I want to talk for a minute about bucking the trends. About getting people out of their comfort zones and about reinventing yourself in an interesting and intriguing way, in order to keep on the bleeding edge. If you look at the big names of the last 40 years, you see that one thing they have in common is that they went through phases. the Beatles worked the Mop-Top look for a while until they turned in to  bearded, Marching Band members. Madonna has changed her image plenty of times, remaining her look over and over again… from the flapper-nouveau bombshell look in Dick Tracy to Rave-lite rainbow look of Confessions on a Dance Floor, Madonna has reinvented herself consistently. By doing this she has kept people from becoming complacent, and they flock to her every transformation. The list goes on… Janet Jackson, Neil Young and many other performers have done this. Is there a way that you can mix things up while maintaining your integrity? Can you benefit from an interesting change?

I recently read a story about a man named Kyle MacDonald who, through a series of trades, bartered his way from a red paperclip to a become the owner of a house in Arizona. Read that again, people. This man took a worthless piece of office supply and exchanged it with other people’s more-valuable things to end up with a home. Mr. MacDonald’s story can be seen HERE.

This story has expert branding and resourcefulness written all over it. It represents everything I love about savvy representation and focusing of the niche market. Mr. MacDonald took advantage of something (people’s willingness to give away valuable things for items they alone have interest in) to propel himself upwards. To him I say well done. You inspired me with you ingenuity.