Graham (00:10.399)
2025 is just around the corner and with AI booming and copycat brands popping up everywhere, the business world is changing faster than ever. The competition is fierce. The risk of blending in is massive. Basically, if you're not zigging while others zag, you're going to get left in the dust. So in this episode, I'm going to share four powerful shifts you must make to not just survive, but thrive.
and stand out as a true leader in your industry. Let's break away from the noise, my friend, and make your business unforgettable in 2025.
Graham (01:18.079)
So AI, the crowded landscape of online business, I mean, this comes up all the time, I get questions about this all the time. Are we missing our moment? Is it too late for me to start a business? That's what beginners ask. Those that are already successful are fearful, are things changing? They can sense change, and things are happening so fast that it can become overwhelming. Well, let's just dive into the reality of what's happening, and then let me help you so that you.
do not get left behind in 2025. I don't want you to get left behind. I don't want you to stay the same. I want you to soar and grow and that's what I want for myself. So let's talk about AI and what I think are just the resounding residual effects of that which are copycat brands, which have always been around by the way. Copycat brands have always been around but now with AI it's just easier to be like everybody else. Four things that are showing up because of AI and copycat brands. Number one, everyone is sounding the same.
I mean, have you noticed that like everyone's marketing language sounds the same? Everyone's website sounds the same? Everyone's sales funnel looks and sounds the same largely because it is. You're either copying someone else's, which I've had people copy mine, like literally they didn't even change the name of the company or the product in it they didn't realize that it was literally selling my product, which is kind of obvious. Or just the fact that you can go to ChatGPT and you can say spit out some sales copy for this thing and you'll get something that might be good but
it sounds like everything else, because it's the same AI giving everyone similar versions of the same thing. Now you can tweak and you can use it well. Again, I'm not against AI. I use AI in my business, in my day-to-day business. I'm just saying what most people are doing is taking what's out there, pressing a button, copying and pasting, and they wonder why no one's really doing business with them, because they sound like everybody else. Number two, everyone can get the same information that you have, that you're giving, that other people have.
easier and faster than ever. mean, these tools, they're like search on steroids. Not only do we have access to everything in the internet, through a search engine, but now we can have AI process everything on the internet for us in real time and give us the same information. So you putting out information in the world alone isn't going to be enough.
Graham (03:42.719)
because now everyone can get access to information at the click of a button, right? And we've known that over time, even before AI, it's becoming, so you're inundated with information. Information alone won't make you stand out. Number three is everyone can look impressive online. It's wonderful because a small company, one person show like me, like you, we can look impressive because of AI tools and all these other platforms. So it's not hard to look legit.
So looking legit and impressive and professional is no longer enough. There could be a brand run by a dog in Thailand and it can be just as impressive as you, right? I mean, it's not hard to be done. So everyone can look impressive and then finally everyone can pump out more content than ever.
before, right? I love a tool called Riverside. There's lots of tools, Opus Clip. mean, you can do like what I'm using right now to record this episode, both video and audio. One click, I can create, you know, gobs of short clip, you know, format content. And like you can quickly create stuff. And so you can proliferate your ideas and your content everywhere where you used to have to have video editors, used to have to have content curators, used to take a lot of time. Now anybody can pump out content. So
we're all gonna start to look the same, sound the same, have the same information, be just as impressive and have just as much content as everybody else. So if you're just banking on, I've got good information, I'm professional, I have good answers to people's questions and I have lots of content, like I'm pumping out content every day, that's like five years too late, like that's not enough anymore.
Before we get into the four shifts you need to make, here's what most people think though. They think, I gotta just do more, more. And that's, I don't know why that is, maybe that's human nature, to think if this has got me this far, effort, pushing, ideas, and it's working and I've gotten these results, but I need more of those results. Our brain's almost shut down and we...
Graham (05:50.931)
we get really dumb, think, well, I just will do more of what I've already done to get more of what I already have. And I don't want that to be you, because A, it's exhausting, you'll burn out, you'll crash and burn. But B, it won't work, which is even sadder, because then you'll feel like, well, I just gotta push harder and put out more content and have more touch points and more sales copy and more funnels and more emails. No, let me give you four shifts. Four shifts.
that I am making, I've actually been making in the last 18 months, and I'm gonna be making even more intentionally in 2025. And so I wanna pull back the curtain so you see what I'm doing. And as your coach, I want you to do this as well, all right? Shift number one, and do all four if you can, but if nothing else for today's episode, just like latch onto one. Like one of these is for you. I just know one of these is for you. Latch onto it. And when you get that sense in your gut and your spirit of like, ooh,
This is for me, there's something here, something scares me about it, but I like it. That's your intuition telling you this is for you, okay? So I don't know which one it's gonna be for you, maybe it's all four, I think you should do all four, I'm doing all four, but pay attention for the one, lean in for the one. Ready? Okay, shift number one. Don't just be useful, be counterintuitive. Don't just be useful, be provocative. Don't just be useful.
have spiky points of view, to quote my friend Rich Litvin. Say what others are afraid to say. Say what others are afraid to say for fear of pushback. I think as an online brand, as a content creator, whether you blog or you have social media or you're a podcaster or a YouTuber, whatever you do, it is hard to put out content in the world because you have found, if you've been doing this for longer than 10 minutes, that people will disagree with you.
even if you're in a benign niche. My first brand, The Recording Revolution, was all about helping musicians set up a little home recording studio and make the music sound good. I thought that was the most safe, benign niche I could be in, and yet I've pissed so many people off. I've gotten death threats from people. I've had to block people's phone numbers. I somehow got my number that were threatening to ruin my life. And I'm just talking about microphones and recording songs.
Graham (08:19.871)
Crazy, right? So imagine if you're in a political niche or you're in weight loss or fitness where you're talking about people's bodies or you're in the mental health space or you're talking about money or business, like relationship advice, like then you open the door for people to judge you. So just saying, you're gonna be judged hard. So in a way, if you're gonna be judged and disagree with you, you might as well go all in and say what you wanna say. But here's the thing, to stand out,
You gotta say what others are afraid to say, because most people are afraid to say it. There's very few people that have enough craziness to be like, this is what I think, drop a grenade, walk out and see what happens. So you will stand out just by a virtue of being one of the only people. So say things that people will disagree with. And don't just say things to get people riled up. I don't mean that. And I don't mean that in a way like there's people putting a content online just to make people angry. I don't want to make people angry.
But I do, and as a coach, my job is to provoke your thinking. If you're my client, my job is to provoke your thinking because your thinking has gotten you where you are and you're coming to me as a client because you don't like where you are. You don't like the way your business has turned out. You don't like the life you have. You're out of joy. You're out of energy. You're out of money. Or you're making plenty of money, but it's not where you want it to be or whatever. There's something you don't like. So your thinking has gotten you where you are.
So if you hire me and I just give you more stuff that you'll agree with, that's not gonna help you because you're not gonna get anywhere different. I need to challenge your thinking and get you to think differently, because when you think differently, you'll feel different, you'll do different, you'll get different. So you're a coach. Whether you're a blogger, a podcaster, a YouTuber, whether you work with somebody one-on-one, you're coaching, you're mentoring. You are putting ideas out there to transform people's lives for the better, hopefully, right?
So you should say things that people will disagree with that you actually believe will help them. Okay? So a simple framework to help you even uncover these counterintuitive truths or provocative thoughts or spiky points of view as Rich would call it is most people believe blank about whatever, losing weight, building an online business, recording music to sound professional. But the truth is blank.
Graham (10:39.199)
All right, this is a very simple framework, one of the most basic ones, but it's powerful for two reasons, right? One is you're identifying with what they believe. Most people believe the key to recording professional sounding music is to use expensive equipment and microphones and be in a nice studio. That niche of personal nod their head subtly, subconsciously saying, yeah, I believe that, or at least I've heard that, and that makes sense, right? Wouldn't using professional equipment and being in professional studio be the way to do it?
But then if I say, the truth is, you can make a professional signing record for $300 or less at home.
Whoa. Two things happen. One that challenges what most people believe in. Literally in the statement, most people believe this, but the truth is this meaning I am disagreeing with most people and I believe that most people are wrong. That in and of itself is a bold claim. You're disagreeing with most people, Graham? Who are you to disagree? Makes people interested in me. So that alone is interesting. Like, who is this guy? Who is this gal? And then number two, they subconsciously want to
to test what you're saying, wait, is that true? Can you really make a professional signing record on 300 bucks? An example from my current brand, right? Most people believe that in order to make seven figures a year, you need to work 40 hours a week or more. But the truth is, you can make seven figures a year working five hours a week or less.
Right? That's crazy. That's absolutely crazy. So I'm challenging what most of the world says. So I'm literally separating myself and then I'm putting out something that's provocative that I believe in that they're trying to test. Wait, can you really make a million dollars a year working five hours a week? That doesn't even make any sense. No, that's not possible. I disagree. And if they disagree, that's great. All that matters is that they're paying attention to me.
Graham (12:45.939)
Pay attention to me. Seriously, right? You need people to pay attention to you if you're be able to sell them something and do business and stuff. Like, if nobody knows you exist, how are you gonna make money, friend? So we don't wanna just say crazy, provocative things to get attention. That's where clickbait comes in, and that's why YouTube sucks half the time, even though I'm a YouTuber. That's why news articles suck, because people just will write whatever to get your click.
So I'm not saying to write whatever, say whatever to get a click. I am saying dig deep. What do you actually believe?
that a lot of people disagree with.
plant a stake in the ground on something you truly believe in and be willing to not play it safe. Don't play it safe. You can't play it safe in 2025. can't. You can't. So put a stake in the ground. People are looking for mentorship. They're looking for someone that will put a stake in the ground and tell them what they believe. It's attractive because most people are so afraid of being canceled, right? It's attractive. So put a stake in the ground.
and share what you really believe. So that's the thing is don't be useful. I know your content's useful. Yes, be useful, but be counterintuitive and be provocative. right, shift number two. Don't look for the many, look for the one. So what we've been doing for decades now is like trying to grow as big of an audience online as possible, transition that audience to an email list, to grow as big of an email list as possible. And so we're focusing on gathering the masses. Like how big of a...
Graham (14:23.935)
What following do you have? We do this on social media. Don't focus on bigger audiences. Don't focus on more views and likes because this ironically requires having broad appeal. And you don't want broad appeal because broad appeal will dilute your brand. You will sound like everyone else. Look like everyone else. You will disappear. Okay. So.
If everyone is vanilla ice cream in the world, then you try to appeal to everyone that likes you will be vanilla ice cream and then no one will notice you. You gotta be the pistachio or the chocolate or something in a sea of vanilla. You gotta be different so you can't appeal to everyone. It'll dilute your brand. Instead, here's what you wanna do. You want to focus on one type of person to serve.
one type of person, ideally the person you are most powerfully positioned to serve, to quote my man Rory Vaden, and that person is probably who you once were, right? That's his whole shtick. You're most powerfully positioned to serve the person you once were. There's something embedded in that statement, there's a lot of truth and wisdom in that statement that Rory has, but there's something embedded in that statement that most people gloss over when they hear that, and that is you're most powerfully positioned to serve the person.
not the people, not the crowd, not the audience, not the niche. You're serving a person. And so your language needs to be adjusted, right? Your language needs to be adjusted to speaking to an actual singular person and not a group. I've said this a million times over the years. This is why I don't say, hey everyone, welcome back to the Graham Cochran show. Hey everyone, welcome to today's episode.
If you hear me say anything, I'll say, friend.
Graham (16:13.757)
And notice the way I'm talking to you now. Does it sound like I'm talking to a group of people or does it sound like I'm talking directly to you? Yes, you. You're listening to this, you're watching it like you. I'm speaking to you, the singular, because that has always been my strategy for 15 years is to imagine an actual person that's my ideal client or customer.
make content for that person, speak in a language that person will understand, speak to that person. And so there's a reason why I'm probably not the most popular brand in the online business space, because I'm not appealing to the masses. But I'm a highly profitable brand. I don't have to work but only a couple hours a week, and I get to work with the people I want to work with, and I really love my business, and I really love the life it gives me.
Why? Because I'm speaking directly to you. If you're the right person, you're going to lean into me. And if you're not, you're going to be like, eh, very intentional. And I'm pressing harder into that in 2025. You're going to see that. You're going to hear that in the language I use on my website, in my content here on the show, in the Graham Cochran show, in my offers. You're going to see this dialed in even more. And hopefully you're the right person that will like it, but maybe you won't. And you'd be like,
Graham changed, that's not me. And that will be okay too, if that's the case. Because I'm gonna speak to you, the right person, so I can serve you. I'm gonna speak to the person I am most powerfully positioned to serve, and I hope that that's you. But if it's not, it's okay. We can still be friends. Okay, so that's the second shift is don't look for the many. Everyone's looking for the many, and that's gonna dilute their brand, dilute the type of content they talk about, dilute their sales copy. Ignore the masses.
Find the one, make content for the one, offers for the one, set up your brand experience to be for that person, and then just go hard after that person. It'll track more of the same, I promise you. All right, let's get into the two shifts that are gonna be a little more provocative and a little more counterintuitive, which is a little meta. Are you ready for this? If the first two, you're like, yeah, that makes sense. Here we go. Shift number three, raise your prices.
Graham (18:35.807)
You gotta charge more, friend. 2025, you gotta charge more. And I'm not talking just because of inflation. I'm not talking about just because avocados are like 10 bucks. No, forget inflation. You have to charge more to stand out. Because here's what most people are gonna do in 2025 and beyond. Most people are so scared. In the US, new president, so a new administration, which every four years is always like a, ooh, uncertainty. What's it gonna be like? The last couple years have been.
high inflation have been expensive, economy's doing well, but it's not doing well. Everyone's doing great, but actually there's a bigger divide between the haves and the have nots. Whatever you wanna believe, whatever you hear, whatever data you like to point to to tell you what's happening, it's a bit of both, right? So there's a lot of uncertainty. So all that matters is that people are uncertain, and when businesses in the last year or two feel like they're not getting as many customers or as many views or as many eyeballs, they get scared. What do business owners do when they get scared? They discount.
They lower their prices to be more attractive. They think it'll make them more attractive. Ironically, it makes them less attractive. But let's get into, two reasons why this doesn't work. Number one, if you lower your prices, you're be like everybody else. That's what everyone's doing. There's going to be a race to the bottom. It is a massive, crowded race to the bottom. So you think by lowering your prices or making more low ticket offers or more affordable things, you're going to...
make more money, but if that's what everyone else is doing, then you're jumping right back into a sea of vanilla and no one knows that you exist because you're doing what everyone else is doing. So by virtue of raising your prices, you will stand out by being in the minority. Like it's kind of crazy, but if everyone discounts and you raise people like, why is she charging that for her coaching? Hey, they're paying attention to you.
They're little confused about how expensive you are. That's good, they're paying attention to you, right? So you'll be in the minority just by virtue of raising your prices, which is great. But here's the real reason, right? Raising your fees increases your perceived value. This is crazy. There's so much psychology on this. I wish I had a bunch of studies pulled up that would have been nice. But for virtue of today's conversation, you just gotta trust me. But think about it also from your anecdotal experience.
Graham (20:58.227)
When you see two car brands and one is twice as much as the other, you see a $20,000 car and then you see a $50,000 car, same size, same feature set for the most part, same technology inside, they'll both get you from point A to point B. What do you think about the brand with the $50,000 car versus the $20,000, $25,000 car? You assume it's better, right? I mean, your brain is like, well,
Better be better, it's twice as much. But you automatically assume it's a premium brand, AKA it's a better product, and so your heart wants it. You may not be able to afford the $50,000 car, but you would choose it over the 20, $25,000 car most of the time because you subconsciously think it's better.
And hopefully it's got some higher quality materials, quieter glass, some better suspension, smoother ride, things like that, right? Some cool features, but that's not the point. The point is you automatically assume it's better even if you've never been in it, just by virtue of the price. So people...
Graham (24:22.239)
There's another powerful reason why raising your fees or your prices will help you stand out. It increases your customer's investment in themselves. When somebody has to pay a lot more money to get access to your coaching or your course, your community or whatever you're selling, they know, it hurts. The money they spend represents life, it represents hours worked. And so they're like, dude, if I spent that much, I'm gonna be invested.
So they're actually going to get more out of your program because they've increased their expectation for themselves and the transformation they're gonna get because they better get results. It actually leads to better results. This is the problem with low price courses and I know I sell a bunch of affordable courses is that people buy it and they don't get around to even jumping into the course because you know what, I paid a couple hundred bucks, I'll get to it when I get to it. But if they spent $2,000, you better believe they're gonna get to it.
because they spent it and they will get results because they're diving deep and they're investing in themselves, which will lead to better testimonials. It'll lead to better case studies. It'll lead to happier customers. It'll lead to people singing your praises, which is insane if you think about it. By just virtue of raising your prices, people get better results and they're more committed. I have had the best clients and gotten the best client results in the last year by increasing my private coaching rates.
So you gotta understand this, it is scary to raise prices because you're insecure, that's all it is, you're just insecure. But when everyone is doing what you wanna do naturally, which is lower the prices, make some more affordable options, know, do you wanna be in the majority with everyone else with this massive crowded race to the bottom or do you wanna stand out by having higher prices, being a premium provider, getting yourself out of the people pile, as John Maxwell would say.
increase your perceived value and increase your customers investment and expectation in themselves, thus creating better results. This is how you stand out. Okay, makes sense? All right, and let's move on to the fourth and final shift you need to make, which is to sell fewer but better things. Friend, you probably got way too many offers in the pipeline. I got way too many offers in the pipeline. I've tried all kinds of things. I've made all kinds of courses. And part of it is you're trying to see what works and what sticks.
Graham (26:43.442)
But here's the problem, everyone is building more and more stuff. They're less likely to learn how to better sell what's working and create a better customer experience than they are to just build something new. Because think about entrepreneurs, we're like, on to the next thing. I already launched that course, I already did that coaching, I got a new idea for new thing with this new name, I got the logo worked up, I'm gonna launch it, sell it. And so we keep making new offers and new products. Friend, here's how you stand out. In a world where people are gonna be the Walmarts,
and the Amazons of the world with like a bajillion things to sell, I want you to be the Tiffany's of the world. Like fewer things in your store, but they're really high quality and they're really attractive and desirable, right? So you wanna 80-20 the mess out of your products and offers and commit to only selling the best. So you wanna find the top 20%. Look back at this last year. Look at all the data, pull it out, everything you sold, organize it by your offers or products or services.
and how much revenue each one brought in, and then look at what were your top performers, and I guarantee you, you're gonna find the one, two, or three offers that generated 80 % of the results. Those are the ones you wanna focus on. That's it. In a perfect world, give people max three ways to work with you. If you're a coach, three things on your coaching menu. If you've got courses, three main courses, or three main digital offers, maybe it's a course, a community, and a mastermind.
Maybe it's two courses and then a paid community. Maybe it's a beginner, intermediate, advanced. Whatever you do, however you sell it, think about if I could only sell three things to get massive results from my clients and customers, what would they be? The reason this will work is you're decluttering. It's simple, right? You're doing a couple things. One, you're gonna be able to focus on making them better.
and focusing on the customer experience, the customer journey, the sales process, all that. But really you're reducing the confusion for your customer of what they should buy or where they should start. I'll give you an example. In year three of my first business, the recording revolution, I launched two courses that were about the same topic. But in my mind they were different. One was like a series of beginner's mini courses that I ended up bundling together and selling as a bundle. And one was more of a in-depth end-to-end process.
Graham (29:10.363)
I had to spend three to four years constantly answering the question, which one should I start with or are they the same? It sounds like they cover the same thing. And I made money, but it was such a drag on my time and then eventually my customer services time and probably my sales by having two offers that were largely similar to each other. It confused the mess out of my clients and my potential customers. If I only had one offer for that topic, it would have been a lot clearer. Well, if I want to learn that subject from Graham, that's the thing I need to buy.
That would have made more sense. I've learned to, and you're seeing me do this, I've shut down offers in the last two years that have made me a lot of money. I'm shutting them off for a couple of reasons, but one reason is to reduce confusion. And I'm in process right now. Don't look too closely as of the moment of this episode dropping, but as you'll see in 2025, it's gonna get cleaner, it's gonna get more focused, and there's gonna be fewer offers that I'm making available to you. So reduce the confusion of what they should buy, where they should start,
and what they should get into next. Simple is better. And I did an episode on this a weeks ago when I came back from the Kajapi Hero Live event. Every single seven and eight figure entrepreneur that was on the stage alongside me that weekend, including Brendan Burchard, who's a nine figure entrepreneur, was saying the same thing. Simple, fewer offers, make it clear, make them better. Fewer but better, right? Fewer but better.
It's minimalism at its best, right? Not fewer for the sake of fewer, but fewer for the sake of a better experience for your customers, and a better backend for you where it's easier to run and manage as a company. Does that make sense? So, with the proliferation of AI and copycat brands and everyone sounding the same, looking the same, doing the same, you need to stand out. Which of those four shifts is the one for you? Is it don't just be useful, be counter-intuitive?
Is it don't look for the many, look for the one? Is it raise your prices? Or is it sell fewer but better things? If you're watching on YouTube, leave me a comment below. Let me know which one of those shifts the one that like spoke to you. If you're listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or wherever you get this show, stop and say to yourself out loud which of these four shifts you need to lean into heavily in 2025 and beyond. You know it, your gut wants to tell you it's usually the one you're afraid to do, but keeps popping up in your head. Don't be afraid.
Graham (31:34.45)
You're not missing out, you're actually doing the opposite. You're setting yourself up from falling behind and getting left out. You need to zig while everyone else is zagging. 2025 is gonna be the best of years for a lot of business owners and the worst of years for most. I think there's gonna be a lot of people closing their doors. I think there's gonna be a lot of people saying, this doesn't work anymore, this doesn't work anymore, and they're all gonna be wrong. The reason why is because they just continue to blend in and rely on AI and
and copying everyone else and paying attention to the competitors and all these things that you shouldn't be doing, they're gonna rely on those things. It will dilute their brand, it'll dilute their voice and uniqueness, and they're gonna go with the crowd. There's a reason why I wrote the book Rebel. You find yourself by not following the crowd.
and you stand out by not following the crowd. And this doesn't mean be someone you're not. This means be 100 % who you are. Most brands aren't, most people aren't, but you will win in 2025 if you press hard into going your own rebellious way and having the guts, having the cojones, right, to just do what others aren't willing to do, say what others aren't willing to say, stand behind fewer but better products, raise your prices and speak to one type of person.
Forget everybody else, I only need one type of person to make an incredible brand. You do these things, friend, you're gonna be in business for a long time to come. Mark my words, and when we come back at the end of 2025, and if it's already past then and you did this stuff and you saw it work, talk to me, talk to me about it. We're gonna see how it worked for you while everyone else disappeared and had to shutter their doors, all right? I believe in you, I'm here for you. I hope you're having an amazing rest of your holiday season. As we get to the end, it's almost Christmas and New Year's, I'd hope you spend time away from work.
with the people you love, recharge, refresh, dream a little bit. Let's kick off 2025 in a fresh, powerful way. It's gonna be a good year. Talk to you soon.
