Ravi’s Rants

Remember Daredevil? He is the blind, avenging lawyer who fights the bad guys in the court of law during the day, and bashes them up on the streets at night.

I am kinda like that.

More like Clark Kent, actually - I slog away quietly at my day job during the day. It’s like being in a Kryptonite cubicle.

I come back home at night, and my strength starts to return as my children run into my arms, my 6-pack abs return, my muscles start tightening up, my underwear and my pants interchange positions , and my tee starts splitting at the seams as the night gets older.

And when I finally sit down at my computer after putting my kids to bed, and hit the “Ctrl-M” button (’check mail’) in my Eudora client, I’m invincible! I’m untouchable, I’m unbeatable! I’m the King of the World!

As the clock hits 1 AM, I suddenly hear the voice of my mother calling me back inside the house on a nice sunny afternoon, asking me to stop playing cricket with my friends, to come back in and do my homework; “Right now”, she says!

Oh, how I hated having to stop playing - only to go inside to do homework! Ugh!

I feel the same way at the thought of having to stop working on my site, on my blog, on my newsletter, on my scripts - only to go back to bed so that I get just enough sleep to get through another day of “work”. Ugh!

Now you know what it feels like when you’ve found your niche - you feel like you’re Superman!

I am Superman. Every single day. 7 PM - 7 AM.

Go on, it’s now your turn to be not just Superman - it’s your turn to be whatever it is that you want to be.

Not sure if you have skills that will actually make you money?

I was watching this show the other day, on the History channel with my 7-yr old daughter, where they showed one of the first Titanic expeditions ever - right from planning to execution. It was simply mind-blowing.

They had brought in this expert diver who specialized only in “ship-wreck diving”. How much more specialized can a niche get?

Note that he wasn’t just a “diver”, not a “deep sea” diver, not a “scuba” diver, not a “explorer” diver, not a “researcher” diver - he was a “ship-wreck” diver! And he dived only to explore ship-wrecks! Now it’s entirely possible that he did other kinds of diving too for a living, but notice how he had “positioned” himself - as an expert “ship-wreck diver”.

And when the owner of the expedition wanted an expert diver who was also an expert at ship-wrecks, they simply had to get this guy on board - and they did get him, paying him whatever fees he may have demanded.

Now don’t go crazy and move to Bermuda and start looking for sunken ships and planes . But do be assured that whatever “crazy”, “weird”, “interesting”, “worthless” (or whatever it is that the “others” have used to describe the) skill or talent you may have, it is definitely marketable.

It is not a question of “whether” your skills can be monetized - it is a question of “if” you “get it” that it can indeed be monetized - and most importantly “when” you will do something about it.

So when?

He’s the man who is believed to have invented the word “Viral Marketing idea virus”, among many other powerful marketing concepts like “sneezers”, “worldview purple cow” and “Permission Marketing”.

The author of six bestsellers, including Permission Marketing, an Amazon Top 100 bestseller for a year and a Fortune Best Business Book. His newest book, All Marketers Are Liars, has already made the Amazon Top 100 and has inspired its own blog.

Seth’s own Yoyodyne, an interactive direct marketing company, was acquired by Yahoo! in 1998. He holds an MBA from Stanford, but his street-smart-marketing is hard-hitting.

In this video, he gives a presentation at Google! What an unbelievable honor! Don’t miss this one - it is about 48 minutes long, but his extraordinary insights and his unusual angle will knock your socks off.