Every so often I get a nasty comment on my YouTube videos.  I’m lucky they don’t turn into the cesspool of racism and homophobia that many YouTube comment threads do.  But when one turns up, I just delete it.

Oh yeah, I delete it them with relish.  And sometimes mustard.  If someone has a legit critique or comment I’m happy to leave it up for discussion.  But I’ve yet to see an intelligent discussion of anything in the comments section… of just about anything.  Ever.

One of those nasty comments from my videos popped into my head yesterday.  It simply read…

“Fuck you for advertising.”  

So much ignorance in that statement.

First off, yes, I do promote my work.  Shocked?  This person apparently was.  They seem to subscribe to the idea of “just put it out and someone will find it.”  And if I wanted to wait 1000 years to be successful, that’s exactly what I’d do.  Promoting is half the job of being a creator.  And any successful creator will tell you the same.

Second, this person obviously doesn’t know the difference between advertising and promoting. I had not paid for an ad on his sidebar.  I’d simply seen his positive comment on an artist similar to me and sent him a polite and friendly message saying that he might enjoy my video as well.

But what this really showed me is that I was dealing with a person who’s never created anything.  That’s not even the statement of someone who’s created and hasn’t shown it to anyone.  That’s a person who’s never had the guts to face down and conquer the proverbial blank canvas.

Because anyone that has actually created something knows the perseverance it takes to finish it.  And they know the stomach drop of putting it out into the world and hoping it finds an audience.

That’s the last time you get to be proud of that particular creation. Photo by Todd Morris.

“Fuck you for advertising” doesn’t even sound like a bitter, formerly creative person.  It sounds like someone who’s never created anything that wasn’t brown and floating in a toilet.

But you… yes, you… are probably not that type of person.  I’ll bet you HAVE created something worthwhile.  And I want to see it.  And I want everyone I know to see it.

So here’s what we’re going to do.  I want you to show me what you’ve created.  Writing, painting, stand-up, music, video, sculpture, jewelry, custom auto paint jobs, kitchen remodels, whatever.

Send me a link to check out your creation that you’re really excited about.  Then I’m going to do a big blog post featuring all the cool stuff I’ve been sent and promote it out to my networks and mailing list.  I will not be criticizing or reviewing.  That’s for the end user to decide.

Here’s what to send:
Your name
A link to your creation (just one please)
A link where you’d like people to find out more about you and your work

Email your info to Phil at RoadsideAttraction.com before June 30th, 2016.

This will be fun!  I’ve shown you mine, now show me yours.  😉