Is Your Work An Octopus Or A Swordfish?

Is your work (or your content, or your art, or…) an octopus or a swordfish? 

I got this expression from Amanda Goetz and I love it. 

A swordfish is a singular point. It’s one and done. It’s me writing this post on a blog nobody comes to.* It’s fine to make for the sake of making, but it will only ever make one point. 

An octopus is work you can get at least 8 things out of. An idea you share in 8 places, or with 4 groups of people and on 3 social media posts and in 1 one-on-one. Octopus is all about multi-purposing your captured effort – coordinating the curation of your own creative output.

Sometimes you do just want to make one point in one place in one way.** 

But if you’re doing really great work, think about how, where, when, and why you want to share it with who. 

Then spread the love. Because great work needs to be shared (so we can tell you it’s great). 

It’s worth saying again – coordinate the curation of your own creative output

*you are not a nobody. I’m using the expression to make a point. And trust me when I say nobody used to come here and it was just me tappity tap tapping notes into the void.

**it’s ok to make a point in your journal. You don’t have to always be selling. Personal musings have value too, but not when you’re making ideas you want to spread around.