Magic Marketing Center

Sometimes I just need to geek out.

Today’s one of those days.

Don’t get me wrong. I love performing, I love magic,  I still get a huge kick from making kids, moms, dads, families, teachers, and so on evermore laugh their butts off.  Being onstage brings some seriously major joy into my life.

And I love marketing and the study thereof. I’m constantly reading everything I can find on sales,  copywriting, web strategies, crafting a great offer, and so forth.

Yet I still find software technology unceasinglyinteresting.

One of my many side ventures is an Open Source Conference that WILL be happening this coming September in Sydney, Australia. Part of my job (besides providing evening entertainment) is the overall communication strategy. And that involves some research, etc. into current trends in Open Source software.

That leads me to the subject line for this message. The “declaration of independence” document for the Open Source movement was an essay written by Eric Raymond entitled, “The Cathedral and the Bazaar.”

In this essay, Raymond lays out 19 foundational principles of creating free software through the process of collaboration. It’s techie, it’s geeky, yet it’s still full of some very pertinent lessons that I believe every one in business needs to consider.

Let’s start with principle #1:

“Every good work of software starts by scratching a developer’s personal itch.”

Think this doesn’t apply to you? It absolutely does and BIG TIME.

Change a few words:

“Every good work of magical performance starts by scratching a magician’s personal itch.”

It’s all personal, isn’t it?  If you aren’t passionate about what you’re doing, that will show through.

This doesn’t negate the adage, “market first, product second.”  You need to define who you will target with your services – and THEN develop those based on that market.

But greatness will emerge if what you’re targeting scratches something that matters to you personally. If you’re just slapping together a program for a market you don’t care about just to make a buck… you won’t produce anything worth selling.

Here’s another rule from Raymond’s essay:

“Release early. Release often. And listen to your customers.”

Doesn’t require any rewording whatsoever.  It’s better to be prolific than perfect. Get stuff out there – whether your shows or your marketing – and give the market a chance to help you make it better.  Don’t sit on it until it’s “perfect” – it won’t get there on it’s own.

There’s many other great ideas in this essay so if I’ve generated some interest, look it up and check it out.

Here’s the bottom line: keep your eyes open to brilliant ideas in places where you might not expect to find them.  Software essays may seem dry, but there’s some nuggets of business and marketing gold there.

Keep learning, keep pushing, keep moving forward.

–Jack Turk