Business As Usual Isn’t Working Anymore - Here’s Why

The Turning Times are here

If you’re a listener of the podcast, you’ve heard me talk about Turning Times. It’s actually a big premise of the show and my work: we’re currently in the turning, the transition between one era of business, society and leadership and the next.

The last few weeks two major announcements dropped in the online business space and it struck a chord with folks.

First, Jenna Kutcher — an OG influencer, beloved podcaster, and digital educator — announced that she’s shutting down her podcast. Then, just days later, Amy Porterfield — widely known for her helping people grow their businesses with online marketing and digital courses — revealed that she’s closing down her signature Digital Course Academy.

Boom. Boom.

This news caused a ripple online.

These are women who have built successful online brands and have taught thousands of others to do the same. Preached the power of courses, podcasts and coaching. And to watch them publicly retire their flagship offers within the span of a week? The commentary was immediate.

Some speculated: Maybe these offers aren’t as profitable as they seemed. Maybe podcasting, digital courses and (gasp) the coaching industry are done for.

Others countered: They don’t owe anyone an explanation. It’s okay to pivot. Business owners evolve. They should be applauded for leading from alignment!

All of that may be true.

But there’s a deeper layer I don’t hear many people naming — and it’s this layer that I want to speak more life into today.

Not because I typically comment on online business gossip (I don’t), but because these business closing moments aren’t isolated. They’re part of a string of closings I’ve witnessed over the last year and a half, and they’re symptomatic of something much bigger.

It’s not that podcasts aren’t working anymore.

It’s not that courses are irrelevant.

And it’s definitely not that the coaching industry is dying.

But business as usual is changing because the very fabric of our society is undergoing a seismic change.

We’re not just witnessing personal pivots.

We’re living through a collective turning, and this is what I want to speak more about today.

What the heck is going on?

Why does everything feel so intense?

And how you can plan your business and life in these unprecedented times.

Because, my friend, it is most definitely not business as usual.

So, What Are Turning Times?

The term “Turning Times” is a concept introduced by William Strauss and Neil Howe, two American men who studied and wrote about generational patterns in history. These are the very same guys who coined the term “Millennials.”

Before you look sideways at me (History! Economics! Men! I thought this was a feminine business page?!), let me share how I found Strauss & Howe’s work:

Around the 2024 election, I found myself on my acupuncturist’s table talking his ear off about the “age-defying” astrology we’re currently living through, and why I felt whoever won we were in for some crazy times ahead.

We riffed on esoteric and spiritual concepts often while I was on that table, and while we had many similar values and perspectives, we pulled from such different worlds and bodies of work.

After this particular dialogue, he said “Have you heard of the Fourth Turning?”

I hadn’t, but I was intrigued. Dr. Su sent me this powerful talk in which Howe is interviewed by Tony Robbins and explains the central theory of their book The Fourth Turning which I’ll summarize for you here:

The Fourth Turning proposes that history is not linear but cyclical.

According to Strauss and Howe, Western — especially American — history unfolds in recurring cycles, each lasting roughly 80–100 years and divided into four distinct turnings which can be mapped to the natural seasons:

• A High (Spring) - an era of collective confidence and strong institutions

• An Awakening (Summer) - a period of spiritual or cultural upheaval

• An Unraveling (Fall) - where individualism rises and institutions weaken and

• A Crisis (Winter) - This crisis era fundamentally reshapes society and institutions and culminates in the emergence of a new social order.

The “Fourth Turning” is the Crisis itself — the moment when accumulated tensions and weakened institutions reach a breaking point and society confronts major disruptive challenges.

Sound familiar?

According to Strauss & Howe’s research, we are in a Fourth Turning right now. We are in the Crisis, in the breakdown before the breakthrough.

The Good News: at the end of a Fourth Turning, a new cycle begins with a High, just like at the end of every winter, no matter how long or hard, there comes a Spring.

Winter Isn’t Comfortable — But It’s Purposeful (And You Can’t Opt Out)

In The Fourth Turning, the Crisis (Winter) serves a very specific function: it is the period when a society is forced to confront what is no longer working and consciously rebuild its foundations.

Strauss and Howe don’t frame this period as failure — but as a regenerative process.

The Winter is when society decides, often under pressure, what it values enough to preserve and what must be let go.

Historically, they point to events like the Great Depression and World War II as examples of Winters that produced stronger institutions, shared purpose, and a renewed social contract on the other side.

I know a lot of people are feeling the pressure, the intensity, the uncertainty.

When we see leaders like Jenna and Amy shutting down long-standing offers that worked, that made money, that had brand equity, we start to wonder what it means for us.

This is obviously about so much more than the online business world. It’s our politics. The economy. The environment. The collective nervous system that feels fried.

What this Turning Times context provides us is a powerful reframe: businesses closing, collapsing systems, bleak headlines don’t all necessarily mean we’re doomed, but rather we’re heading into a new season.

Sure, it’s often uncomfortable to face what comes up in a Winter season, but what I find most helpful about this framework and the analogy to nature’s cycle, is that this season is purposeful.

Something else Strauss & Howe point out is that we can’t opt out of these seasons, these transitions.

And so especially as businesses owners & leaders, it becomes even more important that we meet the moment as it is.

It’s no longer spring, or summer. The strategy that worked then may not survive the winter. But that doesn’t mean we or our work won’t survive. We just need new strategies.

So how should we move in this season? What business and leadership strategies work in a Winter / Crisis season?

Before we get to that I want to weave another layer in here.

If studying history gives us the pattern, studying astrology gives us the current pulse — the specific, energetic undercurrent shaping our choices, challenges, and possibilities right now.

In part two, I’ll walk you through the rare and monumental astrological transits unfolding across 2026 and beyond — and how they confirm, deepen, and personalize everything we just explored.

If this post gave you language for what’s happening in the outer world, part two will help you anchor and respond accordingly in your leadership and business. Stay tuned.