Category: Personal, Relationship

Are Younique?

Written by Laura Allen from 15secondpitch.com.

Q: What do a bestselling author, Noah Kagan and a guy who scatters the remains of dead people all have in common?

A: Tune in to Okdork next week as Guest Dork Laura Allen reveals the answer…

The bestselling author, Noah Kagan and the guy who scatters ashes all have great pitches on the 15SecondPitch website. They’ve all found something that makes them unique and they’re not afraid to share it.

We’ll come back to that later though, because I was inspired by Jeremy’s post to dig a little deeper and take some risks with my own guest spot today.

I was thinking about why I like Noah’s blog so much when it hit me. It reminds me of my friend Robb’s room. Robb was the skinny kid in my high school who knew everything about The Grateful Dead and any other band you could name. He was a geek before it was cool. You’d think he would get beaten up by the jocks everyday, but that didn’t happen because the jocks were his friends, as were the goths, the poor white trash, the cheerleaders, the stoner girls, the preppies and anyone else you’d care to slap a label on.

Robb could hang out in any of these groups and all of them wanted him as a member. He had the ability to make every person in the room feel like they were the life of the party. His get-togethers were decidely low-tech. They usually included a CD player and some beer, if someone older could score some. The main draw of every event was the music and the conversation that would take place. Our host always had the unique ability to know where the conversation was headed and to politely steer it in the direction that would allow YOU to tell your big story of the moment. He knew what your big story was because he took the time to listen.

The true brilliance came from Robb’s sheer unwillingness to allow any sort of judgements or bullshit into his room. His room was Switzerland and if you wanted to be invited back, you’d better find a way to make peace with the cheerleader who snubbed you last week. (And the best part was that the cheerleader had to be nice to me, the goth girl!) I learned a lot about life during those late nights hanging out with Robb and a motley cast of characters. I learned that sometimes the most unlikely people will reveal something extremely personal and sometimes people get stuck in a group that they don’t want to be part of anymore, but don’t know how to get out of.

So I didn’t know thing one about blogging when I stumbled on Noah’s site, but he didn’t seem to care. (I must admit, I liked the name OkDork because it reminded me of one of my favorite CD’s OK Computer from Radiohead,) Noah was happy to reply to my emails and make me feel a welcome part of his special online world. Thanks, Noah.

I feel like I get to spend a little time in the online equivalent of Robb’s room when I come to visit OkDork. And that makes me happy. Sure, it’s electronic and you don’t get to see people’s faces, or hear their voices, but a lot of the heart comes through. I’d love to include a link to Robb’s blog and his website so you could all get to know him better, but for now, Robb’s room only exists in the real world.

Oh, yes, I almost forgot. The bestselling author, Noah and the guy who scatters people’s ashes all created great pitches because they tapped into what makes them unique and were able to share it in a quick and interesting way. If you could be known for one thing, what would it be?