Weird Is The New Black

The folks at CopyBlogger.com put out a podcast recently that got me thinking. It was about Seth Godin's new book, We Are All Weird:The Myth of Mass and the End of Compliance. In it Seth discusses the end of mass marketing and the emergence of fragmented tribes, and the opportunities that presents.

It's an interesting idea (and I'm not reviewing the book. I haven't read it yet), but the idea seems to be that we are all weird. What's more, being weird is a good thing.

Here's why: if you are not mass market you're going to appeal to someone because you're real. The web will allow you to be real and be recognized for what you do and who you are. We all want to be known. That's a basic human requirement. So, the web allows you to achieve something that many were unable to do during the reign of mass.

How do you start? Make something. A product, a service, a website or blog. But, as Guy Kawasaki says, make it for you, not for the customer. It worked for Kawasaki and Steve Jobs at Apple. Maybe you'll make a meatball sundae, but probably not. Chances are you'll create something that someone thinks is good. And it will be noticed.

So ask yourself: what about you is weird? Of course, we need to agree on what weird is, in general. Godin says it's anything that is not mass market or "normal", It's also an opportunity. CopyBlogger's Sonia Simone talks about it as the long tail, which is everyone else in the world who is as weird as you are. It is the result of the fragmentation of our culture. Weird in your small town or high school isn't weird in the great big world.

What makes me weird? It's the things I like: real estate, business, flying, independence, food security, cooperative ventures, alternative energy, history and politics. All of those things inform me in a peculiar way. Some people find it weird. It makes me want to own remote real estate that I can fly to, make off grid, share with others, and use to raise food.

And while that's weird (in a good way) today, just think about how weird it was 30 years ago. So weird that it would have been harder to accomplish. Harder to connect with like minded people. Today? Not so hard. I'm connecting with those people now. All I need to do is figure out a workable model and we can do it.

So who cares, and why? I care, and you should to. The reason why is that now that the idea is out there you have a choice: do you find something acceptable and try to find a way to sell it to everyone, or do you make something incredible and let people support you in it? The two approaches lead in very different directions.

Learn more about going off grid. Stop by www.GetRichSlowOnline.com and embrace the new world. Weird Is The New Black