A YEAR MARKED BY MOMENTUM, REINVENTION, AND THE KIND OF CLARITY THAT ONLY HINDSIGHT DELIVERS.
By April Uchitel, CEO and Founder of THE BOARD
Every Thursday, THE BOARD brings you industry insights from our Members to your inbox.
As the year closes, we’re looking back at one of the most electric chapters in THE BOARD’s history. Every Thursday in 2025, our members: fractional executives, founders, operators, and industry-shaping experts delivered BOARD BRIEFINGS that hit a nerve across LinkedIn and inside companies of every size.
These weren’t think pieces.
They were playbooks.
Signals.
Warnings.
And sometimes, love letters to the future of work, culture, and leadership.
We're sharing the standout themes and most-read insights of the year the ones leaders bookmarked, forwarded, debated, and brought into the boardroom.
And we’re just getting started.
THE BIG THEMES THAT DEFINED 2025. WORK IS BEING REWRITTEN. IN REAL TIME.
From business continuity that centers human life (Erin Erenberg & Elizabeth Coppola) to people leverage as capital allocation (Faheem Siddiqi) to the rise of fractional work (Stephanie Dobbs Brown), 2025 made one thing clear:
The traditional model is done. Flexibility, expertise, and continuity aren’t perks — they’re survival tools.
BRAND BUILDING SHIFTED FROM REACH TO RESONANCE.
2025 was the year marketers admitted what the data already knew: the Big 3 were breaking down. Amy Kapolnek, Lacey Norton, Leslie Holmes, Jennifer Ritter, and others showed us:
Substack, Reddit, and OnlyFans are the new frontiers
Community > content
Resonance is the real driver of conversion
AI is rewriting GTM in ways no funnel can contain (Tina Eskridge)
The takeaway?
Brands that matter aren’t chasing algorithms, they’re choosing connections..
FASHION FACED IT’S RECKONING.
With global turbulence, tariffs, and collapsing predictability, Briana Swords and Sydney Badger gave fashion leaders the clarity they needed:
“Made in America” myths
Dynamic pricing and micro-markets
Anti-fragile portfolios
Why fashion now requires fractional navigation more than ever
In short: The old fashion playbook isn’t broken. It’s irrelevant.
LEADERSHIP GOT REAL. AND HUMAN.
From communication gaps that derail M&A (Faye McCray) to arts institutions becoming undeniable (Christopher Ritter) to internal culture shaping external brand (Your Brand Is a Mirror), our experts called out what leaders often avoid:
You can’t build trust, scale culture, or lead through chaos if you don’t first tell the truth.
THE RISE OF INTELLIGENCE DRIVEN CREATIVITY.
AI didn’t replace creativity, It reframed it.
Our members showed how:
Authenticity beats automation (Kevin Hamilton)
Product education drives long-term growth (Arif Isikgun)
Language systems scale clarity (Stevie Wilson)
Covert Circularity moves around resistance (Karuna Scheinfeld)
2025 proved that smart creativity is the new competitive edge.
OUR 2025 GREATEST HITS.
Business Continuity: The Risks You’re Not Ready For: Erenberg & Coppola
The Big 3 Are Broken: Kapolnek & Norton
How to Build a High-Performance Culture: Siddiqi
AI Just Rewrote the GTM Playbook: Eskridge
Why Fashion Brands Need Expert Navigation (Parts I & II): Swords
Marketing Through Chaos: Bleers & Weiss
Resonance, Not Reach: Holmes & Ritter
The Traditional Work Model Is Over: Dobbs Brown
Your Inauthentic AI Content Will Destroy Your Company: Hamilton
The Unsexy Work That Builds Iconic Brands: Wilson
The Spinach in the Smoothie: Covert Circularity: Scheinfeld
Fitness, Feelings & Finding Your People: Minkove
A year’s worth of expertise distilled into weekly briefings that changed how leaders think, hire, build, navigate, and grow.
AND NOW… 2026
If 2025 was the year leaders woke up,
2026 will be the year they act.
We’re expanding.
We’re elevating voices.
We’re doubling down on the topics executives are demanding:
Fractional innovation
Brand acceleration
Cultural intelligence
The future of work
Product strategy
Finance, governance, and risk
Founder operating systems
AI-native leadership
And yes, every Thursday, we’ll be right here.
Thank you for reading, sharing, saving, and bringing these insights back to your teams.
We’re honored to be in your inbox.
Here’s to a bold year ahead.
See you in January.
THE BOARD
Over the holidays, explore a library of 2025 BOARD BRIEFINGS, a curated collection of the ideas that moved leaders forward this year.
THE BOARD sits uniquely at the intersection of Brand, Business, and Culture. 1:1 advisory, project-based experts, fractional leadership, and curated DREAM TEAMS help you move faster, smarter, and with far less risk. Let’s talk!
Fractional talent is the future, and THE BOARD is where it lives info@theboard.community
