Inner Circle Media

�

Hey fellow weirdos, I have been contemplating a blog post like this for years. Yes, it may seem risky to call attention to my weirdness, but with the launch of our new (and rather weird) website and after reading this interesting post on BNET – “When the Going Gets Tough, Get Weird” – I feel like the world is ready for me to talk openly about my company’s and my own weirdness and how it’s contributed to our success.

The Background: When we first started Inner Circle Media eight years ago, we felt like it was imperative to present ourselves as hip, cool, leading-edge techies and designers. We thought that if we acted cooler and SMARTER than our competitors, we would surely win lots of business and dominate the market. But alas, the more we talked about model-view-controller frameworks and user interface engineering, the more we sounded like our competitors and worse yet – the more our prospective clients’ eyes glazed over in boredom.

The Cure: Luckily, we realized that if we wanted to stop boring people, we had to talk about our business and maybe even do business in a different way. That’s where the weirdness comes in…

About My Own Weirdness: By nature, I am slightly weird. “How do I define weird?” you ask. Well, I define it as odd, sometimes bizarre, definitely not normal and perhaps downright peculiar. I am slightly weird because… I don’t always like to do things in the usual or normal way. I like to say WHY and WHAT IF a lot. I can be a bit too inquisitive – sometimes I ask too many probing and personal questions. I am upon occasion unusually honest – I’ll tell you when I don’t know something, and I don’t care if it makes me look stupid. I may also tell you that I disagree with your brilliant idea. I am especially weird because I embrace the title of “DORK” – which means I am not afraid to 1) dance in public – especially in the aisles of local grocery stores playing Air Supply songs and 2) laugh with abandon at my quirky self.

So, back to the business – how does all this weirdness relate to the way we do business? Well, we do business in un-business-like ways. For one, we decided to stop acting the way we thought professional web developers were supposed to act. We embraced our inner dorks, geeks, and nerds. In fact, we let our dorky, geeky, nerdy selves loose, and here’s what happened to our business:

• We painted our entire office orange and we have a nap couch (for me because there are times when I absolutely MUST nap like a toddler).
• We have loud team meetings where we often make up theme songs and jingles for our clients’ companies.
• We make our office dog wear a babooshka bonnet and take silly photos of him.
• We hire people who are slow and methodical; we also hire people who are total spazzes; our only requirement is they are true to themselves and feel engaged by and satisfied in their jobs.
• We try to make the right people happy (but we don’t kill ourselves to do so because some people will always be unhappy and they like it that way).
• We have parties as often as possible. Catherine may be seen doing the River Dance at those parties.
• Our team members come and go as they please.
• We are open about our financials – our team knows exactly how much money the company makes.
• Several of us are openly-proud crazy cat ladies.
• One of us is proud to look like Kenny Loggins without a beard.

Guess what else happened to our business? NO, our current and potential clients did not run away screaming. They actually appreciated our honesty, humility, and humor. They helped our company to grow in leaps and bounds. And best of all – our clients told people that “it was actually FUN to build our website.” If being weird helps us all to have more fun, then let’s all let our inner freaks out!