I have a house-guest - our former au pair, visiting from Germany. She's launching her yoga video channel, and last week, confided how disheartened she can feel watching her favourite creators on YouTube. They have millions of followers, books out, and dazzling careers.
The comparison was crippling, and she found herself pouring hours into making her videos perfect, and then struggling to even want to post them. Comparison is a killer.
I shared some advice with her that I wish someone had told me when I started out:
Share your process in public, even if you're not good yet.
Here’s three reasons why:
1. It's best to get your sh*tty content out of the way when you don't have a big audience
I started Wednesday Wisdom in July 2018, and it went to just 28 people. When I read those old posts now, I cringe. I'm glad I didn't have thousands of you back then! But there's no shortcut for practice, so I needed to start small.
2. Your journey inspires people two steps behind.
Watching experienced creators is daunting - not just for her, but for others who want to start. We can't connect to success that's too many steps ahead. By sharing her process with a growing audience she builds trust, and inspires people who are a step or two behind her. That's valuable.
3. Early encouragement keeps you going.
It's hard to stay motivated for an idea that isn't real yet. You might give up before you get started. Once you've told people, you shine light on your idea and breathe life into it, inviting investment and encouragement. That support might make all the difference on hard days when you want to quit.
You might not be starting a business, or a yoga channel, but you should still share your works in progress. If you do, you'll get:
- The chance to make your idea better
- The excitement and support of people who care about you
- A wider sense of ownership and engagement in your results.
If you're trying to present a done deal, because you're scared people won't like you, or your idea, until it's perfect, you're missing some serious opportunities.
My works in progress
I love having multiple projects on the go, which used to be a source of guilt - like it reflected poorly on my stickability. I'm challenging those ideas. I've got too much creativity bubbling around inside me to stick to just one thing.
This week, I've shared a few works in progress with my audience. Any one of them could need a complete re-examination, fail and disappear from view, or I'd have to tell people I got sick of it, wasn’t good at it, or it didn't work. 🤷♀️ Oh well.
1. A Substack newsletter: Current Fad.
Substack is a place for me to write on more diverse topics, build a wider audience and earn money from my writing. The support has been incredible, and dozens of people immediately 'pledged.' So, I’ve gone ahead and pulled Wednesday Wisdom over to Substack as well, started refreshing and migrating content that I think will live well here, and soft-launched my paid tier. Why agonise?s
2. A secret dream to write a novel
In this post on Current Fad, I share my aspirations for a new writing direction - including a trip to Portland, Oregon this week for an intensive novel-writing workshop.
I was tempted to hide this dream until I knew if I could do it, or if I was any good. Now I have accountability and encouragement from others.
3. A battle with disconnection
I get cynical and jaded pretty quickly. Some days, I feel my work is a waste of time. So instead of presenting polish and perfection, I try to show the back-stage. I think it's useful for people who judge their own unhelpful thoughts. My inbox is full of DMs from people thanking me for this post, and that warms my heart.
4. The Consultants of Choice pre-launch
This course has taken more time, energy and love than anything I've ever made. It's the culmination of my career to date, summed up as usefully as I can, to help others live their dream self-employed life. It's taking a long time, and it's still not finished - so instead of trying to make it perfect, I've opened it to discount guinea pig enrolments so people can get stuck into the first module now, and tell me all the things that are wrong with it. Aargh!
How you can do this too
You can share your process, or your works-in-progress in lots of different areas:
- Show your drafts to colleagues for their input
- Launch your new idea to a small audience before it's ready
- Tell your friends and family what you're working on, even when you think it's shit
- Post your idea, share that video, or write that email - just click the button.
Get a boost, connect with others, and improve your final outcome.
How can you share your process with others? How will you?
Til next week,
A
