Freak Success: A Dialog With Chris Brogan

Do you feel like you don't fit in?

Are you wondering how you can succeed in business by being different?

To learn about how your unique qualities can help you achieve success in the business world, I interview Chris Brogan for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast.
More About This Show

The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner.

It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.

The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting).

In this episode, I interview Chris Brogan, publisher and CEO of Owner Magazine, co-author of The Impact Equation and host of The Owner's Mind podcast. His latest book is called The Freaks Shall Inherit the Earth.

Chris shares why some freaks are successful in business and how you can follow their lead.

You'll discover how to face your fears, run with your ideas and put them into practice.

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Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Freak Success
The motivation behind the book and who the freaks are

Chris says that it was his children who were the motivation behind his new book, The Freaks Shall Inherit the Earth.

He explains the reasons why he believes that neither of them is suitable for real employment, and therefore wrote the book for them.

During the process, he realized that it doesn't only include his story of how he was a freak who never fit in, but there are a lot of people out there exactly like him.

Chris believes that there is an economic shift that's close to happening, and that cottage industries are coming back in a world of Dollar Shave Club.

A lot of people aren't necessarily saying "I hope IBM hires me," they want to forge their own path. An example is Jake Thompson who has an apparel brand called Compete Everyday, which is a similar premise to Life Is Good.

You'll hear Chris' definition of the word freak, and why they choose their own adventure.

Listen to the show to hear Chris' story about the original Choose Your Own Adventure books.

Why some freaks are successful in business and others are not

Chris explains why Richard Branson is successful for being a freak.

One of his very first businesses was a company that sold records in the UK. When he told people he would distribute records overseas, he discovered that he could get them for a lot less money. So he went on to resell them in the UK and undercut all of the other retailers.

He has since gone on to own 400 successful companies, lives on an island of his own creation and has been knighted.

You'll discover why Richard Branson is Chris' biggest business idol.

A true freak is someone who stays true to what they are passionate about, even if they don't fit within the box. Then you have people who are weird for weird's sake. This is the type of person who looks for attention, but it's not really who they are.

Chris gives an example of violinist Lindsey Stirling, who is doing extremely well. She has 2.3 million likes on Facebook and has a huge group that follows and connects with her. Although what she does has no part in modern pop culture, she has stuck with her love of the violin and brought her own energy to it. It's a way for her to put her own story out there.

The freaks who are successful actually stay pretty close to who they are. They have something to offer and help others at the same time.

One way to find out if you're a freak is to consider the quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Do not go where the road may lead, but go where there is no road and leave a trail." You'll find that people react differently to it. Some people find it too scary to think about.

Listen to the show to find out why most people want instructions and feel fear if they hav...