Jeremy Gutsche is an innovation keynote speaker, New York Times Bestselling author and the Chief Trend Hunter at TrendHunter.com.
In Jeremy's words:
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I founded Trend Hunter because deep down, all I ever wanted to be was an entrepreneur, but I could never find my own business idea. So I built a place where people from around the world could SHARE business ideas, hoping someone, somewhere would submit an idea to inspire me.
It turns out there were a lot of people looking for inspiration and Trend Hunter blossomed into something much bigger.
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Jeremy lives in Toronto Canada with a cute puppy AND his lovely successful wife. Jeremy Gutsche's wife Taylor Klick is CEO of Influence For Impact, an influencer marketing platform and marketing agency. Taylor Klick launched some of the world's most successful influencer campaigns, in the 250,000,000+ view range, including Adidas Parlay Ocean Plastic clothing. This sparked her interest in sustainable merchandise, and today she is a sustainable fashion leader and on the board director for Fashion Takes Action.
What is unique that's not in your bio?
I love interacting with people, brainstorming new ideas and thrill seeking. On the latter, I'm up for anything. So far I've been swimming with sharks, racing baja rally cars, jumping from planes, skiing off cliffs, bobsledding and motorcycle racing. Also, I have a short attention span. Also, I forget the question. What?
What's your favorite accomplishment?
I love everything about TrendHunter.com, and I'm most proud of the way that we have helped to connect a community of inspirational people.
How do you define cool?
Cool hunting isn't the search for what's popular. Cool hunting is the search for what's NOT popular yet. Once something becomes mainstream, its novelty and appeal is lost. Cool is unique, cutting edge and viral. Because cool is viral, marketers and product designers seek to attain it.
What is your secret to uncovering trends?
I like to hunt for Clusters of Inspiration. This might have you wondering why the Trend Hunter guy use a word like 'cluster' instead of 'trend'? Quite simply, the word 'trends' is to broad. It can refer to next fall's fashionable color, or macro-trends like the green movement, female buyers, consolidation, outsourcing, Web 2.0 and aging boomers. These trends are somewhat useful, but too generic to enable breakthrough thinking. Clustering is the art of identifying insights that are meaningful to your customer. To create clusters, you'll need to collect your observations from trend hunting and filter through the noise.
What do you enjoy most about Trend Hunter?
I've always been insatiably curious and obsessed with innovation. I am an entrepreneur at heart, although I spent years hunting for a business idea. In fact, I created Trend Hunter as a place where people could share business ideas, and I was hoping along the way that I would find my own idea...
Fortunately, Trend Hunter grew into the business idea itself. For this, I have been truly lucky because I feel like I am working on a hobby. To me Trend Hunter is an obsession and a passion, but most certainly not a job. I am passionate about our Trend Hunter community and I get really excited every time someone sends an email that we helped them to get inspired.
What is your favorite trend?
If this was a serious interview, I'd note that my favorite PRO Trend is NEXT BESTING, which we define as way the recession changed consumer purchasing, enabling us to *try* the next-best-option, instead of simply purchasing the market leading brand. I like this trend because it creates entrepreneurial opportunity. I'm always a fan of the little guy, and I love entrepreneurial creativity.
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What are your tips for writing a juicy post?
Find something ridiculously new that is edgy, bizarre and controversial.
How do you reset to be creative?
I let myself get lost in the trends at Trend Hunter. Although we advertise that the site gets ~40 million views, 1-2 million are actually from me. Basically, I like to expose myself to all the wonderfully brilliant innovations and along the way, I'll get inspired.
When I get an idea, I become very obsessive about it. This leads me to a zone where I will no doubt work through the night to finish what I started. I don't look at 'all-nighters' as a bad thing. For me, I have realized that the wee hours of the morning make me remarkably more productive, so I embrace that.
What inspires or excites you?
Creativity. Ambition. Randomness. The NEXT BIG THING.
Predict something awesome for 2020?
My Dad told me that mobile phones would be big... So I used to stick with that as my answer... But then CNN invited me to come talk about Trends in 2020, and I realized I'd have to come up with something pretty quick. That led me to digital newspapers, robots that cut your hair and emotion sensitive technology... If you want to watch, you can catch it all HERE.
