Hey Substack!
In this video, I break down the 5 major consumer and cultural trends that will define 2026. If you’re paying attention, these shifts will open up huge doors for entrepreneurs, creators, and anyone looking to stay ahead of culture.
#1 - The Individual Empire
As I think about the individual empire, I think we're at a tipping point to a conversation I started years ago with my book, Crush It. Crush It came out in 2009 and the message was simple: “Hey, you can cash in on your passion." Then there was Grape Story, when I started the first influencer agency, and later there was my follow-up book, Crushing It.
Many years later, we’re now in this world where it's very clear to people that being an influencer is a business in a way that it wasn't 18 years ago. But more importantly, I'm using the word “empire.”
In 2008, I said all of you—and this is still real—can make $50,000 to $100,000 talking about ALF and the Smurfs and your passions.
Now, what I'm saying in 2026 is you can build an empire.
Now, we’re talking about individuals not just making money from brand deals, but something bigger:
The CPG and consumer product opportunity.
Look at the fact that the Kelce brothers just raised a $200 million valuation on their beer … or look at what's going on with Logan Paul and Jake Paul and their brands (especially Prime, Logan Paul and KSI's brand) … think about Charli D’Amelio going for her popcorn… or Emma Chamberlain and her coffee. All people who built massive brands and then launched successful CPG brands.
It’s similar to building your brand on Instagram, but then going and standing up a Patreon or Substack, etc. In those scenarios, social platforms still take some of the action. However, when that’s built on a decentralized sever instead of a centralized server or a platform that owns it, then YOU own all the money. You’re maximizing all of your revenue and not sharing it. Yes, you will share with the places that give you the attention: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, whatever the platform is. But you’re going to be monetizing in a decentralized way where you keep 100% of that dollar, not 80% or 90%.
#2 - The Unplugging of Gen Alpha
This one is so fun for me. I am completely convinced that Gen Z, Gen Alpha (that's coming next), and very honestly, maybe even Young Millennials are all understanding that the phone 📱 is great, but it’s not the end-all, be-all… and we don’t want to live on it 24/7, 365.
(By the way, I know you all want to demonize it, but this 📲 is great… it has changed your life. I know we’re all shitting on it, but how do you order food? How do you get a date? How do you do a million things? So, yes, this is great, AND we can try something else.)
So the unplugging is just a pendulum swing. In 2006, smartphones and social platforms didn’t exist as they do today and didn’t have any of the market share. Now, the pendulum has swung the other way and phones have gotten so much market share that we’re starting to unplug 🔌
I think within the next decade, starting in 2026, we’ll see more businesses around the concept of unplugging. I recently talked about a business concept where you get paid to walk with people—like, literally walk with them.
I think experiential businesses will be huge: music festivals, going to outdoor events, just going out and putting the phone away.
Number two biggest trend in 2026: the unplugging of Gen Alpha, which is an indicator to the unplugging of every generation.
#3 - The Monetization of Random Content
This is a weird one and I'm excited about this because I think this is going to be the breakthrough for some people…
When I wrote Crush It in 2008 (it came out in ‘09), the message was that you can cash in on your passion. So if you're a hardcore Star Trek collector, if you really go crazy for two years on your blog (at the time), and on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, eventually you'll get to a place where you can get t-shirts sold, sponsorships… you can go speak at Star Trek Con, and all that stuff. What I'm saying here is very different…
This is about where we are now in overall marketing and communication. We're now in the interest graph, not the social graph. We're now in a place where I, Gary, could tomorrow make my first ever piece of content around surfing… and even though all my followers do not follow me for surfing, the way the AI algorithms now work is when I post about surfing, and why surfboards are good, and why you should buy a surfboard from me, or why this is a good surfboard, or surf chalk, or whatever the hell I learned about surfboards… that content is going to reach people that are in a high propensity interest of surfboards.
Why is this important?
I believe for everybody who's reading right now, if they started posting content of everything that they are interested in—everything. Not their “passion”, but their “passions,” plural—and their curiosities, they would win.
The rise of curiosity content.
You're curious, you're exploring, you're on training wheels, but you're learning.
My brother, AJ, does not know how to ride a bike… but if he started making content as a 39-year-old man, about his journey on learning to ride a bike, here is my belief of the world we now live in: For many of you, these random pieces of social content become the first indicator to a massive financial and happiness opportunity. The monetization of random content.
You post something funny about sunflower seeds because you spit one out on your friend and you're like, "That's funny. Let's make another one." And you find yourself, six months later, getting $5,000 from a sunflower seed brand to do content. It's about a very simple concept, which is why not? Why not post something random, all the time, that you're genuinely interested in? It’s not about reading this and posting random things just because you believe I'm right—though honestly, that's probably not a bad idea either. But obviously, if it's grounded in truth and authenticity, it's going to work better.
When all of you start putting out more random content, when that post gets three million views, it opens up the opportunity for you to build on top of it. Now, you might not be able to. You might get inspired by me in this post, eat a pickle, put out a video about pickles and it hits. It gets 3 million views… and now you're getting DMs from people like, "What do you know about pickles?” and “Do you want come to the pickle festival?" You might be like, “I don't… and honestly, I don't care and I have nothing else to contribute. I just eat pickles.” Well, there are a lot of people that have made full careers out of ridiculous things. The Rizzler just says ridiculous things and makes a face… The “Where's the beef?” lady in the 80s just said, “Where's the beef?” and that was her career. So, you could be a random spokesman or something of that nature… but if you keep it authentic, if it's something you really know about or it's something you want to know about, it actually allows you to build in-depth, not just randomness. And so your random thing becomes the documentation of your journey, which then becomes your monetizable framework of content.
It's a left-field thought that I think a lot of people are going to struggle with grasping. I myself am in my journey of really getting this narrative down, but it's very clear to me. Do I believe it's in the vested interest of all of you to post way more often on TikTok completely random stuff that is grounded in things that you really know about or things that you're curious about? The answer is yes.
If you just got motivated by that, let me give you the list of what you need to do. If you're going to go down the random play in social, make sure your bios on your TikTok and Instagram accounts are really tight and awesome—meaning they have your email and phone number listed. Don’t forget, there's a whole left field thing here. Let’s say you’re a golf trainer and you give people lessons. You start putting out content about random things like pumpkins, wet hair, or porcupines—just random ass shit. When your porcupine video gets three million, people are going to land on your account. If they see that you're a professional golf expert and you do golf lessons, and you have an email there and a phone number, of the three million people that see your porcupine video, nine of them are looking for golf lessons.
So, this gets very practical of just general awareness, relevance on an individual thing you connect on with a new audience. Some of you liked me because we're both sad New York Jets fans, right? But then when you needed, four years later, some wine or you needed an agency, you went to me because we're Jets fans. Somebody loves porcupines. They loved your video. They may choose you to do the golf lessons.
So there's two things. Your career might be about porcupines because you decided to go down that path… or it became a gateway drug to your service or your business, because you want on interest in a micro moment, not a macro moment. Your profile's got to be tight.
#4 - The Rise of the Continent of Africa.
The numbers are staggering. When you look at how much youth of our overall population in a decade will be in the continent of Africa… when you're worldly enough to interact with many of the incredible young talent from these countries… when you understand that the way the world turns is every continent gets its time. (Many of us who are in my age group watched the rise of Asia and the rise of the Middle East)…
It is very clear that Africa as a continent is absolutely the big winner of the next 20, 30, 40 years, and for many of you watching, this should open up the aperture.
Do you have relatives there and you're like, "Wait a minute, Gary, you're saying that my professional career’s growth is actually from my grandparents and cousins that live in Kenya or Nigeria?" Yes, that is exactly what I'm saying. The opportunity there is extraordinary, both doing business there and two, understanding how amazing the raw firepower of the young talent is in that country from an intellect and hunger standpoint. Again, follow what I'm saying here, similar to what we saw in India, Japan, China, overall Asia, and the Middle East over the last 25, 30, 40 years here in the west—in Europe and the US.
So, huge opportunities, the cultural impact—I don't have to tell anybody that follows music. We've already seen any early indications. Just like we saw Latin music massively impact the US over the last 25 years, we've already been seeing African music impact top hits in the US. African influencers, the culture, the food, the sport, and it goes both ways. Just like you're seeing manga and anime and Asian culture massively impact the west, the west has massively, always—because of the Hollywood machine in America—impacted the East. The opportunity in Africa is very clear. You have to understand it. It's either direction.
You're 23 and you want an adventure? You're a white boy in Kansas and you're like,
"I'm an entrepreneur. Wait, Gary's saying Africa?” Yes, I'm saying Africa.
Obviously, Africa is a massive continent. In fact, it's so much bigger than you think because it's misrepresented on the globe… and obviously, every country has its geopolitical stuff, its entrepreneurial opportunities. Some are great, some are not great—really no different than Europe or anywhere else. But overall, the impact is enormous. The basketball culture, both the African Basketball League, but the talent coming in… Nigeria's athletes starting to penetrate the NFL in a massive way. Like, do I believe that? Yes, I do. Does it take patience? Yes, it does. Is that how great businesses are sometimes built? For damn sure.
Africa's impact is massive and the opportunities are massive in both directions.
#5 - The Rise of Alternative Sports
This has been massive for me. I've been following esports for a long time. We represent a bunch of esports—Mongraal, Clix, and all these great athletes in VaynerSports. Obviously, I got involved in pickle ball early on. That's been very fruitful. I'm obsessed with what's going on with wiffle ball, padel, 3-on3—Big3 and Unrivaled basketball, both men's and women's. I’ve had my hands deep in this…
Obviously, many of you also know my long-term ambition to own the New York Jets. I’m involved in slam ball as well… I had a conversation a few months ago about bowling and I’m like, “Ooh, I like that.” There are countless examples, but it’s very clear to me is that this is going to keep going.
Look at the rise of UFC and esports in the last 30 years. It’s very clear. Do you think these exhibition fighting matches between Tyson and Jake Paul, and Mayweather and Paul, and Paul and Paul… do you think these things would work if social and YouTube didn't exist? Nobody would care. Nobody would watch. So it goes from YouTube to Netflix.
This is going to continue to happen. This 📲 is the device that’s changed the world as we talked about. And there’s going to be room for more and more sports.
The rise of alternative sports because of how the media landscape has changed is firm, and it changes absolutely everything. All of you need to look into it.
Basketball and football and baseball and soccer were invented by human beings, and guess what? There's a kid reading this right now—right now on Substack—who got inspired by this and is going to actually invent the next hockey, basketball, and football… and in 53 years will reference this blog, and that makes me feel good. I hope I’m alive to get those flowers!
And I’ll save #6 for 2026…
You’ll have to wait for a special video in the future. Thanks for reading!
Looking forward to #6
Bang on❗️ can’t wait for 2026