I drew the line at a mustache.

Short of that, I was fully committed to the bit:

🧂 I bobby-pinned a ponytail into submission.
🧂 Donned a pair of round sunglasses.
🧂 Put on a white tee.
🧂 Slipped a tiny bag of Diamond Crystal into my pocket. (“It’s sodium chloride, Officer! I swear!”)

With a limp-wristed flourish over an imaginary steak, the transformation was complete. I was…

Listen, in a perfect world I wouldn’t leave my house unless it was on fire, but there was no way I was missing this birthday party.

The assignment: Come as your favorite meme or GIF.

It was everything I hoped it would be: The moment a new guest walked through the door, the room went up in a chorus of “OH, DAMN!!!!” as everyone collectively realized what they’d dressed as.

One little white cat holding a picture of a screaming, pointing woman.
One Guy Holding Sign.

Two tea-toting Kermits whose business it was none of.

Four black-turtlenecked, gold-chained, fanny-packed Dwayne Johnsons.

The birthday girl came as Kim Kardashian peeking out from behind a hedge, which she pulled off flawlessly with a skintight mesh dress and plastic vines cascading from the edges of an umbrella.

I didn’t know a single person in the room, including the guest of honor (she’s a friend of my husband’s). But I’d never felt like I fit in faster than I did that day.

Why?

Because we’re all People Who Spend Too Much Time Online. Our meme-oriented outfits instantly created shared meaning. 

In that moment, no matter how well we were actually acquainted… We *got* one another.

A shorty today: The big messages we convey, the empathy we drive home, and the stories we tell in our marketing can create a similar sense of shared meaning.

It’s worth the effort it takes to find those common threads and figure out how to bring them to life with your words.

How are you signaling to your people that they’re Your People?

P.S. Mark was Kevin James’s headshot, and he absolutely nailed it 👇