2025 Year in Review

2025 was NOT the year the grift went away — it was the year it started fighting back.

This was the year critique was labelled as “mean girl marketing” or “pitchfork marketing,” trust became a buzzword rather than a behavior, and suddenly everyone was an expert in whatever the algorithm liked that week.

So today, we’re breaking down what actually happened this year, where things are headed in 2026, and why — despite all of it — we still see reasons for hope.

This episode is our year-end wrap-up, but before we dive into the year that was, we wanted to kick it off with a personal reflection because it’s a little dark.

We wanted to approach it a little differently this time. Instead of just talking about this year in isolation, we thought it would be interesting to look back at what we were saying in 2023 and 2024 when we first started doing these wrap-up episodes — and ask an honest question.

Is this the same shit, different year? Or have we actually seen real movement?

Looking Back: What We Flagged in 2023 and 2024

I listened back to our 2023 & 2024 wrap-up episodes, a few themes jumped out immediately. These were patterns we were already tracking — and they matter because they set the stage for everything we saw in 2025.

• The economy was contracting. We were already talking about people spending more cautiously, longer buying cycles, and online businesses feeling pressure. That economic squeeze wasn’t theoretical — it was already reshaping behavior.
• The coaching pyramid was starting to wobble. Coaches coaching coaches coaching coaches was becoming harder to sustain. Audiences were asking tougher questions, results were harder to point to, and the cracks in that model were getting harder to ignore. Mainstream media took notice.
• Scams hadn’t disappeared — they had evolved. We weren’t seeing fewer scams. We were seeing sneakier ones like MRR, Faceless accounts, and the burnout narrative for why businesses needed to right-size. 

In 2025 – it was more of the same.

What We Noticed in 2025

1) The Economy Still Sucked — and It Changed Online Business Behavior

By 2025, the economic pressure was impossible to ignore. Discretionary spending dropped further. Decision fatigue set in. People became far more selective about where their money went.

That pressure showed up in online business in some predictable ways:

• More urgency-based messaging
• More emotional storytelling
• More attempts to manufacture certainty in an uncertain environment

The upside is that the economy created a hefty dose of doubt and skepticism, keeping people from investing.

2) Everyone Talked About Trust — Very Few People Earned It

Trust became one of the most overused words of the year. Trust recession. Trust-based marketing. Trust as your competitive edge.

What stood out wasn’t just how often trust was mentioned — but who was doing the talking. Often, it was the same people who had benefited from overpromising, hype cycles, and opaque business practices.

Talking about trust is not the same thing as being trustworthy. And values language without values-backed behavior doesn’t rebuild anything.

3) AI Became the New Gold Rush — and Everyone Was Suddenly an Expert

AI completely took over online business in 2025. Entire businesses pivoted overnight. New offers appeared weekly. Expertise was assumed, not demonstrated.

This was the 10% rule on steroids. AI made it easier than ever to sound credible without actually being credible — and the risk of that landed squarely on consumers.

This isn’t about being anti-AI. It’s about being anti-irresponsibility.

4) The Backlash Against Critique Intensified

This was one of the most striking shifts of the year. Critique itself became framed as the problem.

• Calling out unethical practices was labelled “pitchfork marketing.”
• Asking questions was framed as negativity.
• Women were told that critique meant they were playing small or tearing others down.

When critique becomes taboo, accountability disappears. And the people who benefit most are the ones least interested in changing their behavior.

Predictions for 2026

Looking ahead, we don’t think 2026 gets better. We think it gets darker 

1) The Economy Will Continue to Suck

There’s no sign of recovery on the horizon. Inflation is rising due to the ongoing tariff war, the job market will continue to contract, and the economy will get worse before it gets better. 

Online business will contract as discretionary income will decrease. That means one thing – grifters will still grift, and that means scammy behavior will increase. 

2) Grifting and Quick-Rich Schemes Will Intensify

When economies contract, quick-money narratives flourish. Expect more desperation disguised as opportunity, more promises framed as shortcuts, and more schemes that prey on fear and urgency.

Scams don’t disappear in hard times. They multiply.

3) The Backlash Against Critique Will Continue

As pressure increases, so will efforts to silence dissent. Discernment will keep being framed as cynicism. Accountability will be framed as harm. Critique will be painted as bullying.

That’s not an accident — it’s a defensive reflex to hold onto what they perceive as their cut of the online business pie.

4) Income-Claim Marketing Will Quietly Creep Back In

God, I hate this. But we’re already seeing it. If not loud, explicit claims — but implied outcomes, selective case studies, creative math, and heavily suggestive language.

What Gives Us Hope

Even in a darker landscape, there are real shifts worth paying attention to.

AI search has the potential — if implemented thoughtfully — to surface real expertise over charisma. And relationship-based marketing isn’t just a preference anymore; it’s becoming a necessity. Reputation, referrals, and long-term trust are harder to fake than funnels and hype.

Discernment isn’t bullying. Skepticism isn’t negativity. And asking questions isn’t playing small.

It’s how we stop getting duped.