Make Your Work More Remarkable—Two Paths to Remarkability

Indifference.

It’s one of our greatest fears as professional creators. We pour our heart and soul into our work, and gather the courage to share it.

And the response is…silence.

Non-response.

Crickets.

The opposite of indifference is remarkability.

Remarkability is the quality of work that gets people talking. It’s when people feel compelled to share their experience of your work with others.

But how can we make remarkable work? I want to share with you two ways.

The first way to make remarkable work is to be bold, not bland.

“Disgust is more interesting than bland,” musician Jacob Collier recently told an audience at UCLA. “Bland might not offend anybody. It might be received with a lukewarm stillness. But disgust is interesting. I would definitely explore it.”

When is the last time you explored disgust in your work? How about anger, despair, or euphoria? You’re likely not exploring the full range of your creative output. Allow yourself to experiment with these and other emotions in your work.

Collier went on to say that when you share your work, negative feedback is preferable to a “meh” response. “if people don’t like it…, first of all it doesn’t matter, and second of all, it’s kind of a sign you’re doing something interesting. Because the least engagement someone can give you to anything you make is disinterest.”

"Fine" is a four-letter word.

The second way to make your work remarkable is to push yourself out of your comfort zone.

“I think it’s terribly dangerous for an artist to fulfill other people’s expectations,” David Bowie said in an interview. “I think that people generally produce their worst work when they do that.”

But beyond that, you have to go outside of your ​comfort zone​. Bowie continued: “The other thing I would say is that if you feel safe in the area you are working in, you’re not working in the right area. Always go a little further into the water than you feel you are capable of being in. Go a little bit out of your depth, and when you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting.”

The most powerful marketing tool for a creator is word of mouth. Create something that people will want to talk about and share with others.

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Here’s a bonus: be the kind of follower you want to have. Do a good turn to your favorite creators and share their stuff. Tell your friends about it. Share your experience. It’s easy and free, and means the world to the creators you love so much. If you like something, share it.