Arrrrr! 🏴☠️ Welcome to a 🔒 subscriber-only edition 🔒 of Category Pirates. Each week, we share radically different ideas to help you design new and different categories. For more: Dive into an audiobook | Listen to a category design jam session | Enroll in the free Strategy Sprint email course
Dear Friend, Subscriber, and Category Pirate,
Consumer confidence is collapsing, travel is tanking, and a ton of people are pressing pause on big purchases.
Not because inflation is skyrocketing. (It’s not.)
Not because unemployment is surging. (It’s not—yet.)
But because confidence has disappeared from the market.
In this Jam Session, we break down the signals that show why 2025 could become a lost year for many businesses—and why this is exactly when new categories are born.
If you’ve ever had the itch to create something of your own, this is your signal to start.
Because these moments (when the system stutters, when everyone else is waiting it out) are when Category Designers build what comes next. They look into the future, spot the need, and build the solution before the market knows what to ask for.
You don’t need permission.
You just need to start.
And the people who do? They won’t just survive the next shift. They’ll design it.
In this conversation, you’ll discover:
Why consumer sentiment just hit its lowest point since COVID
What TSA traffic, tourism data, and iPhone shipments say about Q2
How digital products, services, and local supply chains are safe havens
The headlines are noisy. The data is “weird” and messy. But underneath it all, a pattern is emerging: The old Analog-first economy is wobbling, while Digital-first creators are quietly building something more substantial.
This isn’t a crisis to fear—it’s a moment to reimagine what’s possible.
Here’s how to navigate it:
00:37 – Consumer Sentiment Collapse: Why confidence (not cash) is evaporating fast, and how to plan for it
02:30 – Tourism Tanking: What falling travel data reveals about geopolitical tension and consumer priorities
06:22 – Dirty Data Ahead: How forward buying is masking deeper demand issues and how this impacts Superconsumers
08:40 – The Tariff-Safe Havens: Which Digital-first and local-supply categories are poised to thrive
16:30 – Pivot Or Perish: What every legacy goods worker should ask themselves right now
2025 may not be a recession year.
But it might be something else entirely: a reset.
One that rewards the pirates bold enough to build something different.
Arrrrrr,
Category Pirates 🏴☠️
P.S. - Are you building your own category or waiting to be positioned?
If this conversation inspired you to take control of your future and design your career, follow that signal. Because the Creator Economy is for anyone with a skill, a story, or a Superpower they’re ready to turn into income and impact.
This May, we’re launching something big: The Creator Capitalist Course.
If you're ready to stop renting your future—and start getting paid to be you…
