Show your work! What to share based on which stage of the process you are in

I am currently in the process of reading a book by Austin Kleon called 'Show your work' and came across a particular chapter I would like to share with you. It relates to building a personal brand which has been a key theme for me in the last month or so.

The trap

The idea behind the book, and hence the name of the title is to show your work. However, too often we are falling into the trap of waiting until things are complete or perfect before we show them. There are tons of finished products, and perfect imagery online and although this is nice to see, you can get away with one or two posts before it is 'old news' and/or boring.

This poses two problems, firstly, you spend a long time achieving one thing to only post about it once or twice, and then there is pressure to show your audience your next perfect complete project. Not only is this unnecessary pressure, but you are already losing out due to the quantity of what you are putting out there.

The author tells us that when the artist Ze Frank was hiring, he would ask candidates to show their work, and they would often show him what they did back in school or in their last job. What he actually wanted to know was what they were doing last weekend.

The other problem, which isn't explicitly written in the book so far, just something I have an opinion on, is to do with the ridiculous focus on the destination and not the journey. The journey is where the magic happens, the growth, the failures (a.k.a the interesting parts), the emotions, the pickups, the messiness. This is the part people actually want to see, the part which makes you human and which shows the hard work and effort that has gone into creating or achieving whatever it is you set out to do.

 The journey is where the magic happens; 

the growth, the failures (a.k.a the interesting parts), the emotions, the pickups, the messiness.        

What to share?

Kleon recommends that once a day, when you have done your days' work, to go back through what you have done and "find one little piece of the process that you can share".

It doesn't matter what stage of the process you are in. Here are some of Kleon's suggestions (along with a few of mine):

• If you are in the early-stage = your influences, what’s inspiring you, your starting materials, your planning
• If you are in the middle of a project = your methods, works in progress, behind the scenes, any failures/issues you have come across and how you intend to solve it, the resolution
• if you’ve just completed a project = the final project, what you learned
• if you have projects out in the world = stories about how others are interacting with your project, testimonials

Please don't do this!

Oversharing - don't do it. There is a simple quote in the book which sums this up nicely, and it's from a publicist called Lauren Cerand.

Post as though everyone who can read it has the power to fire you.        

Buy the book here (affiliate link):