Shaq DM'ed Me

And it changed the way I think about the internet

It was 2020 so everything was a bit... weird. I was laying on the sofa, mindlessly scrolling, when a dm came through.

It was from someone claiming to be one of ‘Shaq’s people’.

This HAS to be a scam.

At the time, I was an unknown artist, I had 2000 Instagram followers, why would the ‘people’ of one of the world’s biggest celebrities, be reaching out to me?’.

I clicked the dude’s profile and sure enough there are a bunch of photos of him and big Shaq.

“Shaq loves your work. Would you paint a mural of him?” he says.

I said ‘no’. I’m not going to paint a mural of Shaq.

I put my business hat on.

If this turns out to be a real opportunity, I’m based in London, he’s in Texas, it doesn’t work.

The value for me is a picture of Dr Shaquille O’Neal Esq, with my work.

I presented the counteroffer; I’ll paint him a canvas and you have to get me a picture of him with the work. As discussions progressed, it looked more and more like this was really going to happen. Deposits were paid and I got started.

I wrapped the canvas and posted it off.

A month goes by, nothing. Two months, nothing. I pretty much forgot about it and carried on with my life. And then one rainy Tuesday, in comes the DM from Dr Shaq.

The internet is wild. If you’re an artist or creative, you probably don’t relate to being a ‘content creator’, in fact, most of you actively reject it but hear me out...

The work you love, you’ll be making that anyway, right?

Just spend a little longer documenting it. Every post you make is a free lottery ticket with the chance of being seen by anyone on the planet.

There’s no ‘special internet’ for Taylor Swift, Mr. Beast or Shaq.

If you post your work, they might see it and if you don’t post, no one will.

Obviously, getting to work for Shaq was lucky but I’ve been able to replicate similar luck over and over again.

My strategy: make good work and post it.

I used to think the internet and algorithms were my enemies, they aren’t. They aren’t friends either, they’re a cold indifferent machine.

It’s highly unlikely you’re shadow-banned and it’s highly likely that you don’t post often enough. I’ve been sporadically posting online for over a decade and had very little success. As soon as I got serious and started posting regularly, opportunities came, even with a small account.

Painting Shaq wasn’t my ‘big break’, it didn’t change my life, it’s just a cool thing that happened. It was a step on my path to becoming a well-known artist in my field.

As with most opportunities, my biggest project to date didn’t come from a celebrity. It came from someone with 200 followers, that’s a much less interesting story, but if you don’t post your work you won’t be contacted by anyone.