My Themes for 2025

7 directions for my reading, writing and exploration in this potentially strange year

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

Instead of creating a set of predictions for 2025 I’m going to lay out some themes that I’ll be leaning on to guide me this year. Call them content pillars (if you’re a content strategy nerd), call them “beats”. VCs have investing “hypotheses” about the future that guide their investments and business strategists have “Theory of Growth”.

So, as CEO of Me, Inc I should have something to guide my thinking, while staying as open minded about everything else.

Key assumptions for 2025: I’m working (reading, writing, planning) with the following assumptions:

• AI will drive change faster than you thought. Abundant, easily accessible super intelligence is right around the corner.

• It’s going to be a strange year. The economy will be “fine”. Not awesome like the last couple years, not terrible. Folks seem to be waiting for a black swan event or some shoe to drop. There will be some anxious eyes on inflation, unemployment and interest rates. We all want mortgage rates to go down. And, you know, Washington DC.

• Businesses will start investing more. We’ll get unstuck from the weird 2023 and 2024.

• The creative agency model is falling apart. More on that later. But here are incredibly good creative/strategy shops available to just about anyone. Sometimes the best shops are 1 person. Just about everybody will be looking at interim, fractional, contract or flex work at some point soon.

• No one really knows what works in brand building anymore. They’ll say they do, but they don’t.

• It’s an incredible time to be an investor. Fortunes will be made in the next 10 years by VCs. Individual investors have never had better tools, but they should stick with the major index funds. It’s going to be bumpy.

• Political writing, WWE-approach to covering Washington and the upheaval in the media landscape is making us all nuts, so we’re going to be told to avoid it. Social media is the new tobacco. We’ll all survive and, over time, prosper.

• Everyone needs a little bit of kindness and support, so basically, we all need to be cool to each other.

My core idea this year: Staying human/humane as the pace of AI driven change picks up. Now more than ever, leaders will need to be adaptive, rational, creative, empathetic, curious. The tech will keep changing faster and the options will be overwhelming, but we can develop ourselves to be ready, resilient, and optimistic. Us at our best: in a balance of sorts, on the toes, eyes up, full heart, etc.

So, as I look ahead to 2025, I’ll be focusing on the following themes.

• Gen X Leadership - There’s a relatively quiet generation between the Boomers that are retiring and the millennials who are moving into key leadership roles. There’s not a ton of discussion about the GenX leaders, like me, that lead and work across so many generations. Caring for our Boomer/Traditionalist parents, parenting our Millennial or GenZ kids, managing or working with everyone. X’ers are also dealing with pressing practical matters like retirement planning, paying for college, launching kids, leadership succession, and figuring out a post-career work/like balance. It’s our turn in the barrel.

• Building range as a leader - It’s an incredibly interesting time to be a leader, but the expectations have never been higher. But, most of us are on our own when it comes to skill development and “leveling up”. The conditions for impact are there: Amazing tools, plenty of business opportunities, global markets, dynamic competitive landscapes, access to world class talent. But the headwinds are real: Too much change in tools and methodologies, cultural rot/”toxic” workplace issues, PE firms hollowing out great companies, generational expectations, etc. Leaders must become learning experts and prioritize their own development planning.

• Marketing transformation redux - Just about every marketing department will have to remake itself in the next 5 years (again!!) as AI drives intense, fast change in how we work, what we do and what we use to get our jobs done. Luckily, there is some “prior art,” lessons gained from previous digital transformation efforts. We might have to dust off our Powerpoint decks from 2004 and remind folks that we’ve been through a couple versions of “Marketing Transformation” and we can avoid mistakes from the first couple times.

• “Classics” from Marketing Experts - We need less hacks, more wisdom. At a time when we’re drowning in advice and recommendations from “thought leaders” there’s real value in going back to some “classic” thinkers to get grounded. The present rhymes with the past and Peter Drucker talking about the revolution of “knowledge workers” has value for us today. Tom Peter’s focus on excellence should be relevant to us now, even though no one really has time for excellence. Rosabeth Moss Kanter can help us avoid the mistakes of the past.

• Cultural Stuff - There are some incredibly good writers offering fun and challenging takes on the culture around us (books, music, art, media, travel, architecture). And, they’re writing about the way society is changing through the lens of cultural artifacts. I’m not interested in memes per se, but I am seeking ways to make sense of the dramatic cultural shifts that are happening right now as generational friction and economic realities create tension at work.

• Investing and Finance - It’s personally interesting and I believe looking at company financials is a great way to understand how business strategies and business culture is changing. No one should time the market, but some wonderful public businesses are emerging.

• Reclaiming My Attention - We are what we pay attention to. 25 years of living very online has hollowed out my ability to focus for long periods of time and I want that skill back. We’re in a 1 to infinity battle against trillion dollar companies fracking our eyeballs and brains for profit. Leadership requires focus. Craft, competence, and excellence requires sustained concentration. 2025 is the year.

Honestly? Who knows what else will be interesting so the coverage might range widely. We should all stay curious and open minded as a genuine cultural, societal and business revolution takes root around us due to AI. It’s going to be fun, right?