In a book by Austin Kleon entitled “Share your work” he talks about how you can get discovered by your network that surrounds you even without stressing yourself out on “networking”
It is about why generosity triumphs over brilliance. It’s about becoming discoverable, about utilizing the network rather than wasting time “networking.” It’s not about self-promotion, but rather self-discovery—let people into your process, then allow them to take from you.
Show Your Work! is jam-packed with illustrations, quotes, stories, and examples. Ten life changing rules for being honest, kind, bold, and productive.
In his book, he rounded up the 10 things that you need to know to be discovered.
- You don’t have to be genius – Creativity is not about being genius. Hard work, good timing, and strong feedback matter a lot more, and those are skills which can be learned, practiced, and repeated.
- Think process, not product – Don’t forget to document the process so that you will be able to share it with the world. Since we are now living in the digital era, it’s a lot easier to share our process with others. Taking people behind the scenes can help you in making them more engaged.
- Share something small every day – If you’re working on something, no matter how big or small, don’t hesitate to share it or post it online because it might have an impact on other people’s lives even if they are on the other side of the globe.
- Open up your cabinet of curiosities – We all have our own cabinet of curiosities. It is a place where we store our notable objects. The essence of opening up your cabinet of curiosities is to fuel up your creativity.
- Tell good stories – Let’s admit, we all enjoy listening to stories. There is something about stories that make us feel alive. Sharing good stories about us, our struggles and how we’re able to overcome them helps us build rapport with anyone whom we share it to.
- Teach what you know – You don’t have to be an expert to teach what you know.
By teaching what you already know about your profession or hobby, you’ll learn more, potentially gain some notoriety as an up-and-coming expert, make new connections with people, and find new opportunities.
Don’t turn into human spam – Be a valuable part of the community you’re in rather than spamming people to get noticed.
Sharing is a generous gesture. You’re putting something out there because you believe it will be beneficial to others. You’re not just sharing information to further your personal agenda or to promote yourself.
- Learn to take a punch – You may not control what criticism you will receive, but you can always control how you can react to it.
- Sell out – We have work that we do for fun and there are some that we do for a living. We need to find the balance between the two. And yes, our work is meant to
be shared to others and most of the time, this can also help us pay the bills. So let’s not be afraid to sell out. - Stick around – Stick around and keep going. Nothing is instant and you have to continually show up and bring value to the world. Stick around even if no one is seeing your work yet. There will come a time that people will recognize you and your work.
The takeaway here is that you should share your work with the world. It will make you responsible for producing your best job. It will provide feedback to help you improve your
work. And seeing how others respond to what you create will excite you and make you care even more.
When you share your work, you may encounter haters and criticism. But, more often than not, all that occurs is that you rally a group of people who share your beliefs, are enthusiastic about the same things you are, and even support the values you believe in – and who wouldn’t want that?
People who put out creative work are needed in the world. You will be surprised to know that what you think is easy is often brilliant to someone else. But unless you choose to share, you’ll never know.
