In honor of International Talk Like a Pirate Day, the crew at SquarePlanet felt it extremely necessary to share 5 ways you can be a pirate today! We can’t help ourselves, it’s kind of our thing—from our schtick to our mantra, made famous by Steve Jobs: “Why join the Navy, when you can be a pirate?” Starting in reverse order!

 5. Dress Up

If you’re in Chicago, we’ve got a bunch of pirate gear you can try on if you want to swing by the office. We’ll feature you as one of our Guest Pirates! If you have your own supply, feel free to Facebook or Tweet your photo at us—#PirateDay.

 4. Search The Web in Charactarrrgh.

The official homepage of SquarePlanet is Google Pirate. It’s where we start whenever we’re on the hunt for information. It works just like Google, but just talks a little funny.

3. Be Authentic

A good pirate can’t get sea-sick…  a surefire way to strengthen your sea-legs is to be authentic, and eat oranges. You’ll never connect to your audience if you’re uncomfortably regurgitating a script you don’t really know or believe in. Time and time again, we see our clients make the shift from robot speak to having a real conversation and it changes the game 100% of the time. The trick is to internalize all the facts and figures, stats and whoopty-do and just talk to people. When you know your stuff, you’re able to have a personal connection with someone—all the nervousness and jerky-jerky delivery just melts away and its smooth sailing from there on out.

2. Create Contrast

You’re likely floating around in a sea of mediocrity, where everyone around you looks the same. The first thing you can do is realize this, and then do everything you can to be the opposite. Raise your Jolly Roger and set yourself apart from your competition and let people know you’ve got something different to offer. It’s very clear, Orange is our color—but why? Orange is the color of contrast. Think about it—construction cones, hunting wear, the little tips to toy guns—they all let people know, “HEY! There’s something worth paying attention to here.”

1. Share What You Believe

Think about the brands you love. Why do you love them? Why are they in business? There’s a good chance they’re the same reason. People default to emotional connections over logical reasoning almost every time. Businesses that share what they believe are looking to engage with people that believe the same thing, everyone else is just selling stuff. Pirates make deals with other pirates, because regular seafaring folk don’t understand that being a pirate means believing in finding opportunity and maximizing it in creative ways. To discover your WHY, just turn that looking glass toward yourself and pay attention.