Niche Down
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Randy Womack and Melissa Swisher for your friendship and partnership.
RIP Mark Labow.
Thank you to everyone who loves me. Most days I feel like the luckiest guy on earth. In no particular order I’d also like to thank: Mike Eyre, Ryan and Amy O’Donovan, and Colby Barr, Ann Miro Ko, Bruce Cleveland, Peggy Burke and Dennis Boyle, Duncan Davidson, Paul Martino, Karin Hibma, Doug and Christine Merritt, Norm Francis, Chris Peacock, Greg Malpass, Paul Holland, Ann Morhauser, Dr. Darold Treffert, Sarah Churchill, Doug and Denise McCullagh, Janet Matsuda, Deb Wolf, Lena and Keith Teboul, Mark Allen, Dr Tina Seelig, Jeff Denholm, The real “Chris Lochhead” in Ontario, Canada, Dr. Giora Yaron, Mark Wayland, Jordan French, Richard Bronson, Rock Thomas, Jen Groover, Kevin Maney, Rich Novak, Doug Haut, John and Mark Cronin, and Linda Campione, Suzy Strutner, Kendall Dee Fisher, Ranga Bodla, Jennifer Smith, Kyli Singh and Laine Soble, Ever Gonzalez, Dr. James Kelley, Moe Abdou, John Lee Dumas, Brian Ascher and Bryan Roberts, Darryl Dickens, Paul Maher, Elie Kanaan, Sue Barsamian, Mike and Linda Damphousse, Peter Goldie, and Scott Broady, Pat Grady, Matt Miller, Blair Shane, Jess Lee and Doug Leone, Erik Weihenmayer, Jon Devore, Adam West (Batman!), Van Halen, Robert Earl Keen, Lyle Lovett, Leonard Cohen, The Ramones, Spinal Tap, The Big Lebowski and The Church of the Latter Day Dude, The Tragically Hip, and of course, Tom Waits.
From Heather:
Thank you to my husband, Joe Collins, for allowing this book project to infringe on our weekend rendezvous and to steal time from my usual spring-weekend tasks, like taming the perennials. You were uncharacteristically restrained about your grumbling for more Heather time.
Writing a book has never been a life goal, and I am grateful to my awesome, larger-than-life co-author Christopher for turning it into one and for pushing me totally out of my comfort zone — so far out that I think I have substantially expanded the boundaries! I would have never taken on this assignment without your peripatetic coaxing, and I appreciate your unfettered faith in me. Thanks for the many chuckles and for teaching me how to accept a compliment. I love looking at the world through your fresh and fuckslexic eyes. (When can I do it again?)
Thanks to my parents, Beth and Bill Richardson, and Gerald Clancy, for teaching me the sort of discipline needed to take on a project like this, but for also valuing creativity and nurturing my inner writer from a very, very, very early age. To my brothers, Stephen and Colin, for making me a proud big sister and for bestowing me with the title, “Auntie Heather.”
Thanks to the Green Ladies for putting up with my grumpiness (and absences) over the six months it took to bring Niche Down to life, especially my newfound-ish kindred spirit, Janet Ross, whose encouragement kept me going through many a dark writing session. I am so blessed that you are in my life, and I appreciate your feedback along the way. (I feel Wayne smiling down on you every time we are together!) Thanks also to Tamra Coleman, whose heart is larger than her smile— and that is saying a lot! You have no idea how hugely encouraging your positive world view is to everyone you touch. Well, maybe you do, but that’s not why you live that way.
To my sisters in HeartStrings Quartet (Trish Martini, Carole Harrison and Elizabeth Harris), thank you for allowing my writer’s block to frequently interrupt our rehearsals. Singing with the three of you enriches my soul in ways that I cannot express, except through our music.
To the world’s best-ever team at GreenBiz, a huge thank you for giving me the space on weekends and evenings to complete this “side project” amid so much change for our organization. So many of the examples validate our world view that clean energy and the entire field of corporate sustainability are wide open for entrepreneurs who realize that saving the planet and making a profit are not mutually exclusive strategies. What a wonderful niche!
Finally, thanks to all the niche-minded entrepreneurs who have captured our imagination since our childhoods and who literally inspired this book in the first place. Whether you’re a legend or a legend-in-the-making, we’re incredibly privileged to share your world view.
About The Authors
Christopher Lochhead
The Marketing Journal calls Christopher Lochhead “one of the best minds in marketing.” Fast Company calls him a “human exclamation point.” NBA legend Bill Walton says he’s “a quasar.”
And The Economist calls him “off-putting to some.”
Lochhead hosts the acclaimed “dialogue podcast” “Legends & Losers,” producer of the “6 Minutes of Legendary” podcast and is co-author with Heather Clancy of Niche Down: How to Become Legendary by Being Different and the Harper Collins “instant classic”: Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets.
A former three-time, Silicon Valley public company CMO (Mercury Interactive, Scient and Vantive), he’s been called a “godfather of category design.”
Christopher is living happily ever after in Santa Cruz, California, with a wonderful woman, six hens and two wild cats. He can often be found surfing, drinking whiskey or having a very good time.
Heather Clancy
Heather Clancy is an award-winning journalist specializing in transformative technology and innovation. Her articles have appeared in Entrepreneur, Fortune, The International Herald Tribune and The New York Times.
She was the launch editor for the Fortune Data Sheet, the magazine’s newsletter dedicated to the business of technology.
As editorial director for GreenBiz.com, Heather chronicles the role of technology in enabling clean energy, sustainable business strategy and the low-carbon economy.
When she isn’t writing, you can find Heather digging in her garden in Northern New Jersey, singing a cappella or scuba diving with her husband.