our favorite content creators.
To take us behind the scenes means to go deep. It means to show us the nitty-gritty, the raw, the rough drafts and sketches and mockups and tossed projects. It means to show us your work.
So please – show us your work!
The things he writes about pair really nicely with The War of Art by Steven Pressfield, and so many things that Seth Godin talks and writes about.
Have you read Show Your Work! By Austin Kleon? Has it influenced the way you organize your ideas?
