Take your audience behind the curtains
Show your work Series #2
Remember that time when Ryan Reynolds became a hairdresser and dyed his wife Blake’s hair and that video went viral?
Perhaps people aren’t usually that much interested in someone dying his wife’s hair. but It’s the internet’s favorite celebrity duo, capturing a casual day at their home.
People are crazy about the behind-the-scenes work as much as the finished product. Hence This week on Show Your Work Series We are gonna talk — PROCESS.
Every “How do I do it” Tutorial/recipe/DIY video and Talk show interviewing celebrities is proof of it.
Bloopers and Gag reels have the same response as the original scenes among the fans because they not only want to relate to the art but long to connect with the artist behind it.
The same rules apply to Writing too. Or any other art like painting, music, or YouTubing per se.
The Next efficient step to capture the interest of your audience and build your own crowd is to take them behind the curtain.
How on the marshmallow nachos do I do it? one might ask. Well lucky for you That’s what I am gonna share with you in this post
Let’s pull up the curtains, shall we?
The Real You :
In order for connection to happen, we have to allow ourselves to be seen — Really seen
~ Brene Brown
Brandon Lake is one of my favorite Christian artists and worship leaders. His songs and the way he sings from his soul never failed to connect me to God.
Brandon Lake is one of my favorite Christian artists and worship leaders. That’s all he is to me. Till today.
What happened today? I just watched a YouTube short of him getting his hair straightened by his sister (which is quite funny ).
Today I became his YouTube subscriber. (Trust me when I say, I rarely do that ) And he is promoted to my list of “Top 10 favorites”.
Because I get to see him. The real him. Through a not longer than 60-second video which turns out to be a behind-the-scenes coverage from his album tour.
You get the point right?
With quality content and the right amount of passion, you can make a masterpiece that people adore. However when you connect with them from human to human only you can make a bond with your fans.
By Putting things out there, consistently, you can form a relationship with your customers. It allows them to see the person behind the products ~ Austin Kleon
Collect The scraps :
When I say give your audience a bit of Real you. I don’t mean the ‘You in pajamas sleeping with your dog’
I meant the Guitarist you who tunes her guitar with a trick or the Gardner you, who adds the special something in his compost. The Writer you who gets inspiration from watching Dead Poet Society for her Next chapter.
The Creator you.
Every perfect end product goes through a messy, not-so-sexy process. Pay attention and look for the scraps that fell on the floor during it.
The small things you learned along the way. The little cooking hack your grandma told you. Or the truths about your profession you learned the hard way, you can serve them to your audience on a silver platter.
Instead of only presenting them with your Blog, Your Song, or Your Book, Precisely the end product of your work, tease them with a little teaser.
Tell them the story behind the song you are writing. Or where you buy your baking utensils from. Share with your readers What are some simple tricks to write a blog post.
Perhaps You are just a beginner? Even better share your crazy bunch what inspires you.
To do that, you need to morph into a Documentarian of your work.
Austin Kleon talks about this in his book Show your Work, “Become a documentarian of what you do. Start a work journal : Write your thoughts down in a notebook, or speak them into an audio recorder. Keep a scrapbook.
Take a lot of photographs of your work at different stages in your process. Shoot video of you working. This isn’t about making art, it’s about simply keeping track of what’s going on around you.”
Take Advantage of the Internet — Utilize the Social apps.
It doesn’t matter what kind of creator you are, there’s one for you. Instagram, Tumblr, Youtube, Twitter, Pinterest I could go on and on. Take your pick, Make them your house elves. Present the scraps you scooped up in the right way.
To Sum it up, Want to create your own crowd? You have to put yourself out there and connect with your consumers.
Showing them a sneak peek of the progress of your work is the best way to do it. Every Insider Video that piques the interest of the fans testifies to that.
So what are you waiting for? Go, capture the masses. Happy trails!
The Key takeaways of this post are inspired by Austin Kleon’s book “Show Your Work”. Big shout out to him! I highly recommend it if you are struggling to show your work online.
Hope you find this post useful. If yes? Give me some applause, and share your feedback. Follow my publication for more writing tips :)
