creativity

Jack Butcher of Visualize Value has this idea about sharing your sawdust:

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Sell your sawdust: (thread)

— Jack Butcher (@jackbutcher) December 2, 2020

The basic point is that you’re sharing what you’re doing, people will be more interested in your project because of the transparency.

He calls it “sawdust” because it’s what’s falling off as you’re building something new.

It’s a great idea, especially for the creator economy.

It can be a little hard as you’re feeling out your process, or experimenting with new ways of doing things. And it may be a little awkward at first.

As a writer, I’m trying to get people to engage in my articles and posts, but also want to explore some new channels. Here are some easy ways to share your sawdust.

1. Re-share your notes, ideas, and brainstorms

This may come off as half-finished, but that’s the point. People want to know how you arrived at a certain idea or conclusion. This may not be the best fit every time, but it can work on occasion. It wouldn’t work on this post for instance — I jumped around to about five Notion docs, trying to settle on an idea.

2. Test out ideas on social media before expanding

I forgot who said this (sorry Internet!) but a great point I saw recently was to test out ideas on Twitter before expanding them into a post, product, or presentation.

That way, you can get a response or reaction and then maybe even use those quotes in your piece or as an initial audience for distribution.

I thought that made a lot of sense — though I haven’t done it too much. (Here’s a reminder to myself).

3. Short videos and images

Recently I’ve used Loom a lot to record videos of screen shares or to clarify a few points. Mostly I’ve done this in work situations, but I can see it working for blogging as well. (Another note to self). For instance, I could do an explanation of how I arrived at this post (meta!)

Any images you create or share for a book, blog post, or presentation can be shared on social as well.

I know all of this seems obvious, but how often do you actually do it?

What’s great is that your ideas can be battle-tested before implementation. It’s a great hack that engages dialogue and conversation along the way. Again, let me reiterate, I’m not very good at this, but I’m learning and trying out new things.