35,000 feet in the air ALWAYS gives me perspective I don’t seem to be able to find on the ground.

I fly this budget airline to and from Orlando because of convenience — the airport is basically in my back yard— but the downside is there is no wifi on board. Every flight, I try to decide what I’m going to do with my 2.5 hours of complete disconnection from the world.

At this moment, Donald Trump is getting sworn in as the 47th president of the United States. The US melted down over the TikTok ban that lasted a solid 12 hours before messages of Trump’s imminent rescue was plastered all over phones. X is alive with rumors of closed door government meetings with Sam Altman, because maybe AI is moving faster than we planned. A huge arctic blast is headed to the southern states, imminent fire danger is roaring back in California, and Georgia suspended poultry sales on account of bird flu.

The few hours of respite is quite welcome.

It’s hard to build a business in the midst of chaos and uncertainty. 2024 handed our heads to a lot of us and 2025 shows no signs of shifting gears to more precedented times.

How do we build, grow, sell, anticipate?

Every single one of us who associates with the term “online business owner” must thread the needle between doing the foundational things that WORK to grow your business, and staying on the cutting edge of how AI is reshaping our entire world.

What are these foundational must-haves?

1. A focus on hyper specific painful problems that people will pay to have solved
2. Crystal clear messaging and branding that are unforgettable and easy to refer
3. Daily marketing & sales activities that keep your brand out there and connect you with potential customers (on YOUR initiative - not just waiting around for people to come to you)
4. In person and face-to-face connections and relationships
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This stuff mustn’t stop, even if you’re unsure about the future of your industry. There’s always a lag between the early adopters and mass adoption.

On the other side of the coin, every single online business owner will face total reshaping of their respective industries with the advancement of AI. It will affect everything. In the same way most of us couldn’t conceive of an online business in 1982, this is the edge (times 1000) we stand on with AI now.

You have a financial and moral obligation to dedicate some of your time to learning, using, preparing for, and anticipating how AI will reshape, eliminate, or change the goods, services, and offers in your niche.

It’s scary and exciting and completely nerve-wracking all in one. I encourage you to try not to slip into doomsday thinking (trust me it’s easy to go there but completely useless because all the extinction economic collapse talk doesn’t take into consideration the adaptability of humans). It also forgets the notion that in this unknown future, there will be those that are prepared and able to maneuver, and those that won’t.

As a leader in this industry, I am setting my sights on both the fundamentals I listed above, and the frontier of AI. I will be exploring it all — trying to find a balance for folks who want to make money today and be prepared for tomorrow.

A Tip For Today: If you’ve been following Funnel Gorgeous, we just wrapped up an incredibly solid step-by-step walking through of an audience building funnel. If you are an FG Funnels user (or sign up to be one), you can get access to this course for a limited time. Purchase FG Funnels & unlock the ABC Challenge. The entire challenge is available now.

For the future: For the first time ever, I’m opening up one of my Digital Insiders group calls to the public. It’s going to be a candid (informal) conversation with my private client community on the topic of AI. Facilitating the discussion will be AI instructor and educator Brittany Long as well as myself. It’s free, but there will be NO recording, so if you’d like to attend, you must show up live.

It's January 29th @ 12pm EST. You can register here —> https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_5V3kBTzdSR-spXaZCrmgPA
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​To summarize… if you need help focusing for 2025, you can take my pillars for yourself:

1. A focus on hyper specific painful problems that people will pay to have solved
2. Crystal clear messaging and branding that are unforgettable and easy to refer
3. Daily marketing & sales activities that keep your brand out there and connect you with potential customers (on YOUR initiative - not just waiting around for people to come to you)
4. In person and face-to-face connections and relationships
5. Committing to learning and advancing in the field of AI to prepare for the future​
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I’m fairly certain if those stay front & center for you this entire year, you will be more prepared for whatever comes your way.
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xx Julie