#NerdsUnite: Inside the marketing mind of @MyMelodie (There are Plenty of Fish at Comic Con)

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Melodie. I met her when she invited me to come and crash on her couch for the night in the San Dizzle and she is for reals one of the nicest chicas ever. She's a fellow marketer and wanted to use this space to share her thoughts on life, love, and all things nerd. Hit it Melodie! </editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @MyMelodie

Any reader of this site knows that nerds dominate the online dating scene. I mean our very own @JenFriel has gone on over 109 okcupid dates in 9 months and even survived getting suspended from OKCupid! Our beautiful @itsmejoolie had a big dating adventure prompted by OKCupid and, we got @casetines , A Dude in the OKC Corral and not to mention the lovely @itsjessweaver met her husband on Plenty of Fish.

Online dating uses math and other nerdy algorithms to match people up, in addition it gives you a chance to screen people based on your criteria and find out how tech and online savvy someone is even before you meet them. Sounds pretty rad to me! Oh and I recently learned Online Dating Is Now Officially A More Popular Way To Meet People Than Bars And Clubs! How does this relate to me you say? Well I’ve got an EPIC online dating story for you. Even more epic than when I found out I was targeted on a craigslist missed connection.

A couple years ago I set up a profile on Plenty of Fish. Not taking it too seriously I didn’t really log on much or go on many dates through that site. I sent a few emails back and forth with one particular dude after he sent me a fairly generic note: “Hi, would you be interested in talking and perhaps sharing date night this Friday. I'm new to this and quite interested in having fun with the new venture! Take care” (Note: Plenty of Fish deletes old messages and I no longer have an account so I can’t actually log on to screen shot messages. The messages also don’t show up in email notifications so you have to actually log in to retrieve them. However, I did copy and paste this text and found it in my email inbox). I don’t normally respond to generic messages but I recall being intrigued by this dude’s profile so I messaged him back asking him more about what he did for a living. He explained to me how he was starting his own business and then proceeded to ask me out again for that Friday night (Our messages were exchanged on a Monday). I intended to reply back but since I wasn’t taking the site too seriously it wasn’t a priority and completely slipped my mind to log back on to set up a date for Friday. At this point I had giving him zero personal information so he had no way of emailing or calling me outside of Plenty of Fish.

Fast Forward to Friday of that same week and Comic Con is in town! Comic Con comes to San Diego every summer. Pretty much the largest nerd/geek fest ever! I’m talking over 130,000 nerds and geeks all in one place! My friend had a 4 day pass and couldn’t make it that Friday so she let me borrow her pass. I took the trolley down to Comic Con and spent about 2 hours walking around the expo hall in what can be described as Halloween on crack. Nerdy costumes galore!

The Gaslamp (Downtown San Diego) is booming during Comic- Con. As soon as I stepped out of the convention center, I see a fairly long line at the Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream Truck. The line keeps growing.

Dude behind me in line: What’s going on here?
Me: I think they’re giving out free ice cream

We ask the person in front of us and it’s confirmed. Free ice cream! Who could resist that deal? The dude behind me in line strikes up a conversation with me.

Dude: Were you just at Comic-Con?
Me: Yep. My friend let me borrow her pass for the day so I went to check it out for a couple hours. What about you?
Dude: Yep. I was just there too. Same situation, my friend had a 4 day pass but had to work today so she let me borrow her pass. Me: Cool what did you think? Dude: It was crazy I’ve never seen anything like it.
Me: Yeah I’ve been the last few years just for sightseeing. I always love seeing the costumes.
Dude: (Changes subject from Comic Con) So are you from San Diego?
Me: Yeah, I grew up here and have spent most of my life in San Diego. How about you?
Dude: My parents live here and I just got back from traveling and teaching English in Thailand for a year.
Me: That sounds like a cool experience! What do you plan to do next?
Dude: I’m starting my own business in the restaurant industry. We partner with restaurants and offer a wine club people can join so they can avoid corkage fees at restaurants when bringing their own wine.
Me: That company sounds really familiar, I think I’ve met someone from your company before.
Dude: Oh really? I have one other partner but we really haven’t launched yet.
Me: Hm…I swear I’ve talked to someone recently who works for a company that does exactly what you’re describing. Are you in the Chamber of Commerce? Or any other networking groups?
Dude: Nope
Me: Weird, I know I’ve met someone from your company before.

Finally we make it to the front of the line for ice cream! We continue standing on the street and talking while eating our ice cream.

Dude: There is a similar company in Las Vegas that recently ran a Groupon deal. That might be where you heard of it.
Me: Yeah I am on Groupon’s mailing list, must be it So at this point we both convince ourselves that I’ve never heard of his company. Even though I still know that I have. Either that or I was going crazy!
Dude: (As we’re finishing our ice cream) So what are you doing for the rest of the evening?
Me: I was going to grab some food and check out the concert at Petco Park.
Dude: Sounds fun, I’m pretty hungry, ice cream doesn’t cut it. Want to go grab some food at Happy Hour?
Me: Sure! Let’s do it.

We started walking around to find a place for Happy Hour. We see the Palm Restaurant so decide to go there. We sit at the bar, order a couple appetizers, drinks and our random meeting at Comic-Con has basically turned into a date! There is nothing nerdier than meeting at Comic Con, right?! Our conversation continues. We discuss our hobbies, backgrounds, places we’ve traveled to. At this point I’ve probably spent over an hour with the dude I just met in line at an ice cream truck outside of Comic Con. He starts talking about his business again and his dog.

Dude: Do you have any pets?
Me: No. I love animals but don’t have time for pets right now. Do you? Dude: Yeah I have a dog. I really missed him when I was in Thailand.

All of a sudden if dawns on me as to why everything he was telling me sounds oh-so- familiar.

Me: OMG You messaged me on Plenty of Fish! That’s how I know you, that’s how I heard about your company because you described to me in an email what you did for a living and how you’re starting your own business in the restaurant industry!
Dude: Holy Shit! Are you serious?
Me: You started talking about how you missed your dog when you were in Thailand and I remember you saying that in an email to me!
Dude: Wait a minute I totally recognize you now! I remember all our emails.
Me: WHOA I even remember your last email to me was asking me out for Friday which is TODAY! Sorry I never replied, I don’t check that site regularly. But apparently I didn’t need to since we’re still out together on Friday!
Dude: No worries, I understand how it is. Look I’m even wearing the same shirt as my profile photo (Orange shirt)
Me: This is crazy! I can’t believe out of the thousands of people at Comic Con we would end up here together.
Dude: If anything, this gives us a great story to tell.
Me: I’ve had some pretty crazy things happen to me but this tops the list. We’re both still in awe that the universe brought us together in the way that it did through random occurrences that I guess aren’t at all random.

We finish out food/drinks, pay and walk over to Petco Park where there was a concert going on to catch the end of it.

The pseudo date was ending so he asks me how I got downtown.

Me: I took the trolley.
Dude: I’m happy to give you a ride back if you’d like.
Me: Sure I’m parked at the Trolley station.

He drops me off at the Trolley station and we say our goodbyes. We were both still in shock by our meeting. I mean what are the odds of meeting in the midst of 130,000?! Not only just meeting but actually talking, hitting it off, deciding to continue hanging out together that same night?! Now you’re probably wondering what happened after our epic meeting….Oh the suspense…..NOTHING! Absolutely nothing! I believe that everything happens for a reason so the reason for me meeting the dude was for the sole purpose of giving me this amazing story! And it really is true; there are Plenty of Fish at Comic Con!

#thatisall

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