Our community is fortunate to have so many brilliant, insightful entrepreneurs and creatives and so many of them have front row, ground level seats that allow them to see emerging trends before the so-called experts, industry leaders, etc. We wanted to create a space to connect members of our community where they could share these insights on trends and opportunities they are seeing.

Adrian Pruett

Fragmentation. For a long time there were only three television networks, then a dozen, then hundreds. Now anyone with a social media following can be a network. Some influencers command larger numbers of audience then most television shows get in average viewers. This is why traditional television is, and has been, dying. Today 500 hours of video content is uploaded to the internet every 60 seconds. Read more>>

Courtney Case

The term “positive-reinforcement” has become, from what I can tell, mostly mainstream. For anyone unfamiliar, when a dog (or other animal) trainer refers to themselves as “positive reinforcement” it says explicitly that they do use treats and praise to get the behavior they want and it implies that that person doesn’t use “aversive tools” ie anything that would hurt or cause extreme fear or distress in a dog. The line of what causes pain and what amount of stress is tolerable for a dog is going to be different from dog to dog and trainer to trainer. Read more>>

Jessica Bishop

The wedding industry is experiencing a wonderful transformation, focusing on what truly matters for couples on their special day. Many are moving away from the pressure of hosting an extravagant, traditional celebration just for the sake of it. Instead, we’re seeing a rise in micro-weddings and elopements, where couples create intimate and meaningful ceremonies that celebrate their personal connection rather than societal expectations. Smaller scale events allow couples to share their special moments with loved ones in a way that feels genuine and inclusive, without the need for grand gatherings. Read more>>

Jon Engele

The beauty of any artistic industry is that it is chock full of small little trends and trendy styles for the moment, but I think the sort of elephant in the room, especially for a lot of the photographic industry these days, seems to be AI, because AI art really made a big splash in the scene and even now people really don’t know how to handle it. Especially in the realm of photography, which deals with the reality of a scene and the world around us, AI has really muddied the waters to the point where a lot of people aren’t sure what’s real or not anymore. Read more>>

Laura Ryan

The biggest trend (boost) I’ve seen recently in travel is cruising. Cruising has returned with great demand with many of the cruise lines adding new ships and the rise is social media showing how incredible cruising is has brought about a great demand. I wholeheartedly believe this is the ultimate vacation cruising offers exceptional experiences with the ability to visit multiple destinations, enjoy on board entertainment and relaxation. I’ve recently cruised solo, with friends and a multi generational cruise with ages ranging from 2-52 and everyone was happy and eager to sail again. Read more>>

Synamon Whaley

In the hair care industry, there’s a notable gap between small business owners who create their own product formulas(artisan crafted), and those who use pre-existing formulas (someone else’s), emphasizing the importance of my hands-on approach. No concerns with making your own product from scratch… The issue at hand is that small business owners distributors may not be cognizant of the raw materials used in their products. Thus, resulting in customer harm, as has been the case in the past. Read more>>

Taylor Slocum

One of the biggest trends that I have witnessed in the photography industry as of late is “Adventure Sessions”- and I love them! This is something that I have started to implement in my own brand to keep things fresh and exciting. Typically I see a lot of photographers, especially those who travel a lot, offer discounts for sessions or weddings at some of the places around the country/world that are on their bucket list. As someone who has somewhat of an aversion to traveling alone, I’ve decided to put my own twist on it and offer discounts at locations that are unique for photo sessions, like a gas station, library, or laundromat. Read more>>

Jordan Tyler

A.I. it’s the big new thing, Depending on how it’s used it can be great for our industry, but we’re also seeing a lot of disturbing uses of it which are really worrisome. So I am an Art Director and a Photographer. I work in both the advertising and photo industries, creative and production. Some AI tools I use are great, for example Photoshop’s Generative AI is so good that it’s really starting to ruin my own photoshop skills. Removing an image flaw use to be a pain, The amount of things I need to do to remove it and make it look good, now I just select and tell the app what I want. The disturbing trends are with image generators. You type what you want and it creates something. Read more>>