Create Content That Grows Your Business (Without Chasing Trends)

People aren't necessarily following specific content anymore, but I will tell you, they are following energy. They're following people with conviction. The people that I'm following right now are showing up big and bold. Do you know why? Because we all want some of that. Hey, everyone, welcome back to the podcast. It's time for another quickie, because there's always time to fit in inspiration. And this is a podcast that is going to set you up to win in 2026. And that's all we're talking about right now, right? Because it's the new year. And, you know, if you're going on any podcast right now, everybody who has a business or who wants to launch a business has it on their mind of what's going to be different this next year. How am I going to separate myself from the pack? Because 2025 has been clear to every business owner that something changed and something has to give and something has change in your business. So 2026 is not going to necessarily reward the loudest, the busiest, or even the most polished, but it is going to reward the people who are clear on who they are and have a clear point of view and are courageous enough to stand for it and convicted enough to stop chasing what everyone else is doing, essentially figuring out what your message is and putting your blinders on. So you're gonna stop trying to keep up with trends, which, don't get me wrong, I love a trend. If it's fun and it's easy, I think it's a great way to portray your personality type. But trends are not repeatable. They're confusing. They are. Every time you go to sit down and figure out what you're doing, it's not something that feels very clear to you. So anything that's like that, you're not going to want to get caught up in. So unless a trend is super easy for you and a fun way for you to portray your personality, you're going to want to hon hone in on some of the things that we talk about in this podcast today. So these are the top five ways to lose the pack and come out on top in 2026. The first one is to stop optimizing for algorithms, but to start optimizing for your identity. Meaning what most people will do is they're gonna chase platforms. Like, let's say you just suck ass on TikTok, but you're like, I'm gonna do TikTok no matter what. Like, I do think it's important to learn different platforms for sure. But if you're already so familiar on Instagram, I would say go hard on really getting good on a singular platform to start now. If you're already good, go ham like, go try some other things. But what most people will also do is chase trends. They'll chase maybe hooks that other people have done that don't necessarily fit into their message. They'll chase virality, when instead we should really be chasing our clear identity and our clear customer. Like the clear message of exactly what we want to be saying to solve a problem of our ideal client. So what winners are going to do? Winners of 2026. So, as I'm saying, winners, that's what I'm talking about. The people who are going to win 2026, they're going to anchor themselves in a clear identity or getting really, really clear and a clear point of view that works everywhere. And that point of view will have a thread throughout their podcast, if they have one, throughout their email, throughout their a stage that they're speaking on, throughout a mastermind that they're speaking in, or throughout a product, throughout their brand, throughout their whole life. And this is actually literally what I'm working on right now. Like, it's in my calendar to go and look back at my website that I literally just redid. But the messaging is off from what I want to be saying on Instagram, and it's off from how I'm really feeling on my podcast. And I'm getting more and more and more clear on what that brand message is and who my ideal client is. So algorithms change all of the time, you guys, but your identity is the thing that you can really bet on, and that's going to compound for you. So people aren't necessarily following, like, specific content anymore, but I will tell you is that they are following energy. They're following people with conviction. I will tell you that the people that I'm following right now are showing up big and bold. Do you know why? Because we all want some of that. We all want permission and we all want to feel like we can speak our message and how we really feel more freely. And when people do that, it gives permission to the other person. So imagine if you're just showing up vanilla and you're just mild and you're just like, I want everyone to like me. So I'm not actually going to say how I feel. People aren't going to want any of that because they don't need it. They're like, look, I can do this myself. I already feel vanilla. I already feel like I'm you know, saying what I need to to fit in. But now I need the energy and the boldness and the permission to stand out. And I'm going to follow the person who's giving me the permission to stand out and to really speak how I feel or to speak very, very clearly. So if your content disappeared tomorrow, would people miss you? You Would they miss the delivery in which you are saying your message and how you're feeling in your gut and in your body when you're delivering that message? Right? Like what? How are they feeling when they're listening to you and seeing you? Or are you just giving tips? Like, could this be from any talking head at all? Could this be from an AI business bot person, whatever we're calling it, and they could be saying this exact message? Or are you getting on with such conviction and fire or excitement or courage or confidence that you're literally oozing with it to the point that people are actually getting second hand confidence. Like, this is what energy we want to be rolling out with. And maybe you're not giving your people confidence, maybe you're giving them boldness, maybe you're giving them something like groundedness, whatever it is, how are you like passing that energy on? And I'll tell you something, if I get on here and I'm low energy and I don't hype myself the fuck up before I get on here, like, you're never gonna feel anything behind this message. If I just sat and like said these words in a very monotone fashion and I was just kind of giving you the five ways that you can stand out from the pack this year, like anyone can regurgitate that. But what you cannot regurgitate is conviction in your soul and energy. And for some of you, myself included in this group, I have to convict myself of my message and in my energy, like I have to first be like, this is how I feel, this is what I believe. This is how I want them to feel. Like I get into state before I turn the microphone on because I know the importance of me literally generating this energy and passing it on to you. So you don't want diluted energy, you don't want to get on and just read something. You want to feel it, you want to ground in it, you want to get convicted. And that is what's going to separate you from the pack in 2026. So number two, you are going to need to build a brand that teaches people how you think. It doesn't just teach a point. So what most people are doing is they're going to keep teaching content that AI can already do. They can do it faster, can do it cheaper, it can do it whenever you want it. But what winners are going to do next year is they're going to teach how they think. It's going to empower people to be able to sit down and be able to have this thought process for themselves. So for example, something that I'm working on is like teaching people how I'm thinking about content, that it finally is working for me. Like I can sit down and read how to create content all day long, but if I actually don't know the breakdown of how it will fit in my business, then my content is just shitty. And I'm so confused. Like I have bought so many courses on content creation, content creation, scheduling, because I am very, very creative. Like I'm a visionary, I'm creative. It is hard for me to be linear, it's hard for me to follow a plan and it's hard for me to understand how my multiple businesses fit into one plan. And so what I have finally figured out, after years and years of thinking how this works and clarifying, like I'm multi passionate, I have multiple businesses, how do I portray this to my audience, being really, really clear and not confusing them. And I finally am figuring out the breakdown and seeing it work in my content and convert. So I'm going to teach in a course like a low ticket offer next year that you will see exactly how I think in order to break down a content calendar, that when I sit down I no longer feel confused. I know exactly how to speak to my ideal customer, I know how to speak to multiple ideal customers and I how to convert them and what I need to set up in order to capture them. Now this is years and years and years of trying to figure this out for myself. Could I create something in AI that like, is super fast and could, you know, teach people how to post content, but does it actually teach them how to think about how to separate it and really understand how to capture the attention of their exact customer? No, not necessarily at all. Because you have to have different thought processes to these things that actually work. Because there's so much generic shit out there, you guys, it's absolutely insane. Which is also why there's a trust recession, is because so many people literally are putting AI stuff out there that they could have entered in themselves and then charging for it. So you need to teach people how to think, not just regurgitate things back to them. That could have been done on chatgpt okay, taking a moment for a rich girl tip for you. If you're somewhere between 500k and a million and trying to scale beyond that and feeling weirdly stuck right now, I'm going to tell you something that no one in your circle is going to ever tell you. You're not stuck. You're just surrounded by people who can't take you where you want to go. So we need to be honest. You've outgrown your current circle, you've outgrown the rooms that you're in. And probably a whole lot of the advice that you have been getting is only going to have you regress or keep you st exactly where you are. So rich girl rule number one, proximity is a power move, you guys. You can't scale from asking people who haven't built what you want. And number two, if you're the one mentoring everyone, you're in the wrong room. So trust me, Chris and I have learned this the very expensive way. I have to tell you, this is going to hurt. We once paid 75k each for a mastermind where we were the most successful people in the room. Cute for our ego, terrible for our business and our pocketbooks. That was one of the most expensive, expensive lessons we've ever had to learn. No one was stretching us. No one had the answers that we really needed to scale. No one was playing much bigger than us. And we will never do that again. You guys, everything changed when we finally got into the spaces where people talked investments, systems, scale and hiring like CEOs, not just hustling more rooms where conversations literally collapse. Timelines, you guys. And that's why we created the Elite Entrepreneur Mastermind. It is two, three and a half day luxury in person retreats with incredible experiences and it's monthly challenge solving calls. It's direct access to Chris and myself. It's a curated high level network where money moves faster because everyone is thinking so much bigger. Thinking big and making millions of dollars is the baseline in this room. So if you're ready for that type of room that finally matches your ambition, if you're done being the big thinker and pouring into everyone in your space and not getting poured into, just go to Instagram and DM me the word apply or you can go to show notes and you can click on the link below that says Elite Entrepreneur Mastermind. I will send you all of the details and from there we can book a call if you have more questions. You guys, don't forget about rule number three is to not wait for your circle to elevate you get in the room that literally upgrades your entire identity. And we also have the mentor collective mastermind if you have not hit over 500k yet. So go and check that out. And I am so excited to spend time with you in these incredible in person rooms next year. So when you're thinking of what you're teaching in your offers, there's also a lot to be said about storytelling and what that taught you and bringing that in as well. Because stories really sell. And AI doesn't tell your stories. Like that's what been. One challenging thing is when I'm trying to create content with AI, I'm like, my God, I need to feed it like so many stories and so many different details in order for this to even capture the way that I think and understand my voice. Because without these stories, it doesn't know where you're coming from and it doesn't take into context all of these little, like, nuances and these little details that are very important for people to understand so that they can also figure this out and think for themselves. So number three is simplify your offers while everyone else is overcomplicating. So a lot of people in this industry, especially myself included in the beginning, really thought that the more that you jam pack into an offer, it's like, look, it has this and has this and has this feature and that feature and that feature that you feel like, okay, well this is worth the money, right? Like, I want you to think about the most complex car that you've ever been inside of. Or I want you to think about some gadget, like, maybe your husband loves it, but I want you to think about some electronic gadget. It's like, it does this, it does this, it does that. And I'm like, okay, well, I'm only gonna use these three things. I'm never gonna take the time to do these other things. And it's actually overwhelming me to even think about learning about them. So it feels less like it's adding to my life. It actually feels like it's taking away and it takes away from the product because I'm like, why would I pay all of this money for this car when I'm not gonna use all of the features that I'm paying for? When I just want these three things. Like, I want my radio to like have a turn knob for the volume. I do not want like push button that I have to search for and find like, that sounds like my worst nightmare. I've had this, like, I want knobs right? So. So picture in your course, you're like, there's this, this, this, this. And the person's like, well, I really only want to solve one clear problem. So all of a sudden, the course that you thought was so valuable just became completely devalued because they don't want all of that, and it overwhelms them. And they're not in that position yet. So simplifying your offers and really breaking it down, what problem that particular thing solves. And then if you want more and you want to add more, those can also be upsells. Those can be bump sells. But really looking at it in that way that people are overwhelmed. They're overwhelmed. They don't trust themselves to finish or to complete these courses. I mean, same. Same girl, same. I have three courses in my inbox right now that, like, the shorter ones actually make me feel empowered. Cause I'm like, oh, my God, I feel so good. I did that. I got the main point. I've already integrated this. But this other one, my God, has 10 things. I'm overwhelmed. Oh, my gosh. What was I on? Module three? Okay. I haven't integrated. I'm gonna. By the time I even get to the next module after integrating, like, I'm gonna forget that I have this course, and it's gonna feel like a waste of money. Right. How many people have done that? So, number four, moving from personal brand to a personal standard. So what most people are gonna do next year, a lot of people are still stuck in trying to be liked. They are stuck in trying to be relatable, trying to be palatable. And don't get me wrong, I am the queen of this, you guys. I want people to love me. It's like, it is a thing for me. Like, I was just talking to a couple of friends, and I was like, no, it's so bad. I will find, like, let's pretend I'm at my Pilates class. Everyone will be being nice to me. Not everyone. Let's just say, like, three people. It'll be like, I have the most lovely three people that I look forward to seeing, but I will find the one. I will find the one who I think doesn't like me or the one who really doesn't like me. And I will spend all of my energy instead of making friends and getting closer to the people who actually like me, who I actually love, too. I will spend all of my energy trying to make that one person who hates me, who I actually don't even think I'd ever want to be friends with. I want to win them over. Now, I've gotten much better, much better with this. But I don't know what that. That gene is that's inside of me, but clearly it's a broken one. So people get stuck here. And if you notice in the story, I'm wasting my energy because I could be using that on making really close friends, or I could be using that on meeting other people who we could totally hit it off, or maybe we have something in common in business and we could create something magical together. Who knows? I could be using it elsewhere instead of spending time there. But what the winners of 2026 will do instead is they're going to set a personal standard for how they show up, how they speak, how they sell, how they lead, who they're around, what they're going to put their time into. And this is going to be really important because you're as you are, speaking up more and showing up more. You can't put your energy into any of the negative comments, into any of the haters, into any of your family that's like, oh, that's so cute, or oh, it's so funny how you decided to show up. Like, that's not. That's not who you really are every day. Like, you guys, there is a bit of, like, an alter ego that you have to have online and in business. And I really believe it's too. It's to, like, protect yourself. And it doesn't mean that you're, you know, you're being inauthentic. I'm many, many people. Like, who I am on stage is not who I am sitting in my family room with my family. You know, I'm not gonna get on a platform and be like, family, listen up. Like, we need to give permission and stop doing this and break these patterns. Like, you, you are different people in different environments. And so you really need to know, like, when to bring in that version of you who is gonna stand up, show up, speak up, and lead. So instead of trying to be liked in the areas where you need to actually stand out, that's where that's really important to know where you need to authentically show up in that version of you that does have that alter ego, that does feel that way, that does have a voice that is a leader. So authority and like, really embodying authority in your space is going to come from consistency and practice. And it's. It's not going to come from trying to be liked, though. It's not going to come from trying to be liked because I really believe everyone is tired of like performance. Like performative influencers. They're literally craving. Like tell me how you relate to me. Tell me how you and I are the same. Like tell me how you understand the problem that I am actually in, because right now I don't know if you do. And I've even gotten that from people who have followed me. They're like, I don't, I don't know if I believe that you understand where I'm coming from. So it's something that I'm working on as well, where it's like, no, I'm from a very small town. I was raised in a very restrictive religion. I didn't have 2 cents to to rub together. Like I fully understand that. But I think sometimes you can come so far from that that you forget about the messaging and how important it is to consistently be conveying that you understand if that's important to your message. With the holidays and the new year coming, you probably are looking around your house thinking that you would love to upgrade and freshen up your environment. And there is no easier way to do then with your window treatments. Nobody covers windows better than blinds.com blinds.com brings your space to life in your way. They have free design help. Other retailers may claim to have experts, but blinds.com has spent nearly 30 years building an award winning team of over 100 design consultants that are ready to help you create your dream space. Always convenient, always tailored to you. Three ways to shop 1. Perfect fit Whether you want a DIY, have it all done for you or you're somewhere in between, choose what works for you and rest easy knowing the fit is guaranteed. 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So number five. And finally it is play the long game while other people panic. You have to know that this stuff you're messaging, your offers the pivot in your business. This all takes time. This all takes time. So even if you feel that anxious feeling in your body right now where you're like, I have so much to do. I have so much that I need to do, I'm so behind. Fine. Okay, let's breathe. I feel that too. But we're gonna take it one bite at a time. One bite at a time. Because what most people are gonna do is they're gonna react emotionally to dips to trends. They're gonna abandon things too early because they forget that this actually takes six months or a year or even more. They're gonna change the shiny thing because it feels really good to get that, like those eyeballs on Instagram and maybe have something go viral. If you have that opportunity, it's gonna feel really good to try to get people to, you know, to, to get a bunch of views on your posts, whatever it is. But if it's not a part of the plan and if it's not connected to an offer or the person you want to be identified as, that's a shiny object. And it's not going to be something that you can follow through with and have predictability and consistency in your business, which is what we're all going for. So what winners of 2026 are going to do instead is they're going to build systems infrastructure. They're going to work on those long term relationships. They are going to work on being consistent and using their voice and speaking up online and feeling like if someone did not know who you are yesterday but landed on your page today, that the page would speak to them clearly about what's important to you and what you do and how you help people. So short term thinking is really going to create long term instability. So you're going to need, need to start making sure that you are building your email lists, maybe your text lists, that you are taking those eyeballs that you are getting on social or through your podcast and that you are converting those people. So staying calm is truly you guys. It's like one of the most competitive advantages because when you are in chaos and anxiety, you don't make great decisions. You have to start looking at this as one step at a time. Like, what's the most important step step for you to do in Q1? What's the most important thing for you to do and integrate in Q2, Q3, Q4, and so on. You may not even finish the whole plan throughout this next year, which I believe that you can if you really work on it. But I want you to start looking at it in chunks of Q1 through Q4. Like, what is a big goal that you know that you need to do to start getting your business in a place where there's more clarity for your customer and your messaging and there's more consistency in your business and how you're showing up and that you have a more clear idea of what your conversion is. Because if you don't know these things, if it's all just throwing spaghetti at the wall, you're gonna feel like your life is an absolute chaos and you can't function from that place. You can't make good decisions and you certainly can't create great content from that place to attract those eyeballs. So, you guys, if you want to stand up from the pack, these are huge, huge things that are going to help you in 2026. Please know that this is overwhelming for everyone right now. I believe in you. I know that you can do this. I have met people that I'm like, oh boy, how are we going to do this? And they surprise the out of me because they're able to just chunk it down into smaller goals. And I know that you can. Even if you need to get some help and trade something with a friend who's linear or trade something with someone who knows how to set up your business in this way. Trade something with someone who has the skill set that you are lacking in. Because I lack in planning, I lack in strategy, and I'm consistently working with different people, trading different things for this, doing whatever I can to learn how to do that portion or have somebody come in and help me with it. So don't get too overwhelmed. Know that this stuff is really important, but you're going to take it chunk by chunk. So I'm so grateful for you guys. And until next time, earn your happy. Bye, everyone. Sam.