TikTok Trends November 2025
My first real job was at 15 at a random franchise packing and shipping store called Postal Annex. My role was packing strangers’ memories into bubble wrap and boxes. Fragile gifts, love letters, Christmas surprises.
One woman would come in every December with a stack of padded envelopes. Inside each one was A single can of Dr. Pepper. Turns out her family invented Dr. Pepper and that was her annual holiday card.
After college, I got my first management job at a cell phone store. Then multiple stores. Then 200 people.
The thing is, I never dreamed of managing retail. I cried tears of distress and disappointment the day I accepted the job.
This wasn’t the creative path I thought I would blaze. (I should be designing fashions or photographing for magazines!)
Sometimes life doesn’t hand you the dream.
It hands you the training ground.
Five years of 12-hour days — open to close — thousands of miles from my family… taught me more about leadership and humanity than most textbooks ever could:
How to connect with someone in 60 seconds
How to have hard conversations with softness and clarity
That data is a superpower — everything can be measured
That enthusiasm, vulnerability, and personality are actual tools of success.
…and that life doesn’t grow because of products, it grows because of people.
This week marks 7 years of running Small Business Saturday marketing initiatives for clients. Every year it’s a beautiful whirlwind — events, promos, creators, content, last-minute pivots… but at the end of the day, it comes back to what retail taught me:
Good business is joy and connection for people.
You invite people in. You show up. You care.
Every sale to a small business owner matters.
It feeds dreams.
It’s remembered.
It fuels a whole ecosystem of people building something real, one hello and one receipt at a time.
Retail raised me. And honestly? I’m grateful it did.
I look at social media like I look at a storefront:
Feed balance and bio are the exterior signage & window display.
Reels are little stories on the shelf up for grabs - packed with intention, value, and vibe.
Stories are the peek behind the scenes, a little messy but fun chats happening right now with the team members and other customers.
Insights are the KPI dashboard for how the shop is doing
Did retail teach YOU something?
Or maybe your training ground didn’t look like your dream either?
Lindsay
Silly Little News
Spotify Wrapped:
Honestly, does anyone even remember that Spotify Wrapped is almost here? (It will be available this week, at least that’s what people are saying on line).
I have a theory about that. I think most people are still disappointed by last year's version, among other things.
It took forever to be released, the "AI-made" summaries felt random, and the whole thing lacked its usual creative spark. It later came out that Spotify had laid off a lot of staff, and the lack of a human touch was noticeable.
The older Wrapped campaigns were clever and felt like a fun inside joke with listeners. Last year's just didn't hit the same mark.
I'm curious to see what they'll do this year. Will they win their users back, or will it be another letdown?
DWTS 2025
The season kicked off with a bang: the premiere (Sept 16, 2025) drew about 5.5 million viewers — the biggest premiere for the show in five years.
And given the cast of social media all-stars….Alix Earle… MomTok… I think the casting department learned that they need to cast viral social sensations!
(New life goal?!)
As the weeks went on, viewership surged instead of dropping. For example, “Dedication Night” pulled nearly 6.0 million viewers, and several themed episodes (like “Wicked Night”) also hit season highs.
The finale absolutely crushed previous records: about 9.24 million total viewers tuned in, making it the show’s biggest finale audience in 9 years.
In the key advertiser-valued demographic (adults 18–49), the finale scored a 2.15 rating — nearly double last season’s finale — and the strongest demo performance in a decade
Robert Irwin and Witney Carson took home the trophy, and Its safe to say if you were watching you are in good company - so use It in your content!
Stranger Things: The beginning of the end.
Who has already watched the first part of the new season of Stranger Things!?
The final season is here, and fans are excited. Stranger Things 4 is one of the most-watched English-language series ever on Netflix. This week, all four seasons are in the top 10 of most watched shows on Netflix - totaling about 7M views this week.
It’s another pop-culture show that has mass appeal, and if you relate your content to It- you will find fans for sure!
Everyone's already deep-diving into the Easter eggs, trying to figure out Hawkins' fate and the new Vecna lore.
Trend: Aren't You Embarrassed?
People often try to make content creators (especially women) feel embarrassed for putting themselves out there. A new trend tackles this directly by putting our problems into perspective: in the vast scale of the world, what we fear is insignificant.
This trend has two simple approaches:
1. Acknowledge the feeling: "I'm embarrassed, but I want to achieve my goal, so I'm doing it anyway."
2. Reject the feeling: "Why should I be embarrassed? The world is huge, and I'm just one person doing something that makes me happy."
The point is your work and happiness matter more than anyone's judgment.
Examples: Speck, Particles, Yes, but it's fun, Mortgage, No, IG audio.
Stay on top of social media trends! 📬 Join the Authentic Creators Network, the content creator network of our CT social media marketing agency and get exclusive prompts delivered right to your inbox.
