Profiting Off Trends in Society
It's getting bleak out there
Like it or not, staying on top of the cultural zeitgeist is ESSENTIAL if you have an internet-based business.
Trends change fast.
This isn’t some boomer business like logging or manufacturing air conditioners where you can just keep chugging away at it like the world doesn’t exist.
In our line of business, if you fall behind culturally, you’ll fall behind monetarily.
Here are a few of the big picture trends in society that I think will accelerate in the near/medium-term future. Ignore at your own peril.
Desire for fast money/success
Nobody is interested in hard work or delayed gratification.
It could be because of inflation (periods of high inflation are famous for causing people to live in the moment), it could be due to general cynicism in society, it could be a symptom of overall cultural collapse.
Maybe some combination of the above.
But the fact is that most people (especially in the younger generation) think that playing the long game is for suckers.
They don’t want to become a doctor or build a business. They want a flashy Instagram lifestyle and they want it NOW.
If you have any type of business that involves teaching people a skill (language learning app, fitness coaching, anything involving work over time), you’re going to have a hard time attracting and retaining customers.
They don’t want what you’re selling.
A video titled “Become fluent in ANY LANGUAGE in one month using secret CIA language learning techniques” will always get more traction than a 2-hour video on conjugating verbs.
“Get a six pack in two weeks” is always going to be more popular than “work your ass off for six months and you might be slightly less fat”.
And building a business the old-fashioned way? You can forget it. Sleeping on a futon and working out of a grimy office for years until you gain traction is passe.
Everyone under 28 or so is looking for a viral TikTok moment they can cash in on. They dream about it. They think it’s their only way out.
If you want to see an example of a Gen Z success story look no further than the Hawk Tuah girl.
Hawk Tuah is the John D. Rockefeller of the attention economy.
One excelled at drilling for oil. The other excels at drilling for internet attention.
The feeling every millennial and older gets when seeing the Hawk Tuah video is “wow that’s so embarrassing I feel bad for her”. The feeling every zoomer gets is “wow she’s so lucky, I wish I could replicate her success.”
Major cultural shift taking place.
‘Authenticity’ > expertise
No one trusts official experts anymore.
Let’s be honest: it’s understandable.
BUT the pendulum has swung so far away in the other direction that people are now placing blind, total, completely credulous trust in YouTubers who seem like ‘regular down to earth guys’ and random Reddit accounts with names like cockbutt420.
Even when it comes to complex issues. Even when it comes to life-and-death medical concerns.
Everyone values the opinions of regular people (or what they think are regular people, these platforms are easily astroturfed) more than experts who actually know what they’re talking about.
If you want to see how completely insane this is: go to Reddit and look up a topic that you have personal expertise in. You’ll be shocked at how bad the advice is. Now realize that every topic discussed on Reddit has similar levels of bad advice being dished out. And there are hordes of people reading it and believing it (thanks Google).
That’s the world we live in.