I recently got turned on to Artist,Writer and Speaker Austin Kleon as a source of inspiration ( thanks, Artist Sally Binard). While he is inspiring, and gets a lot done, I found myself contradictoraly responding with jealousy instead of action that he gets invited to speak at Google and TedX ,and I don't.
Maybe its because he is a powerful visual communicator, and I'm not. Check out his site. And he did inspire me enough that I wrote him an email asking for a list of all of his tricks so that I could do a better job at Sharing My Excitement for Scientific Exploration. Here's what it said....
I need a hack.
Not that theres anything wrong with my life, or lifestyle, mind you, I just want to push it to the next level, and I'm bold enough to dream of making it to your level.
Ok, so yes, I work for NASA ( subcontractor) putting robots in Andean Lakes, and find sunken Egyptian cities ( and the location of Cleopatras Palace) and help invent gear to find unexploded bombs before they blow up poor South East Asian farmers. and I put it all on my blog, too.
I just don't have an audience. And when I say I want to be like you, I mean that I want to be able to share my excitement for scientific exploration the way that you share your passion for art, books, and creativity.
So when I read (into) your invitation to contact you, and your challenge to not appear nuts in doing so, I wrote this email because I want to ask you this;
How do I make my story appear so compelling, my blog so beautiful, and my work so enviable, that I get asked to make presentations to the impressionable children and employees of the Illumanati...Just Like You?
All the best,
Eric
So it wasnt long before I got a response from Austin, and found out why he is a best selling Author. His email response was the following;
Hi Eric,
You'll want to get my next book: http://showyrwork.com
Stay tuned!
- Austin