Now’s the Time to Be Surprising, Stunning, and Shocking in 500 Words or Less
In our era of media over-saturation, breaking from the flock and standing out is the only (free) way to gain the attention you deserve.
I hate to be a kicker. I always long for peace. But the wheel that squeaks the loudest is the one that gets the grease.
-Josh Billings, American Humorist
Bottom line results are tied to your willingness to seek attention.
If we want to achieve uncommon results, we must be uncommon.
From an early age, we’re taught that gaining attention is only acceptable within a narrow band of rewarded behaviors (good grades, tidy room, etc…) so most of us have built-in resistance to other attention-seeking behaviors.
Then, we grow up and we’re thrust into the real world, and we’re forced to sink or swim.
It’s what I like to call the “Oprah moment.”
Oprah Winfrey “was molested during her childhood…and became pregnant at 14; her son died in infancy.” -Wikipedia
Oprah recovered, finished high school with honors, got a job in radio, and then TV, where her unique ad-lib performance style appealed to audiences and brought in the ratings.
Anyone who’s watched The Oprah Winfrey Show knows how much her success relies on being surprising, stunning, and shocking.
She’s the queen of uncommon. And yet there was a time when Time magazine described her as:
a black female of ample bulk
All of us have an Oprah moment where we have to decide whether we feel worthy of standing out, but do you know the best thing about “going for it?”
We’ll be equally rewarded with attention for “good” behavior or “bad.”
Check out the following video:
His recording career was marked by constant negative critical reaction…accused of promoting and endorsing racial stereotypes against Asians. -Wikipedia
The celebration of William Hung has nothing to do with being Asian. His audition, to this day, is surprising, shocking, and stunning because he threw caution to the wind.
“I have no professional music training.” -William Hung
So, learning how to stand out is not hard, but actually doing it is challenging because:
- We’ve been taught not to
- We (needlessly) fear drawing negative attention
Lady Gaga set out on a campaign to gain attention for her music career through outrageous fashion displays.
While these well-planned events may not account for all her success, they have contributed to it handsomely.
Who doesn’t remember the meat dress?
Music is filled with other outlandish/dangerous samples from N.W.A.’s F*** the Police to Jim Morrison’s public nudity and subsequent arrest to Marilyn Manson’s makeup.
The attention is out there, and the fact that both “good” and “bad” result in positive outcomes should be enough to convince you to begin thinking about how to try to be more surprising, stunning, and shocking, but if not, consider it’s free.
The only thing you have to lose are your inhibitions.
Briane Bill is a Mensch, Writer, and Speaker with credits on hit TV shows for ABC and NBC including The Voice and Shark Tank.
