We have a cat and a kitten. The cat is about 6 years old, and the kitten is about 9 months. And all that kitten wants is to get the big cat’s attention.
She tries playing with her toys. Chasing her. Zooming all around. Even tried to steal her food.
But the big cat isn’t interested. She just keeps ignoring her.
Do you ever feel that way about marketing? You try a whole bunch of different things, but nothing seems to get your audience’s attention?
So one day the little cat tried to take the big cat’s spot on the bed. That’s what did it. That’s what got her attention. The big cat was suddenly interested.
It seems the key was latching onto something the big cat was already interested in and then trying to get in on that.
That’s why riding a wave or incorporating a trend in what you’re doing can be a powerful marketing tool. Because people are already interested and looking for it.
So with that, I want to share the top 4 trends I think are defining 2025 as they relate to coaching and consulting:
Trend 1: AI (Duh)
I don’t think AI is going to replace coaching and consulting just yet, but I do think people are super curious about it. And I think it has a huge potential to help us save time, automating various parts of our businesses like content creation and back office management. But I think the real power of AI is that we can reinvest that time savings into client-facing activities and create better outcomes for the people we help. But it’s not just about how AI can help us, can you think of a way you might be able to use AI to help your clients? For instance, I’m in the process of building a custom GPT that will help generate ideas for thought-leadership content that I want to share with my clients in Business Breakthrough.
Trend 2: Desire for Community
I think the reciprocal of the AI trends is that people are craving more connection. So I think that can be a real opportunity. In what ways can you incorporate ways to connect for your clients? Masterminds? Live calls? Quarterly IRL meetups? Off-sites? Retreats? Adding a connection component to your already existing program might be what closes your next client.
Trend 3 – Stress and Chaos
There’s a lot going on out there. I think it’s really important to acknowledge the impact of what’s going on externally, regardless of your niche. It might be worth considering slowing the pace of your program or building in rest and recovery moments.
Trend 4 – Faster Wins, Smaller Commitments
The attention recession isn’t going away. If the transformation you offer is over the long term, I’m not recommend you collapse it. But I am recommending that you build in small wins whenever possible, and potentially put one of those up front in your program and talk about it in your marketing. What can they accomplish in 2 weeks or 30 days?
In the latest episode of The GenXpert show I talk about the 6 niches that are always profitable, but also about how you can make other niches more profitable either by using trends, like we’ve talked about here, or repositioning them towards something people are willing to buy.
