![[Review] Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered (Austin Kleon) Summarized](https://episodes.castos.com/660078c6833215-59505987/images/2317215/c1a-085k3-47og424qf2pm-xehfxf.jpg)
Show Notes
Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered (Austin Kleon)
- Amazon USA Store: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GU2RGGI?tag=9natree-20
- Amazon Worldwide Store: https://global.buys.trade/Show-Your-Work%21%3A-10-Ways-to-Share-Your-Creativity-and-Get-Discovered-Austin-Kleon.html
- Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/make-change-work-for-you-10-ways-to-future-proof-yourself/id1648983253?itsct=books_box_link&itscg=30200&ls=1&at=1001l3bAw&ct=9natree
- eBay: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=Show+Your+Work+10+Ways+to+Share+Your+Creativity+and+Get+Discovered+Austin+Kleon+&mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&siteid=0&campid=5339060787&customid=9natree&toolid=10001&mkevt=1
- Read more: https://mybook.top/read/B00GU2RGGI/
#creativemarketing #personalbrand #buildinganaudience #sharingprocess #onlinepresence #ShowYourWork
These are takeaways from this book.
Firstly, Think of Sharing as Teaching, Not Marketing, A central message of the book is that the most sustainable way to promote your work is to focus on helping others. Instead of announcing finished projects with a hard sell, Kleon encourages you to share what you are learning, what tools you use, and how you solve problems. This mindset lowers the pressure because you do not have to present yourself as an expert with perfect answers. You can teach from the middle of the journey by explaining decisions, showing experiments, and noting what did not work. Over time, this creates a body of useful material that attracts the right audience: people who share your interests and appreciate your approach. The book also reframes attention as something you earn through generosity. When you give away value in the form of insights, process notes, and recommendations, you build trust and credibility. That trust becomes the foundation for opportunities, whether that means clients, collaborators, readers, or employers. The practical implication is simple: identify what you can explain clearly, then share it in small pieces repeatedly. Teaching becomes the engine of discoverability because it creates search friendly, shareable content and positions you as a thoughtful practitioner.
Secondly, Build a Daily Habit of Documenting Your Process, Kleon distinguishes between creating and sharing, then shows how to connect them without turning sharing into a separate exhausting job. The book advocates documenting your process as you go: snapshots of drafts, sketches, prototypes, behind the scenes photos, short notes about decisions, and quick lists of resources. This approach is easier than trying to produce polished promotional content after the fact because you are simply capturing what already exists. It also helps you see progress, which can fuel motivation and reduce the feeling that you are stuck. Documenting makes your work legible to others, turning private effort into public narrative. Readers can follow along, learn from your iterations, and feel invested in the outcome. The book suggests keeping things lightweight and consistent, using whatever tools fit your life: social posts, blogs, newsletters, or a simple folder of images and notes. The goal is to create a trail of work that compounds over time. When opportunities arise, you also have an archive that demonstrates your thinking and reliability, which can be more persuasive than a single portfolio piece.
Thirdly, Use the Internet as a Home Base and Make Your Work Findable, Another major theme is treating the internet as infrastructure for a creative career. The book promotes having a stable home base, such as a personal website or a central profile, where people can reliably find you, learn what you do, and contact you. Social platforms can help, but they change constantly, so the long term strategy is to build an address on the internet that you control. Kleon also highlights the importance of being findable through clear descriptions and consistent naming. If people cannot tell what you make or what you care about, they cannot recommend you. Practical steps include sharing work in progress, tagging and organizing posts, and linking related pieces so an interested visitor can go deeper. The book also encourages generous linking to other creators, which strengthens relationships and places your work within a larger network of ideas. Over time, this creates a searchable, interconnected web of content that brings in the right kind of attention. Findability is not about gaming algorithms. It is about clarity, consistency, and leaving breadcrumbs that help people discover your work naturally.
Fourthly, Grow an Audience Through Community, Generosity, and Consistency, Show Your Work! pushes back against the myth of the lone genius by emphasizing community. Kleon suggests that audiences are not built through constant self focus, but through participation: sharing other people’s work, commenting thoughtfully, and showing up where conversations happen. This is not networking in the transactional sense. It is building genuine relationships around shared interests. The book encourages readers to think like members of a scene, not isolated brands. When you contribute consistently, people start to recognize your voice and associate you with certain ideas and values. Consistency matters because it signals reliability and helps others form a habit of paying attention. Generosity matters because it turns attention into goodwill. Kleon also acknowledges that not every interaction will pay off immediately, but community building compounds. A small number of engaged peers can be more valuable than a large but indifferent following because engaged peers share, collaborate, and open doors. The practical takeaway is to choose a few channels you can maintain, show up regularly, share useful material, and actively support others. This creates a reciprocal ecosystem where discovery becomes a natural byproduct.
Lastly, Protect Your Creative Energy While Staying Visible, Visibility can be draining, so the book addresses boundaries and sustainability. Kleon encourages readers to separate the work from the noise by establishing routines and limits around sharing. This can include batching posts, setting specific times for online engagement, and keeping parts of your creative life private so that your identity does not become trapped in performance. The book also advises embracing small steps and modest goals, focusing on continuous output rather than dramatic launches. Another aspect of protection is learning to handle criticism and indifference. When you share publicly, you risk misunderstanding, but the alternative is obscurity. Kleon’s approach is to keep the focus on serving the people who benefit from your work and to let the rest pass by. He also stresses the value of persistence: many creative careers are built by showing up longer than others, not by being instantly brilliant. By designing a sharing practice that supports your craft instead of competing with it, you avoid burnout and maintain momentum. The result is a healthier relationship with attention, where sharing is a tool for connection and growth rather than a constant demand for validation.
- Amazon USA Store: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GU2RGGI?tag=9natree-20
- Amazon Worldwide Store: https://global.buys.trade/Show-Your-Work%21%3A-10-Ways-to-Share-Your-Creativity-and-Get-Discovered-Austin-Kleon.html
- Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/make-change-work-for-you-10-ways-to-future-proof-yourself/id1648983253?itsct=books_box_link&itscg=30200&ls=1&at=1001l3bAw&ct=9natree
- eBay: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=Show+Your+Work+10+Ways+to+Share+Your+Creativity+and+Get+Discovered+Austin+Kleon+&mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&siteid=0&campid=5339060787&customid=9natree&toolid=10001&mkevt=1
- Read more: https://mybook.top/read/B00GU2RGGI/
#creativemarketing #personalbrand #buildinganaudience #sharingprocess #onlinepresence #ShowYourWork
These are takeaways from this book.
Firstly, Think of Sharing as Teaching, Not Marketing, A central message of the book is that the most sustainable way to promote your work is to focus on helping others. Instead of announcing finished projects with a hard sell, Kleon encourages you to share what you are learning, what tools you use, and how you solve problems. This mindset lowers the pressure because you do not have to present yourself as an expert with perfect answers. You can teach from the middle of the journey by explaining decisions, showing experiments, and noting what did not work. Over time, this creates a body of useful material that attracts the right audience: people who share your interests and appreciate your approach. The book also reframes attention as something you earn through generosity. When you give away value in the form of insights, process notes, and recommendations, you build trust and credibility. That trust becomes the foundation for opportunities, whether that means clients, collaborators, readers, or employers. The practical implication is simple: identify what you can explain clearly, then share it in small pieces repeatedly. Teaching becomes the engine of discoverability because it creates search friendly, shareable content and positions you as a thoughtful practitioner.
Secondly, Build a Daily Habit of Documenting Your Process, Kleon distinguishes between creating and sharing, then shows how to connect them without turning sharing into a separate exhausting job. The book advocates documenting your process as you go: snapshots of drafts, sketches, prototypes, behind the scenes photos, short notes about decisions, and quick lists of resources. This approach is easier than trying to produce polished promotional content after the fact because you are simply capturing what already exists. It also helps you see progress, which can fuel motivation and reduce the feeling that you are stuck. Documenting makes your work legible to others, turning private effort into public narrative. Readers can follow along, learn from your iterations, and feel invested in the outcome. The book suggests keeping things lightweight and consistent, using whatever tools fit your life: social posts, blogs, newsletters, or a simple folder of images and notes. The goal is to create a trail of work that compounds over time. When opportunities arise, you also have an archive that demonstrates your thinking and reliability, which can be more persuasive than a single portfolio piece.
Thirdly, Use the Internet as a Home Base and Make Your Work Findable, Another major theme is treating the internet as infrastructure for a creative career. The book promotes having a stable home base, such as a personal website or a central profile, where people can reliably find you, learn what you do, and contact you. Social platforms can help, but they change constantly, so the long term strategy is to build an address on the internet that you control. Kleon also highlights the importance of being findable through clear descriptions and consistent naming. If people cannot tell what you make or what you care about, they cannot recommend you. Practical steps include sharing work in progress, tagging and organizing posts, and linking related pieces so an interested visitor can go deeper. The book also encourages generous linking to other creators, which strengthens relationships and places your work within a larger network of ideas. Over time, this creates a searchable, interconnected web of content that brings in the right kind of attention. Findability is not about gaming algorithms. It is about clarity, consistency, and leaving breadcrumbs that help people discover your work naturally.
Fourthly, Grow an Audience Through Community, Generosity, and Consistency, Show Your Work! pushes back against the myth of the lone genius by emphasizing community. Kleon suggests that audiences are not built through constant self focus, but through participation: sharing other people’s work, commenting thoughtfully, and showing up where conversations happen. This is not networking in the transactional sense. It is building genuine relationships around shared interests. The book encourages readers to think like members of a scene, not isolated brands. When you contribute consistently, people start to recognize your voice and associate you with certain ideas and values. Consistency matters because it signals reliability and helps others form a habit of paying attention. Generosity matters because it turns attention into goodwill. Kleon also acknowledges that not every interaction will pay off immediately, but community building compounds. A small number of engaged peers can be more valuable than a large but indifferent following because engaged peers share, collaborate, and open doors. The practical takeaway is to choose a few channels you can maintain, show up regularly, share useful material, and actively support others. This creates a reciprocal ecosystem where discovery becomes a natural byproduct.
Lastly, Protect Your Creative Energy While Staying Visible, Visibility can be draining, so the book addresses boundaries and sustainability. Kleon encourages readers to separate the work from the noise by establishing routines and limits around sharing. This can include batching posts, setting specific times for online engagement, and keeping parts of your creative life private so that your identity does not become trapped in performance. The book also advises embracing small steps and modest goals, focusing on continuous output rather than dramatic launches. Another aspect of protection is learning to handle criticism and indifference. When you share publicly, you risk misunderstanding, but the alternative is obscurity. Kleon’s approach is to keep the focus on serving the people who benefit from your work and to let the rest pass by. He also stresses the value of persistence: many creative careers are built by showing up longer than others, not by being instantly brilliant. By designing a sharing practice that supports your craft instead of competing with it, you avoid burnout and maintain momentum. The result is a healthier relationship with attention, where sharing is a tool for connection and growth rather than a constant demand for validation.
