"Show Your Work"

1. Chapter five: Tell good stories

1.1. Work doesn’t speak for itself

1.1.1. the importance of stories that were attached to your crafts

1.1.1.1. Q:Why should we describe the frustrations and turning points in the lab, or all the hours of groundwork and failed images that precede the final outcomes?

1.1.1.2. Because, rarified exceptions aside, our audience is a human one, and humans want to connect. Personal stories can make the complex more tangible, spark associations, and offer entry into things that might otherwise leave one cold.

1.1.2. Human connection is one key

1.1.2.1. customer interaction

1.1.2.2. polls

1.1.2.3. questions

1.1.2.4. feedback

1.1.2.5. forums.

1.1.3. One good example of this is Regie's Rosary Bracelet business

1.2. Structure is everything

1.2.1. a good STORY STRUCTURE is

1.2.1.1. Clean

1.2.1.2. Sturdy

1.2.1.3. Logical

1.2.2. constant cropping and editing are also important in able for us the makers, to fit our lives in these story structures.

1.2.3. Study and Copy different story structures

1.2.4. John Gardner basic plot for almost every story:

1.2.4.1. (1) A character desires something

1.2.4.2. (2) Goes after it, considering all the expected and unexpected opposition

1.2.4.3. (3) Comes at an inevitable result, which is either, win, lose, or draw

1.2.5. there are better ways to tell open-ended stories, see your works or your story as **"Pitches"**

1.2.5.1. meaning, they are just for starters and aim to capture your audience **(So they are more like bait)**

1.2.5.2. **"Pitches"** are like client-presentation, personal essay, cover letters, and fundraising request

1.2.5.2.1. They are only showing and telling the unfinished story, the end of these things is still to determined by time, and any other uncontrollable factors. They focus more on the current situation, and the current goal they are trying to achieve is dissected into several parts which are called short-term goals.

1.2.5.3. a good pitch is composed of three acts:

1.2.5.3.1. (1) The past, in which you show and tell where you’ve been—what you want, how you came to want it, and what you’ve done so far to get it.

1.2.5.3.2. (2) The present, in which you show and tell where you are now in your work and how you’ve worked hard and used up most of your resources.

1.2.5.3.3. (3) The Future, in which you show and tell where you’re going, and how exactly the person you’re pitching can help you get there.

1.2.6. make your story a reader-friendly one

1.2.6.1. primary aim is to connect to them and relay your story as clear as a crystal

1.2.6.2. use spell and grammar checker, proofread it and use punctuation, and lastly keep it real, not unintelligible.

1.2.6.3. Storytelling is a skill that gets better the more you use and maintain it, consider this your first ammunition in this life process. A lifetime process requires a lifetime skill.

1.3. Talk about yourself at parties

1.3.1. In this part of the chapter, the authors point out simplicity

1.3.1.1. Do not overstate yourself

1.3.1.2. You only need a TWO SENTENCE BIO

1.3.1.3. “Keep it short and sweet”

1.3.2. only say what do they really do, skip all the adjectives and be deliberate and concise, if you do creative digital work, do not say “Aspiring Digital Creator” instead, be rigid, say “Digital Creator” you are already creating and you already started the process so own it and relay it to others with humbleness, dignity, and self-respect. State only the things that you do.

2. “If you want to be more effective when sharing yourself and your work, you need to become a better storyteller. You need to know what a good story is and how to tell one.” - Austin **Kleon**

3. Make your audience feel like a hero for choosing to support your craft and good intentions.

4. Chapter six: Teach what you know

4.1. Share your trade secrets

4.1.1. teaching what you know

4.1.1.1. aim to make people better at something they want to be better at.

4.1.1.2. It does not mean that u have to be an expert at it or learned everything

4.1.1.2.1. even a master has a lot to learn

4.1.1.3. we have an intrinsic amateur spirit, this is one of the main drivers of success, not only in creative crafts but also in various areas of life.

4.1.2. not knowing everything also provides us the opportunity to strengthen the community we are building, because we allow other people/makers to FILL IN our gaps, as we are to them.

5. “The impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.” —Annie Dillard

6. Chapter eight: Learn to take a punch

6.1. Let ‘em take their best shot

6.1.1. the importance of taking criticisms

6.1.1.1. Criticisms come good, bad, and ugly, it is vital that the artist is mature enough to take all of this and use them as an opportunity to grow.

6.1.1.2. never take criticism personally

6.1.2. How to handle criticisms

6.1.2.1. Relax and breathe

6.1.2.1.1. artists must be able to maintain their calmness

6.1.2.2. Strengthen your neck

6.1.2.2.1. this means putting your work out there and letting other people criticize your work, and applying the skills that you have gained in this text

6.1.2.2.2. you cannot control what criticism will come, but you can control how you will react

6.1.2.3. Roll with the punches

6.1.2.3.1. the best way to view them is to see them as opportunities to grow and start new projects.

6.1.2.4. Protect your vulnerable areas

6.1.2.4.1. the artist must learn how to draw a fine line that limits the stuff they share, most people or almost all have sensitive areas that we keep with ourselves.

6.1.2.4.2. Embarrassments are healthy criticisms if you just look at them the right way.

6.1.2.5. Keep your Balance

6.1.2.5.1. artist must draw another fine line that maintains his/her identity.

6.1.2.5.2. You have to remember that your work is something you do, not who you are.

6.2. Don’t Feed the Trolls

6.2.1. artist must have, that is the ability to ignore the trolls.

6.2.1.1. As an artist, it is inevitable to not encounter some sort of trolls of ugly criticisms, these types of criticisms are not healthy, they do not obtain any seeds that will enable growth for your craft.

6.2.2. we must set these automation systems in our minds that filter out this feedback.

6.2.3. an artist must feel comfortable deleting comments, blocking people, and shutting them down, because, why not?

7. Chapter ten: Stick Around

7.1. Don’t quit your show

7.1.1. the importance of “sticking around”

7.1.1.1. paves the way for potential great opportunities

7.1.2. Stick around for a little longer, you’ll never know when the thing you want will come for you, stick around and do good work. Just keep going.

7.2. Chain-smoke

7.2.1. the benefit of leveraging your projects. By using the ending as a new topic to start off another topic, it is more like always throwing off hanging endings.

7.2.2. It is important to be consistent with your journey and crafts, no matter what the previous result was, the courage to continue is what truly counts.

7.2.3. Always ask yourself, “What’s next? What now?” Use the end of the previous project to light up the next one.

7.3. Go away so you can come back

7.3.1. the importance of rest

7.3.1.1. “Sabbatical”

7.3.1.1.1. a sabbatical is simply an extended leave, most commonly one year or so. The purpose of this is to allow employees or business persons to pursue a degree, work on a personal project, travel the world, or spend more time with their families.

7.3.1.2. A sabbatical can also be:

7.3.1.2.1. A daily commute

7.3.1.2.2. Excercise

7.3.1.2.3. a visit to nature

7.3.1.3. The goal is to rest and refresh your mind is able to effectively and efficiently accumulate new ideas.

7.4. Begin again

7.4.1. the right term must be “Begin Again” instead of “Start over” he highlighted the importance of not being contended with mastery, instead, you must learn to move forward and break out from your comfort zone.

7.4.2. It is also significant that we must learn constantly, because if we don’t, what will we just do then? where will we head if we won’t learn and move forward. What will happen if we won’t fill our cups?

7.4.3. The author explained that we don’t really start over, instead, we step forward. The thing is, all the learning we’ve accumulated from our past experience, seeps into our next step, and everything becomes automatic and natural. Even if you toss it aside, a part of those experiences remains, it becomes a part of you and your work.

8. The Beginning

8.1. Art is an never ending process

8.2. It is important to share your process

8.3. learn how to deal with the ups and downs of putting yourself and your work out in the world

8.4. and leverage your audience

8.5. “Be good enough they can’t ignore you”

9. Chapter one: You don’t have to be **Genius**

9.1. Find a “Scenius”

9.1.1. “Scenius” are group of creative individual who consider themselves to be non-genius

9.1.2. the value of this only depends on what can someone contribute, and the quality of the connections and conversations they make.

9.1.3. **“It is time to stop asking what others can do for us, and start asking, what we can do for other” **

9.2. Be an Amateur

9.2.1. Amateurs knows that, doing something is better than doing nothing

9.2.2. You can move from mediocre to good in increments. The real gap is between doing nothing and doing something.” Amateurs know that contributing something is better than contributing nothing.

9.2.3. having that amateur spirit is the key to extensive learning, you don’t have to be an expert all the time

9.3. You can’t find your voice if you don’t use it.

9.3.1. “Sharing” allows us to exist and be heard in a new world

9.3.2. Question to ask when a new tool arises:

9.3.2.1. What was it made for?

9.3.2.2. How are others using it?

9.3.2.3. What use can I find for it?

9.4. Read Obituaries

9.4.1. it should remind us about life, the time we still have, and what we do with our remaining time

10. Chapter two: Think process, not product.

10.1. Take people behind the scenes

10.1.1. the author encourages makers to let go of their ego and fear and embrace vulnerability and **feedback.**

10.1.1.1. in effect, it will serves as a tool that will allows us to access our audiences easily at no cost

10.1.2. “But human beings are interested in other human beings and what other human beings do”

10.1.2.1. (Heck! this makes me feel so good, and excited to share my works!)

10.1.2.2. Audiences not only want to stumble across great work, but they, too, long to be creative and part of the creative process. 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, which helps us move more of our product.

10.2. Be a Documentarian of what you do

10.2.1. practice of documenting your works and processes

10.2.1.1. use this documentation as reference and motivation, and lastly, to be the actual product that you are going to share.

10.2.1.1.1. e.g: your processes or experience in tackling challenges and solving them, or new way of thinking or anything you want to share.

10.2.2. “ How can you show your work even when you have nothing to show?”

10.2.2.1. just scoop up the scraps of your processes, collect them, and finally turn and shaped them into some sort of an interesting media that can be shared to the world online

10.2.2.2. Some steps we can start instantly: 1. Start a work journal, and record progress, and insights. 2. Writing our thoughts about the work and learning we have done. 3. Speaking them in an audio recorder. 4. Shooting a video while we work.

11. Chapter three: Share something small every day.

11.1. Send out daily dispatch

11.1.1. This refers to the importance of putting a fraction of your progress out to the world on a daily basis, it doesn't have to be the whole work, and it does not have to be finished immediately

11.1.2. Daily dispatch can be beneficial because it can serve as a backup for your resume during applying for a job, what employers love is what you have done and created with your hands and skills

11.1.2.1. i.e: Utilize thousands of social media sites and platforms, aim to use them all strategically, if it doesn’t work out for you always feel free to abandon it.

11.1.3. Social Chemistry

11.1.3.1. one of the vital ingredient, "it’s important to get things in front of others and see how they react. “Sometimes you don’t always know what you’ve got,” says artist Wayne White. “It really does need a little socialit’s chemistry to make it show itself to you sometimes.”

11.1.3.1.1. we can use the modification on social media, such as stories, days, and reels, some short and compact bits of the whole part of a video or a process

11.1.3.1.2. we can also utilize emerging platforms such as Tiktok, and many more

11.2. The “SO WHAT?” test

11.2.1. Sharing VS Oversharing

11.2.1.1. choose to share because that is an act of generosity and we actually contribute something useful top others

11.2.1.2. Ensure that what you share is beneficial because once its published on the internet it is already permanent.

11.2.2. “SO WHAT?” test

11.2.2.1. Post your works on the internet as if everyone has the power to fire you.

11.2.2.2. follow your gut, if you are still unsure, try to delay your posting, keep it first for at least 24 hrs and get some rest, the next day decide where you are going to post it or not.

11.3. Turn your flow into stock

11.3.1. Flow & Stock

11.3.1.1. FLOW is the is the feed. It’s the posts and the tweets. It’s the stream of daily and sub-daily updates that remind people you exist.

11.3.1.2. STOCK is the durable stuff. It’s the content you produce that’s as interesting in two months (or two years) as it is today. It’s what people discover via search. It’s what spreads slowly but surely, building fans over time.

11.3.2. we must continue sharing on our feed while consistently working on our solid content.

11.3.3. Just like a Notebook, flipping back is important because this is where we can spot themes, trends, and patterns, these bits of information are what you exactly needed in order to build your stock or your solid content, gathering these bits of content consistently will eventually result in a bigger and more substantial stock.

11.3.3.1. "Small things overtime can get big"

11.4. Build a good (Domain) name

11.4.1. WEBSITE

11.4.1.1. importance of having your own share of space on the internet

11.4.1.2. “Your own personal studio” on the internet

11.4.1.3. a go-to place wherein people can easily find you.

11.4.2. BLOGS

11.4.2.1. are the ideal machines for turning Flow into Stock

11.4.2.2. turns into life’s work and can potentially be a source of great opportunities

11.4.3. Build a website with your brand on it, keep it clean, over the years, its name, will be its own currency.

12. Chapter four: Open up your cabinet for curiosities

12.1. Don’t be a hoarder

12.1.1. If you give away everything you have, you are left with nothing. This forces you to look, to be aware, to replenish. . . . Somehow the more you give away, the more comes back to you

12.1.2. Treasured collections, which can be physical or mental, most people have mental.

12.1.2.1. a cycle in which, reading feeds writing, then writing feeds the reading.

12.1.3. our taste shapes us and our work

12.1.4. It is also vital to consider questions such as

12.1.4.1. Where do you get your inspiration?

12.1.4.2. What sorts of things do you fill your head with?

12.1.4.3. What do you read?

12.1.4.4. Do you subscribe to anything?

12.1.4.5. What sites do you visit on the Internet?

12.1.4.6. What music do you listen to?

12.1.4.7. What movies do you see?

12.1.4.8. Do you look at art? What do you collect? What’s inside your scrapbook?

12.1.4.9. What do you pin to the corkboard above your desk?

12.1.4.10. What do you stick on your refrigerator? Who’s done work that you admire? Who do you steal ideas from? Do you have any heroes? Who do you follow online? Who are the practitioners you look up to in your field?

12.2. No guilty pleasures

12.2.1. be discerning, purposeful, and deliberate.

12.2.2. do not be guilty of the stuff you love doing.

12.2.2.1. 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 . . . and the most marvelous examples

12.2.2.2. All it takes to uncover hidden gems is a clear eye, an open mind, and a willingness to search for inspiration in places other people aren’t willing or able to go.

12.3. Credit is always due

12.3.1. sharing can have positive impacts on the community you are building.

12.3.2. when you credit other people’s work, you are also helping other people or makers to leave some trail or some sort of crumbs they can follow, to get to a valuable source of inspiration

12.3.2.1. Always provide the links, because people on the internet have so much gpoing on, they woj't even bother seaching for the link, so provide it upfront

13. Chapter seven: Don’t turn into human spam

13.1. Shut up and listen

13.1.1. “Human spam”

13.1.1.1. this is the people who want to get their desires without actually putting the work that is required

13.1.1.2. be forward-thinking

13.1.1.2.1. be open for learning and ideas, and you can only do this by listening and observing everything, from contributors, co-inspirations, and fans.

13.1.1.3. "the experience of art is always a two-way street, incomplete without feedback”

13.2. You want hearts, not eyeballs

13.2.1. quality is greater than quantity, as an artist it is important that the community you build is consists of people who share the same interest as you.

13.2.2. “Connections don’t mean shit”

13.2.2.1. all of his connections are a natural outgrowth of his hard work or doing great in his craft, putting it simply, he first aimed to do great ins his craft, then after that connections will over and follow

13.2.2.1.1. Trying and chasing connections is a traditional way, doing great is the modern method to gain connections, as mentioned in the previous parts of this book “be so good that they cannot ignore you”

13.2.3. You do not have to force anything just let it flow, do what you want to do, and let it flow, what's yours will always come.

13.3. The Vampire test

13.3.1. when you did something and you felt exhausted or drained, that means that is a vampire and you must stay away from it immediately and as far as you can. The other side of this is what you must embrace, the thing that gives you joy and excitement.

13.4. Identify your fellow knuckleballers

13.4.1. “knuckleballers”

13.4.1.1. the author is implying to your peers that you will find once you already placed your work out there.

13.4.1.1.1. it talks about your inner personal circle that you can build by displaying your work, hobbies, interest, and crafts.

13.4.2. In finding your fellow knuckleballers, you must remember to keep them close to you as you can. They will act as your safe haven wherein sharing your secrets about your crafts will be completely safe.

13.5. Meet up in meatspace

13.5.1. meetups come less stressful, because of the fact that you already know the people you are meeting, so once you meet, you can skip the small talks and talk about big ideas instead.

14. Chapter nine: Sell out

14.1. Even the Renaissance had to be funded

14.1.1. it is okay if we, as an artist, want to make money out of it.

14.1.2. there are two points here

14.1.2.1. 1. it is perfectly okay to make money from your arts because all people have basic needs.

14.1.2.2. 2. “ Don’t be jealous when the people you like do well—celebrate their victory as if it’s your own” because, why not? they are your friends, family, community, or circle, they are dear to you that is why we celebrate their victories as if it is ours, and it truly feels good! It is a genuine feeling of happiness!

14.2. Pass around the hat

14.2.1. you must take the action of turning your audience into customers or asking for a donation from them. However you must keep in mind that if ever the artist asks for a donation, there will be a string attached to your work, just like an investment, your audience might demand some subtle things like your plan with the money they have donated.

14.2.2. sell or offer your crafts only when you feel comfortable putting them out to the world and when you are convinced that your work is already values something.

14.3. Keep a mailing list

14.3.1. This can be an advantage once you have placed a system and automation in here, like hiring an email newsletter company or inserting a little signup widget on all your websites. By having their email address, you can connect easily and consistently with your audiences.

14.4. Make more work for yourself

14.4.1. the importance of ignoring all of the voices that do not add up to you and focusing more on your craft and improvement.

14.4.1.1. “ What really matters is doing good work and taking advantage of every opportunity that comes your way”

14.4.1.2. just always say yes to whatever you love doing. By that, it means you genuinely love the craft and you grow in this craft.

14.4.2. “a life of creativity is all about change—moving forward, taking chances, exploring new frontiers”

14.4.2.1. Change is one of the things that have intrinsic permanence. It is what makes people better and become the best versions of themselves

14.4.2.2. “I have to feel that I’m after something. If I make money, fine. But I’d rather be striving. It’s the striving, man, it’s that I want”

14.4.3. Growth and development have the utmost priority in human existence, it is what gives some of us meaning and pacifies our craving. Be deliberate, if you want to do something, do it because you want it, focus on the things you are achieving, do not hobble yourself from “keeping it real” or “not selling out” do what you love, and fulfill your purpose

14.5. Pay it forward

14.5.1. the balancing act in a success of an artist, one of the points that caught my attention was the shift from frequently saying “yes” to frequently saying no

14.5.1.1. “The biggest problem of success is that the world conspires to stop you doing the thing that you do because you are successful”

14.5.2. set an office hour, once a month to be available to your audience and answer all their queries and talk to them.

14.5.3. “You just have to be as generous as you can, but selfish enough to get your work done”