As I discussed in my first post, this project is designed to document my hobbies in order to get better at photography, videography, writing, and speaking; it’s going to force me to be vulnerable and learn publicly. I’ve sat down and brainstormed up a couple of dozen different ideas for posts and videos to get started, and I’ve even outlined and scripted out some talking points for a few. So what’s the problem? Sitting down in front of the camera and talking is absolutely terrifying.

But why?

I know objectively that when I post a video on YouTube for the first time, it’s likely to get less than a handful of views. Maybe none.

Regardless of that, my mind keep conjuring up images of friends and family stumbling across my beginner efforts and laughing at me and my futile attempts and creating something. “Look at this dork”, they’ll say. “He has no idea what he’s doing; why would anyone pay attention to him?”

Let’s break that down a bit, shall we?

Becoming Findable

The fact that there exists an entire multi-billion dollar industry entirely focused on making people and products more findable should tell you a lot. The internet is a big, big place. Setting up a blog, launching a social media profile, or starting a podcast aren’t enough to find an audience. Even a small one. If you want people to find your work, you’ve got a lot more work to do.

So the idea that you’ll create something on the internet and immediately be discovered by people you care about is ludicrous on its face. By the time anyone notices you, you’ll have had to put in enough time and effort to become reasonably good at what you’re doing.

Who Laughs at the Vulnerable Person?

Stepping beyond the trouble of actually being discovered, what are the odds that people are going to look at your work and responding with derision? Of course there are always trolls who make it their life’s ambition to be jerks, but they aren’t the norm. Normal people don’t act like that.

Consider what you do when you find content by someone who hasn’t quite refined their approach yet. Personally, I might skip it, or check it out and offer up some encouragement and constructive feedback. It would never occur to me to attack the creator.

It’s pretty difficult for a person to get through life without having to struggle at something. Everyone is going to run up against a learning curve and either bounce off of it or overcome it. That process should give us insight and empathy when we see other people doing the same.

Learning in Public

Beyond all of that, I think there’s something incredibly interesting and charming when I see people who are willing to document themselves trying and failing at things. We all do it, but instead of embracing or even celebrating the process, most of us hide it.

Getting good at something doesn’t just happen. You have to try and fail. And you have to do that over and over again. When people hide the myriad failures that lead to success, it obfuscates the process. We only see the final product. We see the expert and assume that this is their natural state, when nothing could be further from the truth.

So give your potential audience a little more credit. Your art, even if it sucks, likely won’t be the object of mockery. Maybe it will even inspire someone else to suck at something for a while until they can get better at it.

Be vulnerable. Try and fail. Document the process and you’ll have something to look back on when you’ve made progress.