Soul Proprietor - Don’t blend, set the trend

I have a hidden super power: spotting musical talent and trends. Like Richie Finestra (my spirit animal) in HBO’s Vinyl (my newest obsession), I can sniff out what’s hot long before it is. Truthfully, I should have been an A&R person.

For example, I was into punk when it was still “scary”, way before Green Day made it palatable for the masses. I had to special order the albums I wanted because the local record store didn’t carry them. The owner would look at me with a mixture of shock and concern and ask “are you sure you want this, kid?” He didn’t understand why the hell a thirteen year old would be listening the Sex Pistols when Kansas and Styx were all the rage.

I didn’t want that. I wanted the forbidden fruit. I wanted what’s exciting, not what was on constant rotation (boring!).

I wanted the new stuff. The stuff no one else was doing.

I still do.

Look, I don’t have any musical talent. I can’t hold a tune to save my life and my rhythm is pathetic. But that has not hindered me from being able to see what’s popping – and what’s no longer in vogue. I have an uncanny eye – and ear.

My finger is always on the pulse.

I prefer to get in on the goods before they are popular – and then jump off to the next thing when it becomes too mainstream.

Because the problem is that when things become mainstream it often produces cheap carbon copies of the original. Those copies are rarely as dynamic or exciting as the first iteration (ex: compare the Sex Pistols to the copycat punk bands out there).

If you’re going to riff of some other jam, you’ve got to innovate, not imitate. You’ve got to undo it.

Good musicians know this. They know that everything, even things that have been done before, can be redone, reworked, recycled, reimagined. Rappers sample music all the time but then redo the entire thing so it sounds completely different. They like to tear it all apart until it’s a new original. It’s exciting.

Cloning, on the other hand, is boring. Redundant. Or as Madonna said: “reductive.”

My favorite trendsetter of all time was the late David Bowie. He was a true chameleon. Always changing his look, his sound, all of it. He went against the grain and what was popular. He set the tone for what would be popular. He had VISION.

I came across this quote from him in the April issue of Bazaar magazine: “I was never interested in being a rock star. I’ve always seen music as a way of exploring things I’m interested in: Kabuki, the avant-garde – whatever takes my fancy.”

He was doing his music not because he wanted to be a rock star – he was expressing what was in him, in his soul.

Now let that sink in for a minute.

Like the music industry, there are trends and rock stars in the online business world. And for every one of those, there are a million wannabes, trying to glom on and duplicate the same thing.

Except they can’t quite do it.

For example, look at Marie Forleo. She did her B School thing, got huge, and the next thing you know, there are a million Marie Forleo clones (well, maybe not that many but plenty enough), looking like her, speaking like her, and selling the exact same thing, right down the same colors she uses on her site. Except those clones usually don’t end up with same level of success. That’s because the public knows the real deal and can spot a knockoff.

Which begs the question: why on earth would you want to jump on a trend or try to be an imitation of someone else’s brand? Do you think it’s the quick path to making big bucks – or are you doing it because it’s really in your heart + soul?

If your motive is the former, it’s time to hit the pause button and think WWDBD? What Would David Bowie Do? (If he’s not your thang, pick another innovator you dig: Prince, Madonna, Kendrick Lamar, Andy Warhol, Beyonce, Die Antwoord, etc.)

What would an innovator do?

Would they blindly follow the latest rage? Would they emulate someone else’s success because they assume it will give them the same?

I highly doubt that.

An innovator is always going to be looking outside their industry, getting inspiration and ideas elsewhere. Their focus is on evolution. Mixing things up and shaking things up. They don’t imitate – they create.

Operate like that.

Because it is better to buck the trends than to indiscriminately follow one, even if you are lead to believe that “this is the way to go”. Jump off the brand-wagon when it gets too full. When everyone zigs, you zag.

Aim to be a rockstar in your industry, not a one-hit wonder counterfeit of someone else’s swagger.

Be Elvis, not the Elvis impersonator.

Don’t blend – set the trend.

Blessings,
Theresa