→ Join me LIVE this January for a 3-day messaging + content intensive. Finish January with ready-to-post content that’s authentic and designed to connect with your ideal client avatar. Last tickets available: https://get.embodiedmarketing.com/live

2026 requires DEPTH. Your clients are done with shallow content and their BS meter is higher than ever.

In this episode, I talk about why your audience craves the real you more than ever, how to create your best content, and why 2026 will be all about connection.

Key Takeaways

• The market is too noisy right now to create surface-level content
• Your audience wants raw, off-the-cuff content where they see the real you
• You win in this era by asking what you’re afraid of saying, then SAYING it

This is the third and final part of my Unpopular 2026 Predictions series!

 ____________________________________

More ways Embodied Marketing can support you:

Join Ignite. It’s our done-for-you marketing system that builds your entire marketing strategy. Lead generation, email sequences, sales strategy, ALL of it. Apply here: https://get.embodiedmarketing.com/ignite

SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW THE PODCAST!

Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of the Embodied Podcast! If this podcast has added value and helped you in your business journey, please head over to Apple Podcast, subscribe to the show, and leave us an honest review.

Your reviews and feedback will not only help us continue to deliver great, helpful content, but it will also help us reach even more amazing entrepreneurs just like you.

♥ LISTEN ON SPOTIFY

READ THE EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Emily Hirsh:

Visibility alone will not save you, but depth is going to be everything. True authenticity is going to be so important. How you create depth in your messaging is you actually give yourself the space and the time to continually flesh out and connect with your ideal customer. What are the things I’m afraid to say because I think that people are gonna judge me, or they are gonna be said as wrong, or they’re gonna be rejected, or they’re not gonna be understood.

Instead of creating from that place of fear, we choose courage and we create anyways. We show up anyways. We say it anyways. We do it anyways. You’re already authentic, be you embodied. CEOs don’t chase trends. They pave the way they lead from within. Moved by purpose, unshaken by noise. When you are the source, you do not need permission.

Hello everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. I thought about going out to my car and I’m like, do I have a different shirt? Because I’m doing a podcast marathon and recording this series all well, three out of four in one day. But you know what? No. Like this is why you guys like me because I’m real and.

Could I go change my outfit? Yes. Am I going to No. Like, sue me. I’m recording three podcasts in the same outfit. You know, it’s funny, I, I don’t know, people get so stressed about that stuff and if I get to be encouragement for you of like, just record it, the content is what matters. Is my hair good? No, because I worked out twice today and I haven’t washed my hair yet, so.

It’s as good as it’s gonna get. But we are here and we are recording this ahead of my Thanksgiving trip, and the content is what matters. So this is going to be the third part in our series. If you guys haven’t listened, you can go back to the previous two episodes. You don’t have to listen to them sequentially.

But these are my unpopular predictions for 2026. Little bit of Emily riff, rant style. Trying to be the, the things that people really aren’t saying. Get you thinking, asking you questions, getting you to dive deep into that. And when this episode comes out, I can’t believe it’ll be December insane last month of the year.

What’s important in the last month of the year for business? You know, that’s, that’s a whole separate episode. But I do think it’s really important to balance being present with, unless you want this to be your reality, it’s not the time to like fully take the foot off the gas. And I can’t emphasize that enough because what you do in December actually does set you up for Q1.

Are you building your list? Are you showing up? Are you, you know, creating content and visibility and doing these things and like, yes, absolutely. Take time off for the holidays and be intentional with that. Be intentional with like when is my present unplugged time and when is my work time and what do I want that to look like this month?

It’s the very beginning of the month. Challenge that a little bit and think about it because I think that people use it as an excuse. People do this in, you know, weight loss and eating healthy too, of like, oh, it’s December. I’ll just start in January. And I think there’s a lot of power in like really? Is that intentionally what you wanna do or are you just using it?

I said, get outta jail free card. Anyways, that’s not the unpopular prediction. This is the unpopular prediction. So number three is visibility alone will not save you, but depth is going to be everything. Everyone out there in marketing is talking about visibility. I even teach visibility ads. And yes, they’re important like without eyes on your business and without growing your audience.

You can’t have everything else. You can’t have the leads in the sales. Attention is a hundred percent currency, the most important currency, but visibility alone is not the answer. Depth is going to be what wins. So while everyone focuses on more content and more platforms and more, more, more, if you do that without the depth that I’m gonna get into, it’s not gonna work.

Because there is so much noise out there, there is so much fighting for the attention of your ideal customer, paired with the low attention span and the lack of ability for people to actually consume long periods of things or even volume. ’cause they’re, you know, swiping to the next thing. If you don’t have the depth, it’s not going to do well.

And I think the businesses that balance this, like, yes, we definitely want consistency. We need that every single week. You’ve gotta show up, you’ve gotta be building your audience, you’ve gotta be connecting with your audience. You have to be in some form creating that. Why I love visibility ads is they run for you instead of you needing to create content all the time.

You have to balance that consistency with depth. So how do we get depth? Well, first you have to understand the depth, meaning, let’s take it three layers deeper in your messaging, in your mission, and how you speak about it in your brand, in your, in your voice, in your copy, in your content. We’ve gotta dial it up a notch.

And authenticity, true authenticity is going to be so important. I feel like a lot of the predictions I have year over year, it’s like, it’s like this. It just gets more and more important and more than ever is it important. I was even noticing. On my feed the other day, as I was scrolling, I was noticing that products have hired influencers who record videos for their products and they look.

So organic, like literally there was one that I saw, I think it was for like a an application to something like, not what you would think. And it was this girl who like had just moved, there’s moving boxes behind her hair in a bun, no makeup on, was recording this video for this company, and maybe this isn’t directly related to depth, but it’s like the organic, authentic is what people want.

Our craving and the only thing that’s going to work, and that comes from you bringing depth and you bringing you into your content, into the way you connect with your audience. I think this is already happening, but is going to happen even more that businesses with shallow messaging are going to collapse even with big audiences.

Even with the volume that’s gonna start disappearing, and they’re gonna lose it to these other businesses who have that depth. And, you know, people’s like, bullshit meter is higher than ever. So if you don’t have that depth and, and people feel like, oh, they’re just, you know, saying the same thing as everybody else, or they’re in it for only the money, or they don’t really care, they’re not, they’re not even gonna pay attention.

You’re not even gonna get the attention. You’ve gotta have the attention to have the rest of the things in your business. So if we know that depth is gonna be the most important within your messaging, how do we get the depth? That hasn’t changed, but let’s revisit that. Let’s revisit that as a priority going into this year, how you create depth in your messaging is you actually give yourself the space and the time to.

Continually flesh out and connect with your ideal customer. It’s not a one-time thing. This is an ever evolving constant process because your ideal customer and you are constantly evolving. So it’s sitting down and it’s asking yourself the question of what do I really believe? What do I really believe today about what my ideal customer is experiencing?

How do you think I have created this podcast series, right? It’s from actually thinking about what are you guys experiencing right now? What are you thinking about as we head into the new year? What is the content that you really need? This series, I couldn’t have created it a year ago because it’s all relevant right now.

And so when we think about our ideal customer, and we’ve asked like, oh, their biggest frustration, their desire. What they’re wanting to do, which is great questions for people to ask necessary that’s more bigger picture, but also like, what about right now? What about what your ideal customer is going through right now, and how do you create that depth in your content?

Another piece to this is you, right? Like so much of content today. And I think, yeah, there’s, there’s the brands that aren’t the face of the brand necessarily, but you still gotta have someone who’s the voice is around relevant things that you’re going through or not even going through, but like experiencing and learning and growing and.

Even if it’s in your business, in a situation with a client that taught you this lesson, it’s like bringing that into your marketing because the more you can bring that into your marketing and your copy and your messaging and your content, the more real it feels. If you are constantly challenging yourself to show up that way, it’s, it’s this constant process of connection, and that connection is what creates depth.

So what I would do is create space in your calendar. Where you just reflect, you connect, you go, what’s, what is my ideal customer going through right now? What are the top three most important things that they need support with? And then I have to say about it, that’s not what someone else says, or What have I experienced in the last week that is relevant to share with my ideal customer?

What are the things I’m afraid to say? What are the beliefs I have? Like if I was in a rant, what would I say? What are those things that I’m maybe afraid to say? Because I think that people are gonna judge me, or they are gonna be said as wrong, or they’re gonna be rejected, or they’re not gonna be understood, like say those things anyways.

So depth is gonna beat visibility. Depth is created from connection, consistent connection. This means. You can’t go into a very robotic, templated, lacking, heart lacking connection. Lacking that loop of connection, of asking these questions, of connecting back to it, of talking to your audience, like in the dms.

Pay attention. Pay attention to what you see, what people are saying. What do you see on social media that people are sharing not in a, how do I copy that person? What do I think about that? What do I really think about that? What do I have to say about that? Because depth is also created through that authenticity, and I think so many people say the word authenticity, but don’t really understand how to create that.

You’re already authentic. That’s the thing, like you don’t have to try to be authentic. You are authentic. You have unique experience. You have unique wisdom. You have gotten to where you are today through a journey that nobody else has, and you are also a unique blueprint of a human with different strengths and weaknesses and a brain in the way you think, in the way you see things.

You’re already authentic, be you, be your brand in that. If you’re not the face of your brand, what is the authenticity from your brand? Let that come through more. So if I asked you like, how could we pull more of you into your content? How could we get people, like if we had a camera on you all day long, which sounds horrible, don’t, you don’t have to do that.

But if we did have that, is it the same person that then shows up for your content? Or is there a difference? Is there a gap? Are there parts that are incredible about you and a voice within you that you don’t let come through in your content? And I promise you, the more you allow that through, the better your content’s gonna do.

The better your messaging, the better your connection with your audience. Now, if when I say that there is the voice of fear and shame around that. That’s the work that you’ve gotta do because we all have fear. We all have fear around putting ourselves out there in a certain way and being judged and being, you know, abandoned or someone saying, that’s the stupidest thing you’ve ever said.

And like that shame of how that would feel if that happened. So that fear. Stops so many people from having depth in their content, and the thing is, the fear is not going anywhere. So if you are subconsciously waiting for that fear to disappear, to show up as that version of you, you’re gonna be waiting forever instead of creating from that place of fear, we choose courage and we create anyways.

We show up anyways. We say it anyways, we do it anyways. Obviously it’s gotta come from that intentional place from the heart. I think sometimes when I say this, people think, oh, I have to say like really mean direct things in my content. No, you don’t have to be mean. You can speak truth and you can speak what you really think from a place of love every single time.

But if you are allowing that fear to be the place that keeps you exactly where you are. You’re waiting for that fear to go away. First of all, it’s never gonna go away. You’ve gotta just choose courage. Your your mission and what you’re here to create is, is gotta be bigger than the fear. And also the only way to grow through that is doing it, is showing up from the place of fear anyways.

And then you get better at it, and then it gets easier, and then your body goes, oh, this isn’t so bad. And oh, if somebody does say, that’s the stupidest thing you’ve ever said, I don’t actually care because I believe it. I believe what I said, I’m rooted in it. And the more rooted you are in that truth and in that message, and the more depth you have in that, the better your content’s gonna be.

But also the more separated you will be from the. So next year, depth 100% is gonna win. Instead of only focusing on volume and consistency in the content plan and dah, dah, dah, dah. Also make sure you’re focusing on how do I bring the depth? How do I stand out? How do I amplify the authenticity that I already have?

Even more, how do I check myself and make sure that fear is not stopping me from doing that? How do I create a loop within my regular routine to connect back to why I am doing this, to connect back to the people I’m doing it for, to the mission. All of us are going to experience things next year that are gonna grow us as humans, especially as entrepreneurs.

Like biggest growth journey you could ever sign up for. Make sure to. Leverage that experience and allow that to come through in your brand because people connect to that. And the more we see AI and the more we see surface level overproduced content, the more important this is gonna be. Because AI doesn’t have that depth unless you feed it that depth, then it can sometimes, you know, create great copy, but everything’s gonna start sounding the same and people are still gonna have the need.

Of solving their problems, of creating connection of, of wanting to be where they wanna go, and you’re going to help them with that by meeting them where they’re at, with the depth, with the authenticity, with your truth, with your voice, with who you are. This is one of the things that is, is huge at the event that I, I’m hosting in January.

We’re gonna do a full workshop on your message with savi, who is actually on my podcast. She lives in Austin, so she’s gonna come and we’re gonna pull out those, those one-liners, those things like amplifying your voice within your content. And then on day three, we’re gonna actually create some content.

And if you’re like, oh my gosh, that sounds so scary. Here’s the reality, you’re probably not gonna do that by yourself. So come get in a room where we can create content filled with depth, and then actually walk away with it done by day three and ready to go post. Like imagine having that on the second week of January.

And then messaging is a huge part, you know, themed within the event because it is the most important part of marketing. So if you haven’t gotten your tickets yet at embodiedmarketing.com/live, we’ve got some more spots left. I’m gonna cap it out at 40 this time. I am. So excited. I can’t believe it’s, it’s getting closer every day.

All right everybody, I’ll be back with the fourth unpopular prediction in a new outfit ’cause I’m recording this one on a different day on Thursday. All right everybody. Thanks so much for tuning in.