4 Takeaways For Makers From Austin Kleon's "Show Your Work"
"Make people better at something they want to be better at." - Kathy Sierra (p. 117).
In 2022, I watched Ali Abdaal's review of "Show Your Work" by Austin Kleon and immediately knew that I had to read it and it would apply to Maker creators and brands. It's a small book packed with insights and helpful illustrations for why sharing what you're building is important. Austin wrote the book for anyone building something including traditional businesses, side-hustles, or an influencer profile.
But today I'll share 4 takeaways specific to Makers, whether you're just getting started, expanding a side-hustle into a full-time jig, or expanding a Maker brand.
Takeaway 1: Show The Work In Progress
Most people just want to show a finished product, but Austin advocates taking your audience along for the ride of building it well before it's finished.
Most individual Makers already do this to some extent and larger creators have built their audience by posting full build videos showing exactly how something was made. But showing how things got to the final product also applies to brands and businesses who almost never post how a product came about, the problems that led to it, or the numerous iterations before it became available.
Posting a peak behind the scenes shows how much hard work, thought, and effort went into a product, which can help justify a higher price.
Takeaway 2: Daily Content Is Feasible No Matter What
If you're passionate about what you're building, you'll be working on it almost every day anyway, so why not post about it every day?
I used to think this was only about posting "fully baked" content to an Instagram feed or YouTube, but now I see daily content as belonging more in stories and short-form text like Threads or Twitter/X. The key goes back to Takeaway 1 that it can be about early inspiration, initial ideas, design, or current build progress, not just the finished piece.
Behind every "overnight success" is likely years of hard work, dedication, and perseverance, so share all of that well ahead of your success.
Takeaway 3: Always Give Proper Credit
"There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them in a sort of mental kaleidoscope." - Mark Twain.
As Makers, we're constantly inspired by the movies, shows, travel, and other Makers, but some creators leave out this inspirational key that would help newer Makers. The Maker community is overall really good about sharing if there is a specific other Maker that inspired a build, but we should go deeper and share all of the inspirations that came together for a project or product.
I keep an entire database in Notion of things that inspire me including videos and posts from other Makers, screenshots of movies, and the hundreds of pictures I've taken at Disney World of lighting, textures, and even fasteners.
Takeaway 4: Start An Email List
Social media platforms rise, stagnate, suppress in favor of ads, and fall, but emails have stood the test of time in our digital age.
Email newsletters have gotten a bad reputation as being just opted-in spam, but email is still one of the most powerful ways to get your message (and yes, your products) in front of the people who want it without navigating social media algorithms. The key is to focus on providing free value to the readers (see previous takeaways for what), not use email as either a pitch machine or notification system.
Even if you don't have something to sell now, make an email list to cultivate your biggest supporters.
