I saw a Youtube video by Ali Abdaal where he states that the one book that changed the way he thought about posting online is Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon. I immediately purchased it. I’m not exactly sure why.
I’ve watched several of his Youtube videos where he recommends books, but I’ve never really had an urge to purchase any right away. Maybe it’s because he said that he keeps extra copies of it on hand to gift to friends and family. Maybe it’s because it’s something I really needed when I watched it.
It’s definitely something that I’m glad that I purchased.
And it’s a book that has shifted the way that I thought about how I want to continue building my brand on social media.
Show Your Work!
I’m writing about Show Your Work even without actually finishing the book yet. That’s how passionate I feel about what I’ve learned about life and the online space in general.
The book basically goes into how important it is to keep showing up online if that’s what you’re trying to accomplish.
Show your work includes the process of creation, the thoughts of creation, and the daily intricacies of work.
This may include showing how your created your artwork, how your set up your latest shoot, or how your office looks like. This is all content that is valuable and could be deemed inspirational to someone else.
It also helps you be accountable to yourself online, while building an audience as a real person.
How can you show your work even when you have nothing to show? The first step 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 other people can see.
Austin Kleon
How I Used To Think
I’ve always been a perfectionist at heart, but in the recent years since I’ve dived into personal development, I’ve realized more and more how impossible it truly is to be a perfectionist.
Perfection is an unattainable goal that I’ve strived for that has continued to hold me back.
I would hold back on posting on social media, particularly Instagram, because I didn’t feel like a post was just the right aesthetic. It wasn’t the right lighting. Something just seemed a little bit off.
In the last two weeks, I challenged myself to post at least 6 times per week.
I’m usually a person that posts three times a week, so I don’t bother my followers, in fear that one of them may just unfollow.
But I challenged myself on Tiktok to meet my 5K follower mark on Instagram on July and I didn’t meet it and I felt like I needed to change something in my posting schedule in order to actually meet my goals.
It was hard. It required me to create significantly more content than usual, adding to my freelancing jobs.
But I had to show my work.
What I found from showing up
I actually felt a deep sense of accomplishment for actually meeting my goals. It has been a rough couple weeks as a recovering perfectionist, I will say.
I haven’t met my follower goal of 5K yet on Instagram, but I am 5 followers away.
But most importantly, I realized that I shouldn’t always overthink things.
A Case Study
This is a post that I didn’t particularly like myself. I just felt like something was slightly off and I couldn’t put my finger on it but my perfectionist brain just didn’t approve.
This post was a truly a great reminder to show your work. Looking at it now, I’m still not sure about the photo, but it performed relatively well on my account. I took this as a reminder that what I see isn’t necessarily what other people see. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder or however that old saying goes.
Here’s an example of a photo that I took in ten minutes. I was rushing because I had only a little bit of light left and I’m not really the best at anything other than natural lighting. I liked this and it didn’t take that long to create something and actually post it.
Overall Thoughts on Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon
Show Your Work is a great book for the creative that may be second guessing what to put on their social media or trying to determine how to go about building their personal brand.
The book even made me go back and write on this website, which I felt like I’ve abandoned for some time.
The importance of Show Your Work in my personal branding story is a bit unknown right now. It may just be the right push at the moment, or it may just be the book that shifted my life just like Ali Abdaal.
You can purchase the book on Amazon for $11.49.
