Do You Follow Trends or Spend Your Time Being Original?

well said- i will have to remember that one

 

I think it depends. I like to think I'm original, but in a lot of cases I'll go with whatever works. I guess that is selective use of systems to do the things I don't enjoy, so that it frees up time to do what I want in an original fashion.

 

I think being in the IM industry is original in itself - imagine how many more real estate agents there are in the world, or cashiers, or secretaries or or - the fact we all conduct business via the same gateway(s) it seems saturated (who am I kidding, it IS saturated), most people end up following crowds, and prove themselves as consumers more than marketers - the true originals are the ones selling ideas first, or simply monetizing them quietly.

Business owners offline would never sell a $7 secret to their success - they focus on business, monetizing goods/services/intel with the most grey hats and quietest monetization cycles out there. It hurts you none to utilize both, however being original is the only real way to make 'CEO' money instead of 'cashier' money.

I consider myself quite original - in fact to a fault sometimes however over the years the rep you build being a leader instead of a follower will outweigh simply knowing how to market/monetize. Sometimes staying off the computer for a week and just absorbing life whilst thinking about big business is MUCH more effective than any board, any new technique, or any promise out there.

This thing we call IM is still a job/career no matter how you look at it, if you can't have fun and be different or just yourself then you might as well just take tasks 9-5. We need the followers otherwise who would buy all these offers? And the more 'merchants' coming into the field we have, the more said competition or saturation there is. The faster you learn to become different and original, the faster you stop buying the newest turn-key dupe, and the faster your learning curve gets towards our one common aim - success (which comes from much more than money spikes alone).

TO BEING ORIGINAL!
NC.

 

Ditto, in fact, i said it with a greenie.

 

Originality is where all the money is at. Follow in other footsteps and you're just picking up scraps .

When you have a bunch of people criticizing what you're doing, you probably have a winner. I could give you a couple examples that people used to laugh at me for doing last year, but things have def. changed this year (things are still under wraps).

 

Trendwatching, I think is a good way to monitor and get ahead of the competition. You can be original by improving existing ideas and adding some of your own.

 

Original all the way. I follow what I want, wear what I want, cut my hair how I want, etc...

I have never followed anything, always been original. Grew up with hippie parents and I think that has a lot to do with it.