Geeks

AHH! Perry Marshall is cracking me up!!

So I'm working away in my Inbox this morning... and I get this email from Perry Marshall. He's on a trip - speaking in Australia - and he set up a new mailing list for junkies like me that like to keep up with every little thing he's into.

Hang on - let me see if I can find the link to that. You may want to subscribe to this, too....

Hmm, not sure - try emailing: news@perrymarshall.com or this link:
http://autocontactor.com/app/r.asp?c=1&ID=17911625 . Anyway - I just got the first email from this new list, and it had me literally: LOL! (Dont you hate that, when you bust out laughing in front of your computer screen and everybody around looks at you like your nuts?!)

Anyway, Perry's talking about GEEKS. That's what started the snickering... Let me tell ya - I've met Perry Marshall in person, and he IS a geek! Just check out THIS picture:



Suffice it to say... he takes PRIDE in being a geek ;) Wait a second... what does that make ME? I'm the junkie that signed up for this email list! Well, anyway - I got a kick out of this part of today's email...


The Internet: Revenge of the Geeks

"Ever since the beginning, Perry knew he was different
from all the other boys and girls."

Perry was a geek.

Perry was a walking disaster in basketball and couldn't
get a girlfriend to save his life. Remember that song
called "She Blinded Me with Science"? Same vintage as
Pac Man Fever.

Well I related to that song. I knew that I *could*
be blinded with science. Easily. Problem was, there was
no "she" who was trying to blind me with science in the
first place. (Not until Laura came along, anyway.)
So I only related to half of the song.

Now it occurs to me that most of my customers
are geeks, too. Guys and gals that flunked out of sports
and spent a lot of time in detention.

Somehow I don't think that the folks who get my emails
are ex-homecoming queens and student council presidents.

No, this is where the geeks and the people voted 'least likely to succeed' congregate. Guys and girls who have ugly yearbook pictures and who were outcasts in school because they could remember odd facts like the capital of Norway.

Today Internet is Revenge of the Misfits. The shoe
is on the other foot now, my friends. All the pretty boys
and their material girls can keep kissing up to the boss,
but the entrepreneurial cowboys and cowgirls are quietly creating cult followings, catering to strange markets and occupying fascinating little niches.
For example, a few months ago I met a guy who sells a
business where people paint glow in the dark stars on peoples' bedroom ceilings. Strangest thing I ever heard of, but apparently it's growing like gangbusters.

That's not a high school valedictorian type of business.
That's a 'Breakfast Club' business.

Seriously, that's what the web is really like. And
I'd like to give you something else to think about.
I've been to a dozen different countries on six
continents, cities all over the world. From
Sao Paulo Brazil to Changchun China, from Hannover
Germany to Johannesburg and Brisbane.

And you know what?

All big cities look basically the same. With
globalization happening at breakneck speed, they're
looking more and more the same with each passing year.
That's all well and good, but the more equal we all
are, the more we need to find a tribe that we can belong
to that's different from our neighbors. The more we
are like our neighbors, the more we eat at the same
McDonalds and live in the same apartment complex, the
more we want to create a new sense of identity in something unique.
The web is the easiest place for people to find that
tribe, that niche, that tiny community of like-minded
people.

So always remember, especially on the web, that you're
NOT looking for everyone. You're just looking for folks
who totally and completely relate to you on a specific
topic, passion or concern.

What do you call a niche that's so narrow that you
have to comb the entire world just to find a few hundred interested people? I didn't have a name for it, so I invented one: "nanoniche."

Nanoniches are very small, so narrow and spread so thin
that only occasionally do people even get together in
person. Our audience here at the X10 seminar is a nanoniche,
a mere 150 people who are hugging the edge of the curve.
Simon Chen, the organizer, has collected the pre-
conference calls for our seminar - all fresh, hot
material - and is giving it away.

More info at http://www.InfoMarketingSeminar.com

Stay tuned for more soundbytes in coming days...

Cheers, Mate!
Perry Marshall


Relate to anything here?? I'll admit it - the only sport I was ever good at was DODGEball :p I didnt date in high school... and had a 98 average in Trig. But hey - if being a GEEK puts you in the ranks with the likes of Perry Marshall... I wouldnt mind that title one bit ;)