ISSUE ELEVEN: THE CORRECTION
This year, I've noticed something shifting. The same strategies that worked beautifully only a few years ago are falling flat now. I bet you’re feeling it too. What used to seem to provide clarity and profitability is feeling… constraining. Proven paths that gave us a sense of stability and certainty that all feel... wrong now, somehow.
This is correction.
What's Really Happening Right Now
It’s becoming quite obvious now that technology has trained us over the past few decades to flatten our complexity. To “perform authenticity” for viewers/customers we might not even know, and package our expertise or products to meet unrelentingly changing algorithms (and profits of a few imposing technocrats) that have overtly commercialized digital places that we all maybe even genuinely believed were meant to enrich and deepen our connections to each other. Yet… we’re all tired, isolated and bored.
People aren’t hungry for something that's different’ish — we are wanting something else entirely. And I think it’s mystery, discovery and actual human connection. Seems silly, maybe even a regressive statement to make I know. But collectively we are yearning for whole body experiences that help us drop back into the literal world, and communities we live in. It’s not just me.
Kyle Chayka in The New Yorker documented the rise of "posting ennui"—people retreating from performative sharing and the commercialization of each social platform is making them into media only vehicles (think cable tv reincarnated).
“We might also be heading toward something like Posting Zero, a point at which normal people-the unprofessionalized, uncommodified, unrefined masses-stop sharing things on social media as they tire of the noise, the friction, and the exposure.”
Just last week W. David Marx in The Atlantic wrote a piece “Make Culture Weird Again Even failures and half steps will be more interesting than the boring stuff.”
“Artists themselves also have to rethink their work outside the individual pursuit of fame and profit. Every enduring cultural movement—hip-hop, rock, punk, streetwear—began as an insular, tightly knit community of like-minded peers that formed out of a dissatisfaction with the conventional and a deep desire to create something new. Historically, these subcultures existed in real-world spaces—clubs, skate parks, dive bars, DIY venues—where ideas evolved organically.
Packy McCormick wrote about taking weird ideas seriously as the path for discovery and expansion, even if risky in doing so.
“Every complex adaptive system faces a choice: explore or exploit. Do you optimize the thing that’s already working (exploit) or seek altogether better alternatives (explore)? Even when exploitation is currently more rewarding, the math suggests that optimal strategies always maintain some exploration. Exploration comes from individuals taking weird ideas seriously.”
We're, or some of us, are watching a cultural correction happen in real time.
Thriving going forward will demand a sincere effort to reconnect with all our senses—the usual suspects, plus extras we don’t talk about enough, like proprioception (your body's awareness in space) and interoception (sensing what's happening inside you.) Sensorial works/experience[s] that can't be replicated—and especially offline—will be what's in vogue.
I believe people are yearning for what forces us into being present - literally. What a relief!?
The Through-Line of 2025
Looking back at what I've been writing about in Sage Advice, I can see it now:
Issue One asked us to feel: welcoming back all our senses into work—sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and body awareness. For decision making. For gaining a deeper sense of clarity. For reconnection with our work. Embodied entrepreneurialism keeps us present, and being present helps us be better creatives.
Issue Two pushed back: beginner's mindset worship isn't all that. What if maturity is actually the secret weapon when adapting during times of change? Sure, we need to be humble and flex our learning muscles when pivoting or launching new initiatives... but what if your experience, expertise, and earned wisdom are the competitive advantages you've been overlooking? Balancing both is the key to long-term thriving.
Issue Three called it: the Return of the Expert. Depth of knowledge is differentiation again! Specialists who actually know their craft are valuable, and generalist mediocrity is finally losing its shine in the marketplace. The real challenge of the moment is to reinvigorate and reestablish wisdom's value in a way that feels fresh and new and investment-worthy, whatever you’re selling.
Issue Four told the truth: there is a genuine need to embrace ecosystem thinking. Instead of focusing solely on individual products or internal processes, it emphasizes the relationships and interactions between all parts of the system—including partners, customers, and competitors—to create greater value for everyone and help us adapt to change, because that's the only constant, no?!
Issue Five asked: in times of so much socioeconomic and geopolitical tumult, who do you want to be? The canary (i.e. an indicator of a dangerous and immediate threat ahead) or bellwether (i.e. a leading indicator or trend)??? It's a nuanced difference, but it is important right now to be asking ourselves if we are signals of danger ahead or leading the way forward. Understanding which role you are playing—intentonally or not—will help you invest your energy more strategically and keep you on the straight and narrow, even when things feel super wobbly.
Issue Six was a rallying cry: adaptive entrepreneurship works in times of regression too. Maybe especially in regression?! Our creativity can help us navigate through conservative headwinds. Rather than focusing on what worked when we could be more self-indulgent creatively during ideal external circumstances, we are being asked to channel our creativity into operations.
Issue Seven held the tension: how do we embrace discovery when everything feels uncertain? How do we stay present and curious when the ground keeps shifting? How do we find quotidian magic amidst the chaos? COURAGE. Remembering to tap into the information we have access to (cough, the data) will help us take the right risks that keep us strategically aligned.
Issue Eight said the quiet part loud: gatekeeping is valuable when wielded well. Curated exclusivity is a gift, not a sin. Standards are the foundation of quality if we remind ourselves that not everything needs to be for everyone. Embrace discernment! Understand the importance of time and place. Have the confidence to stay in your lane. Build better work, richer community, and more stable foundations to launch from.
Issue Nine screamed from the mountaintop: impracticality has a place! And that place is creative disruption and meaningful innovation—also known as advanced, impactful output. Stop replicating what ‘works’ because it's very likely it doesn't work anymore. Start building for the world that's coming. Your creative vision can see what practical thinking overlooks. Lean into that and let loose!
Issue Ten landed the plane... for now: the world is changing, including the (unavoidable) rise of (inescapable) AI. The promise here for Weird Specialty folk is that it's entirely possible to use AI without losing your soul. But only if you know what makes you distinctively YOU first—and protect and promote that. Integrate it operationally, reject it as a replacement for what makes us, us. Let it help you buy back the time you need to do what you do, your ideas.
Every single one of these posts has been building brick by brick for the year ahead: depth and richness in work, in community, needs to be fostered, protected, and seen as the most valuable asset. Migration away from performative spaces that demand too much of us, while reward from that engagement continues to dwindle is already happening, and it’s not going to stop.
And you, creative entrepreneur reading this—you're built to meet this moment, if you are willing to bring more authenticity (I know this term has become cringe, but in a way its even more prescient now IMO) and depth into your creative output, your business. It’s how we can give ourselves back our agency and autonomy and I believe the time has come to embrace our humanity more wholeheartedly.
This year asked me to practice what I preach. I launched Weird Retreats—bringing creative entrepreneurs together in unfamiliar, exciting spaces that drop us in together with a goal of activating all our senses away from our work, so that we can bring back that embodied state so that we can make better decisions about our businesses. I completed my Psychology of Leadership certification at Cornell, deepening my understanding of why we lead, and operate the way we do. This investment will help guide my individual client work with a level of empathy and compassion. I changed my entire service model (rolling out in 2026) to meet the moment, and recalibrated Weird Specialty Salon programming by actually listening to what members are needing. All these efforts to enrich myself, my practice, and how I show up in community is worth the effort.
What 2026 Is Calling For
The businesses that will thrive next year are the ones that can hold complexity: the strategic use of technology AND the embodied wisdom of human sensing. The ones that leverage digital tools without being overwhelmed by them. The ones that know when to scale and when to stay small. And lastly, the big question of when to open the gates and when to lock them.
For a while now I’ve been really fixated on how much of society has been bent to the very sinister will of technocrats more so than even political parties and think tanks, and how much of that will is purely greed - profit and power. Though I'm sure dear readers you would prefer my not bringing this into the conversation, I feel I must. I am seeing in real time, negative impacts rising to the surface for not just society at large, but for small businesses too, especially creative ones.
I was struck listening to RadioLab’s recent episode Content Warning
“[All of these platforms] are controlled by these individuals, and they're not necessarily reflective of the real world, yet they're being reported on as if they were reflective of the real world, right? [W]hat you see in the last five years is an industry that understands the power that it holds in content moderation, that it's not a customer service issue, it is actually a huge force for shaping public opinion, and that has exponential value to political parties and governments. It's as valuable as oil and guns, because how you push things, what you keep up, what you take down is…scalable, and it's a way to make a lot of money, and it's a way to control a lot of minds.”
Operating with your head in the sand—wanting things (life, work, politics, etc) to work like they once did, getting caught up in the swirl of scale and external validation that rewards performativity—is a recipe for drowning when the tide comes in.
The tide is coming in folks, and I think creatives are uniquely positioned to push back.
To really tap into the opportunity of the moment, consider what grounding unequivocally into our humanity looks like. Channelling our creative output to help support us being present, literally, with each other. What products, services, and activations etc support, even encourage connection and community building? And how might that be something you can build or participate in?
The Part I'm Optimistic About
I'm seeing in the businesses I advise: a return to craft. To standards. To the kind of quality that requires your whole self to create and your customer's whole self to experience. And to some of this—maybe even all of it—being offered behind closed doors, or at the very least offline.
The creative entrepreneurs who are winning right now are building communities where belonging is key to bottom lines. They're creating things that need to be revealed in real life FIRST. Through discovery, offering their clients and customers an experience that might not even be visible online. That is a luxury good, mystery and discovery are the point I am telling you.
The truth is, we're not going back to some (imaginary) simpler time. We live in this moment, where multidimensionality reigns. How we choose to participate in all these worlds is where your agency and autonomy come in... or you'll be sleepwalking into another year where things happen to you and your business, rather than you actively choosing to build the world and work you want.
The world is tired of flat, fast, fake. We are hungry for depth, embodiment, and discovery.
Let’s go forward into 2026—with all our senses awake.
#getwithit
—gJ
