Planet Perry 25 Year Anniversary - Part 2

First 5 Trivia Hunt questions are up

Mel, Quick note before today's story: our Who Knows Planet Perry Best? trivia contest starts today. The first 5 questions are live right now, and 5 more drop every day through Friday. Click here to see the first 5 trivia questions! The top 10 scorers win a free month of RenAI and Planet Perry bragging rights! We'll announce the winners next Monday. Now, back to 2001... ~ When I pulled the rip cord, quit my job and struck out on my own, our finances were perilously tight. We were in debt to the tune of one year's income, paying a LOT of interest. We had gotten a 2nd mortgage to consolidate our bills a year before. Our house had an in-law apartment which fetched a few hundred bucks rent, which made it possible for us to afford a mortgage in the first place. 3 kids 4 and under. Two in diapers. 4 years before, I had been fired from my mfr's rep job which had been 2 years of baked potatoes and salsa. I had cult-deprogrammed myself from MLM.... And in so doing acquired a great deal of insight into how marketing and human beings actually operate. My current gig had been my first job that actually 'worked'. I had become "The Go To Guy" in the company – best illustrated by something Jim, one of our sales guys said to me. It was 7pm one night. He and I were working late, the only dudes in the office. Jim said, "Perry, do you realize this whole company revolves around you?" A conservative Nebraska "don't get too big for your britches" impulse zinged through my head. His remark instantly struck me as ego-stroking. I recoiled. "Now Perry... seriously. Every time I need to know something, you're the guy who knows the answer. A detail about a certain customer. The history of some email exchange. Which product to recommend for a situation. When the Goldmine database gets corrupted, you're the one that reindexes the files and fixes it. "The receptionist doesn't know all that. The COO doesn't know all that. The owner of the company doesn't know that. "Who invented DeviceNet boot camp? You did. Who went out and recruited every single one of our reps and distributors and knows all their names and which accounts they're selling to? You do. Who wrote all those white papers and magazine articles? You. "Perry, this whole company revolves around.... YOU!" Dang. He's right. I was the 29-year-old punk driving around in a rusty Toyota with 213,000 miles with a STANFORD bumper sticker on the back window from the previous owner, desperately hoping to get some kind of respect, to be taken seriously, to not be dismissed as just another ignorant 20-something nerd engineer who doesn't know how to sell anything. I had not yet learned when or how to put my cojones in a wheel barrow and assert my authority. Every month when it was time to turn in my magazine articles and get paid for them, it was a dogfight because the guy never quite adhered to our original $500 agreement and would arbitrarily say "Yeah, well that article isn't really worth $500.... I'll pay you $350." I always knew the next person I had to talk to after my negotiation with El Presidente was my wife, who was shuffling bills trying to pay the mortgage. Much as I hated it, THAT was my first serious "Learning how to ask for money" school. After I developed some callouses, I started to be good at it. I got really good at buying used $2K Toyotas with high miles and driving them another 80,000 miles. I was also good at wrapping exhaust pipes with muffler tape. And when you're "That guy" you don't have much room to negotiate. You get pushed around a lot. I knew stock option money was coming in the next few months, so if I could manage to make ends meet for the moment, I would get some more runway. I knew that I knew that I knew a few things. I knew that 1 page of advertising in our industry's trade magazines cost $3K to $6K. I knew I could write a really good 2-4 page magazine article for a client, with their byline, and get it published in one of those trade magazines, AT WILL. Because I knew the editors, they knew I was a good writer, and I met deadlines. So my client could get $6K to $12K worth of media exposure – but only needed to pay me say $1K or $2K. I knew editorial press exposure is more credible than advertising. I knew how to generate leads from those articles. I knew how to generate leads on the web. I knew my own tiny niche. And all the various players. Deep down I knew I was a "go to guy" and there aren't many of those. So somehow... this ought to have a fighting chance. Yesterday I mentioned my friend telling me to write a business plan. At some level I knew most business plans are BS. You have no idea what's going to come up. It's mostly fiction. But the list of ways I could make money written on the back of my business card in my back pocket was real. I knew a lot of people who could help me think through situations and offer good ways to solve problems. I already had an informal mastermind group in place – which is exactly where I got the advice to "Take the money and RUN RUN RUN." (Some of the best advice I've ever gotten from anybody.) And my wife knew somehow, through her woman's intuition, NOW was the time to make the leap. Dear reader, you may be 30 years old like I was then. Or you may be decades older than I am now. You may be young and inexperienced. Or you may have decades more wisdom, experience, resources and street cred than I EVER had. But either way – WE ARE ALL REINVENTING OURSELVES RIGHT NOW. EVERYTHING is in flux. It's R E A L L Y easy to remember those times with nostalgia and NOT remember how terrified I was at the time. There was NO guarantee whatsoever that it was all going to work out. None. The other night I headed over to the Riverside City Library. It's a lovely building on a riverfront. I hadn't been there in a long time. I sat down at a desk there, which brought a flashback from that exact time in 2001, two weeks after I'd quit my job. At that exact same desk 25 years ago, I had sat there biting my fingernails, hoping to land my very first paying client. Because when I quit my job, a TINY little ripple echoed through my professional network. "Hey, Perry left Synergetic!" I received a very finite number of phone calls of possible job offers. "Hey, why don't you come in for an interview." Just a very few. One company flew me down to Arkansas. I said, "How about instead of an employment situation, we do a 2 month project." I pitched them on a 60-day $15K project with a list of deliverables. I knew I could make ends meet on $7500/month. I remember coming back from Arkansas, sitting in that library hoping they would say yes, and just WAITING for their answer. I had done everything I could. So, the other night at the same library sitting at the same desk, I couldn't help but notice how similar NOW feels to THEN. 9/11 then; war in the Middle East now. Internet then; AI now. Little kids depending on me then; big kids depending on me now. Times of great uncertainty then; times of great uncertainty now. Times of great opportunity then; times of great opportunity now. I have great affection for the young man that I was, trying to make my way in the world; I'm proud of that young man for punching through his fear, resistance, insecurity and headtrash and driving forward. I have great affection for ALL entrepreneurs trying to make their way in the world; I'm so proud of so many in Planet Perry who have overcome immense obstacles... and who believe that wisdom is always available to those who ask for it. That's why I close most of my emails with "Seize the Day." Today only comes once. The perils are obvious. The real opportunities are not. Yet they are always lurking in there. They are always present. There is ALWAYS a need, a customer, a yearning, a bleeding neck, an ache. For every problem known to man there is a solution known to God. I'm not sure I've ever told the story of how that first client turned out. Watch your email box tomorrow for Part 3. And seize the day, Perry Marshall   P.S. Think you know Planet Perry? The first 5 trivia questions are live. Get the contest details, the rules, and today's questions here: [Click Here for Trivia Hunt Day 1] Not in the New RenAIssance Club yet? Here's where to join   ***NOTE: This email address isn't monitored! If you need help, please email: support@perrymarshall.com If you’d rather not receive *any* more emails from us, Unsubscribe Perry S. Marshall & Assoc 805 Lake Street #295 Oak Park, Illinois 60301 United States

Planet Perry 25 Year Anniversary - Part 1

Fun detail for long time Planet Perry residents inside

Mel,   25 years ago today, I walked out of my last job. To celebrate, we're running a trivia contest:                                         Who knows Planet Perry best? Starting Tuesday, we'll drop 5 new questions every day through Friday in our New RenAIssance Club Circle community. These aren't things you can Google. They come from 25 years of emails, newsletters, live events and stories told at the meeting after the meeting after the meeting. The top 10 scorers win a free month of RenAI and Planet Perry bragging rights  for the rest of your life!   We'll announce the winners next Monday.   Watch for tomorrow's email, or check in the Circle Community, for the link to the first questions.    But first, the story of how it all started...   ~   I had no idea when I rolled out of bed the morning of October 12 2001 that it would be the last day I would ever work a "job."   It was a month and a day after 9/11. Everyone was in mourning over the terrorists attacks. Absolutely freaked out. Waiting for the next building to crash to the ground.   Travel and conferences ground to a halt.   Purchase orders STOPPED.   American flags everywhere.   Everyone walking around in a haze.   No one had any idea when "normal" might return.   In the midst of this, my employer of 4 years was getting sold. Rumors flying. Murmurings behind closed doors. Everyone posturing and jockeying for position at the new company.   The new firm was offering me a job. A shabby offer, but in the midst of this dark chaos it was at least a job.   Laura said, "Perry, NOW is your chance. You've always wanted to strike out on your own. THIS is the time to strike out on your own."   I was bewildered. I started asking for input.   My friend Suzy Seay said, "Times of maximum uncertainty are times of maximum opportunity."   A guy whose nickname was "Quick Kill" told me, "Your old company No Longer Exists. It's like an ex-wife. It don't matter what she's doing or who she's seeing - you have a new life now. Take the money and RUN RUN RUN!   "...Or you can stick around and suffer."   On October 12 I let them know I wasn't accepting the job offer.   30 minutes later they watched me clean out my desk to make sure I didn't steal anything.   I was dismissed and ushered to the parking lot.   In my Amway days, they had "last day of work" parties. I imagined my last day of work being premeditated and choreographed.   NOPE.   I drove away with that company in my rear view mirror for the last time.   A friend told me I should write a business plan.   I had a business card in my wallet where I had written down a half dozen ways I could make money out on my own. That was my business plan.   A week later we opened a bank account for "Perry S Marshall and Associates."   Indeed it WAS a time of maximum uncertainty. I was scared and excited.   We had 3 kids age 4 and under. Our finances tight as a fiddle string. 3 months before I had bought a car with $90 per month car payments. That was stretching us to our limits.   We borrowed money from friends to make ends meet, cuz the promised stock options were still a few months off.   The saga continues tomorrow......   Perry Marshall   P.S.: You know what?   NOW feels strangely similar to then. I've had that thought 50 times in the last few months.   Just today, someone said the current "nobody can tell what's happening next" vibe feels a lot like the weeks after 9/11.   Where's AI going? Nobody knows. Where's geopolitics going? Nobody knows. Where's the economy going? Nobody knows.   Suzy Seay is STILL right 25 years later:   Maximum uncertainty = maximum opportunity.   NOW.   Fortune favors the bold and the agile.   P.P.S. Think you know Planet Perry? Watch for tomorrow's email. It'll have the link to the contest details, the rules, and the first 5 questions in the Circle community.   Not in the New RenAIssance Club yet? Here's where to join   ***NOTE: This email address isn't monitored! If you need help, please email: support@perrymarshall.com If you’d rather not receive *any* more emails from us, Unsubscribe Perry S. Marshall & Assoc 805 Lake Street #295 Oak Park, Illinois 60301 United States

Perry Epistle: Pills, ultramarathons & a cheating husband

He came within one signature of prison for ten years.

Mel,   A guy paid upfront for a year of Roundtable and showed up at our January meeting.   He was running a fast-growing business. He had sparked a mini-movement. It was HOT. Men from all over the world were coming to his events.   At dinner we fell into a feverish, intense conversation. He told me his mercurial entrepreneur story.   He said:   “I had a mortgage, real estate and insurance operation. For the first time in my life I was doing reasonably well.   Then Lehman Bros shut down and the 2008 Global Financial Crisis struck like a thunderbolt.   The problem wasn’t just the financial crisis.   I didn’t understand markets. I didn’t understand trends. I didn’t understand preserving capital or how to build a durable company.   When rates changed and banks stopped lending, the only business world I knew evaporated.   All the debt was in my name.   I came within one signature of something that could have sent me to prison for ten years.   I turned to alcohol. Drugs. Pills.   I had an affair. My wife was pregnant with our 2nd daughter, and she was deeply angry with me.   I started running marathons and ultramarathons. It was an escape. My wife told me I was literally running away from my problems.           I have no money. I have no network. I have no nothing.   But out there running, I started experiencing stillness.   I started asking spiritual questions. Those questions eventually led me out of a prison I’d been trapped in.   Later, I stood up at an event and told people the truth.   I had lost everything. I had almost no money left. I was fighting a pill addiction. I had cheated on my wife.   I began to confess my entire ugly reality.   That became work I would later do with men.   “And Perry, I would lay in my bed staring at my ceiling in a cold panic and listen to your Renaissance Club mp3s. You were talking people through their problems and dispensing doses of encouragement.   “Somehow that gave me strength.   “You and I have never met before today, and you didn’t know it, but you helped me through the most excruciating spot I’ve ever been through in my life.   “I simply came here today to express my gratitude. If this was the only conversation we ever had, it would be worth the travel and expense just to say Thank You.”   Dear reader, an entrepreneur can’t go to the church potluck and complain about your $600,000 tax bill.   And you can’t tell ‘em about your affair, your pill addiction, or how close you came to going to jail for 10 years.   The entrepreneur road can be a lonely one.   But we’re only as sick as our secrets. And the truth will set you free.     Perry Marshall   ***NOTE: This email address isn't monitored! If you need help, please email: support@perrymarshall.com Not interested in this topic? Click here to be removed from the Epistles of Planet Perry series. If you’d rather not receive *any* more emails from us, Unsubscribe Perry S. Marshall & Assoc 805 Lake Street #295 Oak Park, Illinois 60301 United States

Beat your best ad or money back (Live Presentation)

You don’t know his name, but you know his company…

Mel,   Beat Your Best Ad Or Double Your Money Back September 22 and 29 Register Here   Years ago, I ran a Swiss Army Knife workshop in London. Business owners brought their real ads, their real numbers, their real problems, and we ran them through the Swiss Army Knife blades, one at a time, live, no dress rehearsal. One guy sat down for his turn. Nobody in the room knew who he was. I certainly didn't. His business was in diapers. Small enough that nobody would have picked him out of the crowd. We ran his business through the blades the same way we ran everyone else's. And it identified the real reason his customers were showing up. Not the reason he'd have guessed if you'd asked him that morning. His name was Nigel Eccles. His company was FanDuel. You've heard of it now. Back then, it was just another business with a founder trying to find the words for what he already knew but couldn't quite say. That was the power of Swiss Army Knife more than a DECADE ago.  And now that Swiss Army Knife resides inside SuperConductor… and now that it is connected to all my most powerful business principles… and now that it can be connected to all your most important business processes… and now that it can develop a deep understanding of who you are and how you run your business??? Well, it’s way more powerful than I ever dreamed it could be.  So powerful I’m willing to bet double your money back that it will beat your best ad.  On September 22, we're not running one hotseat. We're running the whole room, live, on your ad, your subject line, your headline. $199 gets you both sessions, September 22 and 29.  It also gets you your first month of SuperConductor, and everything that comes with it: New RenAIssance membership, direct access to Scott Schang, and our Circle Community where members troubleshoot each other's businesses in real time. SuperConductor is $199 per month after that, cancel anytime.  If what comes out of it doesn't beat your control, tell me. I'll send you double your money back. That's $398.   [Register Here and let's beat it!]   Seize the Day, Perry   ***NOTE: This email address isn't monitored! If you need help, please email: support@perrymarshall.com Not interested in this topic? Click here to be removed from this email series. If you’d rather not receive *any* more emails from us, Unsubscribe Perry S. Marshall & Assoc 805 Lake Street #295 Oak Park, Illinois 60301 United States