Book Review: Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon
Hate the idea of self-promotion but love the idea of building an audience?
Austin Kleon's book Show Your Work! provides the solution to that very problem.
This book changed the way I think about my learning process and addressed my biggest fears associated with putting myself out there and inviting the public into my formerly private world.
Show Your Work! (per Grant Smith's recommendation) was the inspiration behind creating my own website and is the only reason you're reading this post today. There are lessons for everyone in Kleon's book — whether you're a musician or an investment banker, a rookie or a seasoned veteran.
A summary of my takeaways from the book is below.
Chapter 1: You Don't Have to be a Genius
One of the main reasons I was (and presumably many others are) afraid to post my work online was because I feared that people would expose my lack of knowledge on the topics I was sharing about. More simply, I suffered from imposter syndrome.
"Who am I to talk about [insert subject here]?"
Kleon addresses this fear immediately and introduces musician Brian Eno's idea of a "scenius," which I interpreted as a scene of genius.
Eno's idea basically says that great ideas are often cultivated by a group of individuals, all of whom have varying levels of talent, unique perspectives and their own ways of contributing to the community.
"Being a valuable part of a scenius is not necessarily about how smart or talented you are, but about what you have to contribute—the ideas you share, the quality of the connections you make, and the conversations you start." —Austin Kleon in Show Your Work!
Kleon makes it clear that everyone, regardless of knowledge or skill level, has something to contribute. Even if you're just beginning your journey there are others out there who won't begin theirs until sometime in the near or distant future.
How valuable would it be for them to be able to see what the first step looks like because you shared that part of the process?
It's an easy question to answer. Have you come across a resource that laid out what the first step looked like for someone else? If so, how much did it help you? If not, how much do you wish a resource like that existed? Why not create your own?
You don't have to be an expert. You just have to be dedicated to learning, and be willing to do so in public.
"The best way to get started on the path to sharing your work is to think about what you want to learn, and make a commitment to learning it in front of others." —Austin Kleon in Show Your Work!
Chapter 2: Think Process, Not Product
Making a commitment to learn what you're learning in front of others means you can share both the good and the bad parts of your process.
You don't have to have a finished product to begin sharing the steps you take to become better at your craft, and the steps you share don't have to be (and arguably shouldn't be) only the successes.
Learning isn't linear. It's messy. There are ups and downs. Some days you feel like you took two steps forward and others days you can't remember having taken any steps at all. That's normal, and it's okay. Share all of it.
"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..." —Austin Kleon in Show Your Work!
Not sure where to begin? Feel like you might not have a process to share?
Begin documenting what you do throughout the day. Kleon suggests keeping a work journal where you write down your thoughts or keeping a scrapbook with photos that you take throughout your day. You can do the same with video as many people do on YouTube.
Personally, I found that once I started documenting the actions I took throughout the day (I like to take pictures as it's quick and easy to share) the more I realized how many valuable things I do and important lessons I learn on a daily basis.
I also learned how many things I do that add no value at all to myself or others. I am slowly working to eliminate these from my daily routine.
Kleon puts it best by stating that the best way to start is to "scoop up the scraps and the residue of your process and shape them into some interesting bit of media that you can share. You have to turn the invisible into something people can see."
Chapter 3: Share Something Small Every Day
Once you start documenting your actions on a daily basis and begin collecting notes, images, videos, etc. you can then start to share them with the world in what Kleon calls your "Daily Dispatch."
Your Daily Dispatch is a highlight of what you worked on that day or an update on the projects you have in progress.
The medium you use to send out your Daily Dispatch isn't important. In the book, Kleon mentions things like a blog post, an email, a social media post, a YouTube video, etc. The point is, send it out whichever way works best for you. Just make sure to do it daily.
The reason Kleon suggests sending it daily is because it's easy to get lost in your aspirations when you're looking too far down the road. If you want to build a fanbase of one million people three years from now and think about how to do it all at once you'll inevitably get nowhere.
But if you break that goal down into smaller pieces it becomes much more manageable and you start to realize what the journey might look like. Start by taking it one day at a time.
"Once a day, after you’ve done your day’s work, go back to your documentation and find one little piece of your process that you can share." —Austin Kleon in Show Your Work!
Now that you're documenting your actions it's easy to pick one per day that you're going to share with the world.
What did you do? Why did you do it? How did you do it? What did you learn? How can others do the same? And so on.
Include your notes, pictures and videos. Make what you're sharing interesting and easy to follow, but don't worry about being perfect. Again, you're learning and learning isn't perfect!
If you're wondering whether or not to post something from your day try putting it through what Kleon calls the "SO WHAT?" test.
I think the name of the test speaks for itself but just in case it doesn't: before sharing something with the world, ask yourself how you'd respond if someone asked you "So what?" after you shared it.
Is it useful? Is it interesting?
The point of the test is to avoid over-sharing. It will act as a filter and ensure that the work you're sharing with the world is valuable. And once you start sharing the valuable pieces of your daily routine, Kleon says "you'll notice themes and trends emerging in what you share."
You can then turn these themes and trends into more substantial pieces of work later on. But it all starts with sharing something small every day.
Chapter 4: Open up Your Cabinet of Curiosities
Another trick that Kleon shares to help fend off the thought that you don't have anything worth sharing is to simply share what you're interested in.
Everyone is interested in something and that something had to be created by someone. Sharing your regard for other peoples' work is a great stepping stone to sharing your own.
"Before we’re ready to take the leap of sharing our own work with the world, we can share our tastes in the work of others." —Austin Kleon in Show Your Work!
The important thing here is to own your interests and to be open about them. It's highly unlikely that you are the only person in the world who's interested in what you're interested in. And even if you are the only person, maybe you're onto something.
Kleon shares a quote in Show Your Work! from Michel de Montaigne's On Experience that says, "In my opinion, the most ordinary things, the most common and familiar, if we could see them in their true light, would turn out to be the grandest miracles."
Own your interests and share them with the world!
Just make sure to always give credit to the people whose work you find yourself interested in.
Chapter 5: Tell Good Stories
There is plenty of research that suggests that the human subconscious is highly sensitive to context.
This means that the story surrounding a product, a work of art, a person, etc. is incredibly important.
Consider for a moment an art collection featuring pictures of icebergs. They're all beautiful; the deep blue of the Arctic Ocean creates a stunning contrast against the stark white of the ice in each photograph. You're drawn to one, in particular, because of the iceberg's unique shape and size.
While you're admiring your favorite photo, you begin to notice that a crowd is forming around a different one. From what you can see of the photo, nothing looks to be especially intriguing about it. It looks like all the rest of the icebergs in all the rest of the photos.
As you step closer to the photo drawing the crowd, however, you notice a caption underneath it explaining that the iceberg pictured above is the one that sank the Titanic.
While its shape and size might be ordinary, its story is extraordinary. And that makes all the difference.
"The stories you tell about the work you do have a huge effect on how people feel and what they understand about your work, and how people feel and what they understand about your work affects how they value it." —Austin Kleon in Show Your Work!
Once you understand how crucial a story is in helping your audience value your work you need to focus on what makes a story good.
Storytelling is an art in and of itself and therefore it falls beyond the scope of this book review, but I'll leave you with a couple highlights that Kleon includes in Show Your Work!.
1. "A good story structure is tidy, sturdy, and logical."
2. "Whether you’re telling a finished or unfinished story, always keep your audience in mind. Speak to them directly in plain language. Value their time. Be brief. Learn to speak. Learn to write."
A story doesn't have to be complicated. In fact, for our purposes I'd argue that it shouldn't be because we're telling our story in order to connect with other people.
People have a hard time connecting to something they don't understand.
Chapter 6: Teach What You Know
A good way to connect, then, is to help people understand. A huge part of your story, as we've discussed, is what you learn throughout your journey.
So when you learn, share what you learn with others. Point people to valuable resources and lay out complicated topics in a simple, easy-to-understand way.
Help other people who share your interests become better at the things you'd both like to become better at. This allows you to connect with like-minded people while helping you learn at the same time.
The best way to become good at something (in addition to doing that thing) is to teach others how to do it.
And while you solidify your knowledge by passing it along to someone else you also generate interest from the people you teach.
"When you teach someone how to do your work, you are, in effect, generating more interest in your work." —Austin Kleon in Show Your Work!
Chapter 7: Don't Turn Into Human Spam
Along the same lines as Chapter 6, Chapter 7 focuses on the idea of being a good, valuable member of your community.
You can't refuse to give and expect to receive.
Being a good member of a community is easy. All you have to do is remain interested in the community. Not just in promoting your own work or gaining followers or notoriety.
Read other people's blog posts. Engage with other members of the community. Have genuine conversations and offer real advice. Ask questions.
"If you want fans, you have to be a fan first. If you want to be accepted by a community, you have to first be a good citizen of that community." —Austin Kleon in Show Your Work!
As the saying goes, if you want to be interesting, you have to first be interested.
Listen to what other people have to say and support them throughout their journey. This type of behavior will enhance the community as a whole and it will earn you real followers along the way.
People who follow you with their hearts rather than just their eyeballs, as Jeffrey Zeldman puts it.
In order to avoid becoming human spam you have to give at least as much as you get, ideally more.
Chapter 8: Learn to Take a Punch
This chapter is self-explanatory. Thicken your skin and don't take criticism personally.
There will always be people who disagree with you. Some people disagree more nicely than others and you should be able to handle criticism from both camps.
We can't control what other people will think or say about our work, but we can control how we react to their opinions.
First, we want to determine if the person offering their criticism is someone whose criticism is worth considering. Are they disagreeing to disagree or are they offering a new perspective?
"The first step in evaluating feedback is sizing up who it came from." —Austin Kleon in Show Your Work!
If their criticism isn't worth considering ignore it and move on.
If it is, spend some time with it. Consider their point of view and bounce it up against your own. What can you learn from it?
Kleon notes that each piece of criticism you come across as you share your ideas is an opportunity to create something new. Therefore, you're doing yourself a disservice by avoiding it.
The book includes a quote from writer Colin Marshall which says that "compulsive avoidance of embarrassment is a form of suicide."
If you don't allow yourself to be vulnerable how do you expect to grow? How do you expect to connect with others?
This is a lesson which I believe applies to all aspects of life and is worth spending time on.
Chapter 9: Sell Out
At the end of the day we all have to be able to sustain our work, and all work has to be funded somehow.
Don't feel guilty when you create work that makes you money. If you run into backlash, refer to the advice in Chapter 8.
Collect emails and maintain a mailing list, post your product on Kickstarter, sell an ebook to people who visit your website. Your work is valuable and there is nothing wrong with cashing in on that value.
"You just have to be as generous as you can, but selfish enough to get your work done." —Austin Kleon in Show Your Work!
Once you cash in, remember to pay it forward and help others who helped you.
Praise the people without whom you would not have found success and provide opportunities for them to share their own work. Offer a platform if you have one and pass along opportunities when they come up.
Give back to the ones who gave to you.
Chapter 10: Stick Around
If you ask entrepreneurs (or anyone who's excelled in their profession) what contributed most to their success you'll likely hear two things more often than any other: luck and perseverance.
It's a common theme among successful individuals in any field. Too often people give up when things get hard or just before they accomplish something great.
"The people who get what they’re after are very often the ones who just stick around long enough." —Austin Kleon in Show Your Work!
Stay the course on the good days and especially on the bad ones. Be consistent with your efforts. Keep your head down and work even if you're not feeling inspired. When things get hard push through the uncertainty.
More often than not it's just beyond the unknown where you'll find the things you never even knew you were looking for.
Almost every "lucky break" seems to come to those who continued moving forward when things got hard and they weren't sure what was going to come next.
"You can't count on success; you can only leave open the possibility for it, and be ready to jump on and take the ride when it comes for you." —Austin Kleon in Show Your Work!
There is only one surefire way to guarantee that your work won't succeed and that you won't achieve the great things you so desperately hope for, and that is to give up.
Leave the door open. Push through uncertainty. Weather hardship. Success is waiting for you on the other side.
Conclusion
Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon changed my life. It's opened my mind up to the opportunities that sharing your work and putting your ideas out there for the world to see will provide.
It addressed my fears and eased my nerves and even made me excited to begin publishing my work online.
While this summary hits the highlights of the book I highly suggest you pick up your own copy and read it for yourself.
There are tons of examples that I excluded for the sake of time which you may very well find resonate with you. You can read the book in one sitting.
After you're done reading, don't waste any time.
Put together your website (or whichever platform on which you choose to share) and begin sharing your work with the world.
What do you have to lose?