Posted by:
Charlie Byrne
December 16, 2008
Issue 568
"Mystery is at the heart of creativity. That, and surprise."
– Julia Cameron
The two black men, clean-cut and well-spoken, casually stroll down an upscale California street.
Mostly-white yuppies step into and out of restaurants and clubs on this busy Saturday night. Well-dressed 30-somethings stroll about, window shopping.
Now, one white couple comes from the opposite direction, walking toward the black men. The camera zooms in, showing the white woman suddenly clutching her bag and the arm of her male companion just a little bit tighter as they approach and then pass the black men. The camera pans to the men.
"Look around!" says one of the men to the other. "You couldn’t find a whiter, safer, or better lit part of this city. But this white woman sees two black guys, who look like UCLA students, strolling down the sidewalk and her reaction is blind fear. I mean, look at us! Are we dressed like gangbangers? Do we look threatening? No. Fact, if anybody should be scared, it’s us: the only two black faces surrounded by a sea of over-caffeinated white people, patrolled by the trigger-happy LAPD."
You may recognize this scene. It is at the beginning of the 2005 Academy Award-winning film Crash.
And it was at this exact point that I recall thinking, "Oh brother, here we go. Looks like I’d better get ready for a politically correct Hollywood preachfest."
I had it all figured out. I knew where it was heading, and I was ready to tune it all out.
But that’s when something very interesting happened. Back to the black men talking …
"So, why aren’t we scared?" asks the first man.
And now, the big surprise when the other one replies …
"Because we have guns?"
And then the two men run into the street and violently carjack the white couple’s BMW SUV, throwing them to the ground and screeching away. Wow! I didn’t expect that! NOW, Crash most definitely had my attention. Not because I was glad to see the black men fall into stereotype, but because I’d been perfectly set up to anticipate just the opposite.
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Posted by:
Charlie Byrne
May 29, 2008
Issue #428
“I get satisfaction of three kinds. One is creating something, one is being paid for it, and one is the feeling that I haven’t just been sitting on my ass all afternoon.” – William F. Buckley (1925-2008)
Right now, there’s no better business in the world than information publishing.
Whether you are marketing e-books, newsletters, or any other electronically distributed product, the advantages over most other businesses are enormous …
There’s no inventory or warehouses. No spoilage. With the Internet, distribution is virtually free. You can work from practically anywhere, anytime. Because of near-zero overhead, profit margins can range from very good to incredible.
There’s just one problem.
You can’t really be successful selling information.
We’ve said it before in Early to Rise (ETR). These days, no one needs more information. What people are looking for is advice … expert guidance … trusted opinions.
Just think about today’s most popular media personalities. The days of solemn "fact-reciting" talking heads such as Walter Cronkite and Harry Reasoner are long gone. The new stars are brash and opinionated. Howard Stern … Rush Limbaugh … Chris Matthews … Jim Cramer … Anderson Cooper … Keith Olbermann … Bill O’Reilly … and on and on.
In The World Is Flat, Thomas Friedman explains how the data collection of straight journalism has been largely outsourced to low-paid stringers. The value is added later, when it’s filtered and interpreted in "opinion and analysis" pieces.
So here’s a thought. Maybe instead of Information Publishing, we should start calling what we do Idea Publishing! Because when you give people advice and ideas, they’ll listen … and pay for the privilege.
Rodale Inc. reported revenue of $632 million last year, primarily from marketing dozens of advice publications such as Prevention, Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Organic Gardening, Runner’s World, and others. Agora Inc. had sales of over $300 million in 2007 through newsletter publishing. And thousands of individual publishing entrepreneurs on the Web today are pulling in tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
So let’s say you’re interested in getting into this field. (And why wouldn’t you be?)
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