The Ryan Hanley Show
Branding Expert Reveals the Secret to Business Success in 2025 - Sara Connell
Thu, 13 Feb 2025
Sara Connell is a bestselling author and founder of Thought Leader Academy where she helps coaches, writers and entrepreneurs become successful, published authors and in-demand speakers. She has been featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Good Morning America, The View, FOX Chicago, TEDx, The Today Show, and Katie Couric. Today, Sara Connell shares her 2025 forecast, discussing trajectory forecasting, demand forecasting, and key shifts in the stock market and social media marketing. She delves into the current “trust recession” and explores strategies to transform it into a trust ascension by mastering cognitive science and long-term relationship building. They discuss the shift from Simon Sinek’s “It’s all about your why” to “It’s all about your who,” emphasizing the rising importance of personal branding and genuine human connections. Additionally, Sara highlights the role of micro content, AI, and market research in fostering trust, alongside the power of long-form, unscripted content and user-generated content. 🎯 Takeaways: The future trend emphasizes the importance of personal connection over just the reason behind products or services Utilize personal brand and real, unscripted stories to build genuine connections and overcome the "trust recession" Emphasize building long-term relationships and trust rather than relying on short-term tactics 💬 Sound Bites: "What does this particular moment call us forth to become masterful in?" "We are moving from Simon Sinek's it's all about your why to it's all about your who." "People want to trust the person behind it." 🔗 Connect and Discover: Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@saracconnellauthor Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saraconnell/?hl=en Website: https://www.saraconnell.com/ 📖 Chapters: 00:00 "Who Over Why: 2025 Trends" 04:40 Mastering Trust in Uncertain Times 08:14 "Evolving Opportunities Amid Uncertainty" 09:25 Balancing AI and Human Interaction 14:30 Authenticity in Marketing Matters 19:04 Template Fatigue in Online Video 21:08 Creative Burnout in Entrepreneurship 25:49 Nighttime Brain Priming Techniques 26:44 "Priming Brain for Genius Zone" 30:11 "Manifesting Skeptic Turned Believer" 32:35 "The Secret and Brain's Role" 36:52 Identity Shift Sparks Weight Loss 40:00 Books as Visibility Boosters 42:50 "Long Form is King" 📌 𝗙𝗢𝗟𝗟𝗢𝗪 𝗠𝗘 𝗢𝗡: Website: https://go.ryanhanley.com/ Course Page: https://masteroftheclose.com/ Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ryan-hanley-show/id1480262657 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5AZFuTiQsgS9hMQDDdtlOr?si=98432b7806534486 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryan_hanley
Chapter 1: What are the key 2025 trends in branding?
Hello everyone and welcome back to the show. We have a tremendous conversation for you today with Sarah Connell. She is the founder of Sarah Connell Coaching where she helps individuals with expertise, with ideas, with experience, turn that into a best-selling book and ultimately a thought leadership platform as well as so much else. This is a wine-raging and dynamic conversation. However,
There are some key ideas that we get into, especially Sarah projects out our kind of forecast, as she calls it, 2025 and some of the trends that she sees coming. Specifically, we address five. There's one in particular that I want to tease out at you right now. And that is the idea that we are moving from Simon Sinek's It's All About Your Why to to it's all about your who.
Who is greater than why? This is a big idea. It's a core concept to what she is helping her clients achieve in 2025. And I'll be honest with you, I have to agree with her. I have to agree with her reasons why this is such a big trend, and that this is actually what is working in the market today.
Whether you're a small business, you know, you're a coffee shop and a community, and you're trying to grow and expand your influence and where customers come from in to buy your coffee, or you're leading a large multinational organization, or you're an entrepreneur, or you are an author, right? These ideas are paramount. You're going to love these five forecasts that she has for 2025.
Chapter 2: How can businesses master trust during a recession?
And especially, I'm interested in your... thoughts like around this idea of who is greater than why. This concept really caught me, grabbed me. I'm going to put a lot more thought into it, and I think you are going to love it. Before we get to Sarah, if you're watching on YouTube, like this video, subscribe, guys. Leave a comment. I want to hear from you.
If you're listening on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts and you're not subscribed, make sure you do. Leave a rating and review with your thoughts. I read every single one. I appreciate the hell out of you.
And if you haven't yet, if you're not in master of the clothes and sales is an important part of what you do every day, I released a brand new sales course master of the clothes where I teach the process that allowed me to grow multiple organizations across the technology, fitness and insurance industries to scale massively and using inbound leads.
There is a different sales process for inbound leads, and if inbound leads are part of your process, Master of the Clothes is a no-brainer. Go to masteroftheclothes.com today. With that, let's get on to Sarah Connell.
Chapter 3: What does 'who is greater than why' mean for branding?
In a crude laboratory in the basement of his home...
Tara, it's such a pleasure to have you on the show today. Thanks for taking the time. I'm so happy to be here, Ryan. So one of the things that we were talking about before we went live was, you know, we're still early in the year, you know, recording this in early February. And at least I think it's February. And, you know, we talked a little bit about like, what's going to happen in 2025.
And, you know, that's kind of where I'd love to start. I'd love to start with like, when you're looking out over what we have in front of us, kind of where we are as a country as society business wise marketplace and you're dealing with tons of clients tons of successful people like what are you hearing what are you seeing like where's your brain at for forecasting 2025
Yeah, I think, you know, it's very easy to be reactive, right? It's very easy to sort of say, Oh, you know, what's going on in the world and what's happening in the economy. And there's, you know, we're at a certain as, as of the recording of this episode, there's just a lot of churn, a lot of uncertainty.
And so I think that while people can feel like, Oh, what a drag, you know, you hear things like buyers, you know, clients are hesitant. They're scared to make investments. They're the trust recession has happened, right? Like there's this break in trust that people feel in themselves and in leadership and, at all kinds of things, right?
And when I listen to people who've been around a lot longer than I have, and I'm not like a newbie to the world by any means, I've been, you know, coaching and being an entrepreneur for, you know, over 15, almost 20 years. And there's people who have, you know, decades more than I do. And when I listen to them, what I love is they say,
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Chapter 4: How does authenticity play a role in marketing?
every single situation we're in is an opportunity right we all hear that it's like find the gift and everything like really what if we believe that what if we practice that and so what i'm really excited about for 2025 is saying like what does this particular moment call us forth to become masterful in
If we've got to dig deep, if people are taking longer to buy, then how do we become masterful at building trust and playing the long game? Maybe as before, we've gotten really good at the mid game or the short game. And if people are feeling a trust break and a trust recession, how do we create a trust ascension?
And so I think that the people who are going to, you know, win as in, you know, be fulfilling and make an impact and make profitable, you know, big numbers this year and things like that are going to be leaders who are willing to get really resourceful, get excited, even if we have to fake it, because sometimes I do, but like actually say, cool, like,
What what am I going to learn here and get to become really masterful? Because one thing is for sure that creativity and innovation do not come out of the comfort zone. They don't come out of like the in general. They don't really come out of the thriving economy either. It's usually when it's hard and or challenging. And I don't think this is only hard and challenging of a time.
I'm having a great year and it's and it's wonderful. And there is a lot of people are just really in it, like they're just in a lot of feelings and overwhelm. So I think this is an exciting time.
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Chapter 5: What are the effects of template fatigue in content creation?
Well, one, I love the idea of what if we just acted like everything was an opportunity? There's so many things in our life that like cliches or, you know, whatever that we hear. And I think we let them pass by us as. And I love this idea of what if we actually just embrace that cliche, that kind of tried and true mantra, because it's been around for a while for a reason.
Yet, because of that, we seem to like dismiss these ideas. And it's like, why do we always want the new idea when there are like these, you know, 50, 100, 2000 year old ideas that seemingly have lasted forever. And we're kind of like, those ones aren't for me. I need this new shiny idea right here. That's really interesting.
I'd love for you to dig into this trust recession because I find that very interesting. I can see it. I haven't experienced it in my own business necessarily in that way, but I can see it. And I think if you're watching social media, etc., as well as everything that we just came through with the election and mainstream media is being torn apart, all this kind of different stuff.
So maybe break down where you think that's coming from, where you're seeing that. And then I'd like to make this transition into how would you guide someone through flipping trust? If I did, if I was experiencing a trust recession, how do I flip that into an ascension?
Yes. OK, well, I love it because this has been luckily, again, in our business, we've seen it less. And but a lot of people are either trying something new or in certain, I think, people who are running courses, things that have a less like relational aspect. So I think the first thing, is there a trust recession? Yes. In some industries. And it's again, it's not just, oh, Inc.
magazine came out and said 94 percent of consumers right now don't trust ads. Like just don't trust like Facebook ads, television ads, you know, whatever it might be. There are trust breaks with people. They either feel like even influencers like that was such a movement for a long time. And I'll share something in a minute that I think is going to be really big for this year.
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Chapter 6: How can nighttime brain priming enhance creativity?
That's sort of a cousin of the influencer and a way to overcome some of these. So whether you're experiencing it or you're not there, we can all agree. People do feel uncertain and it's harder to make decisions when they feel nervous about whether it's political, economic, whatever it is. So what I think we want to recognize is like leaning into that.
Like I said, instead of being afraid and going kind of bunker mentality, like I'll ride this out till people want to invest more. It's like, what's really the opportunity? And I think a couple of things to create from a recession to an ascension. One is looking at how to be relational versus transactional. I think a big thing that happened last year, if 2024 had been sponsored by something like
It would have been like sponsored by AI, right? Like it was like the year, you know, and, and AI is awesome. There's so many cool things and ways to play with it. But what I personally, just a choice don't have it replace is real human contact. Like even in our marketing, even in, I write all my own books. I write, you know, it's like, I write my own emails because people can feel the difference.
They really can. You can, you can make perplexity and Claude and chat GPT. You could do a lot of stuff. But like people know when it's a robot and when it's a real person.
And so I think that people are willing to say, I know it's going to take longer and cost more, but there is like, so I think focusing on relationship versus transactional, but then using AI for automation, you know, using AI for systems and many different things. So I think like, but where does it make sense to be relational?
It's going to go a really, really long way when there was this, you know, like sense of, of, I don't want to be with a computer. I don't want to be at the robot. Right. I think another, another opportunity is going to be how we can show people, people are investing, not just in the product or result anymore, but they want to trust the person behind it.
So what you're going to see, I believe, is a lot of leaders, CEOs, entrepreneurs doing like what we're doing, having real long form unscripted conversations instead of just being behind a logo. So, right. You're going to see the seven Senate gave a famous viral TED talk a few years ago called many of you know it. It was about people don't buy what you do. They buy why you do it.
And I think in 2025, people aren't going to buy why we do it. They're going to buy who they're buying from.
And so really the importance of personal brand, the importance of being seen from behind, like people having a relationship and inside glance to things like our values and things we care about, even beyond the actual service that we provide or the niche that we're in is going to be a really powerful way to create that trust ascension. And then there's something called the ZMOT.
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Chapter 7: What is the significance of user-generated content?
A.J. Johnson was reading or A.J. Brown was reading a book on the sidelines of the Super Bowl playoff game. And it caught CNN and all the people, what are you bored? Like, why are you reading a book on the sidelines of a Super Bowl? And he said, this book is what I use to get in the game. This book is what I use to get my mind right, to show up and make the key plays and get us to the Superbowl.
So the book, you know, Jim Murphy's book went viral. It came out in like 2018, you know, the revised, but I've been talking with Jim a little bit about this because it's so, it's so cool as a book person, you know, it's what we do help people, you know, write books that help them do this.
And so, so having someone using your thing in their real life to achieve in a result, I think is going to be one of those like Absolutely, it's going to skip the trust recession and build right to trust.
I want to go back to who over why? Because I think that's a really interesting take. And I think that, you know, in some kind of marketing and brand building channels, that would be blaspheming at like the highest degree. My question for you is what I've seen, you know, any influential voice thought leadership.
Chapter 8: Why is long-form content essential in 2025?
I don't necessarily want to say just like influencer type people, but it's almost as if where we used to wear a pair of Nikes as a way to like express our personal value through this physical object. Now you kind of express your personal position or like or your tribe by who you follow, who you quote, you know, et cetera. It's like, is that the trend we're kind of grabbing onto? Yeah.
Well, that's so interesting, right? I don't know as much that it's the tribe or the community, but now I'm going to give that a lot of thought because now I actually want to look at that and do some research and data on that. What I'm seeing it more is, you know, before it was really curated, you know, it was sort of like, I'm going to show sort of the dream life.
And I still think you're going to have that. It's like showing people that like what they could be or what they want. I think that's still crucially important. But sort of if we're making a Venn diagram, I think that that Venn diagrams with people like more real talk.
That's what I meant, like sort of the unscripted instead of just the perfectly filtered photographs, like really real, like more unvarnished, like the less like I'm going to show you my beautiful kitchen where nothing's out of place and showing the mess and not in a way that's like distracting.
But it's like, yes, it's the dream and the result that you're going to get from this product program service. But it's also like, is this a real person or is this some kind of BS that someone because I think, again, that trust that trust meter is really high. Like people signed up for things and they kind of sucked, you know? So who is this person?
So I think it's more for me, I think it's less who we're surrounding ourselves with and following and more, do we have integrity and do we, are we the real deal? And what is the real deal for each of us? You know, cause values, some people value, here's my Lamborghini and my jet and my, you know, and like, that can be really like exciting and sexy and cool.
And other people value, like, I want to know you're not going to like sign me up for your thing and then not show up. And you, you know, you have a good, you talk a good game at the front, but the fulfillment's crap.
And so more stories, that's why I think the stories of people using the thing or doing the thing matter a lot more to people because they want like a real peek behind the curtain, not the perfect marketing.
yeah that's a really good point I think you know what's funny is you see you see people almost trying to like jump that trend who have played the my perfect life or like I rent the Maserati game and then all of a sudden they'll have one where like their hair is messy but then you're like wait a minute but you still put like six filters on it so I don't really like what are we doing here like okay I just woke up and their hair is messy and I'm gonna go do some push-ups but but like you perfectly framed it and it's in one third and the light and I'm like
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