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Leaders don’t regurgitate what everyone else is saying. This is more important than ever with AI.

In this episode, I’m sharing the 3Cs you need to stand out today. If you feel like your content is getting lost among the noise, this one’s for you!

Key Takeaways

• What every CEO needs to ask before creating content in 2026
• Why some content builds instant authority, and other disappears into the noise
• The 3Cs to stand out today

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READ THE EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Emily Hirsh:

You can’t force someone’s journey. You can’t force someone to have a realization. Here’s the reality. People are looking for leaders. When you think about solving a problem that you have, you are looking for somebody who has that conviction and has that leadership behind what they are saying

so we can’t lose that leadership in overthinking what we are trying to cater to our audience we need to meet them where they’re at, your job is to make a connection.

Embodied CEOs don’t chase trends. They pave the way they lead from within. Move by purpose, unshaken by noise. When you are the source, you do not need permission.

Hello, you guys. Welcome back to the podcast. I hope you’re all having an amazing week. I got a few updates for you since I’ve been filling you in on my life. First of all, my youngest turns six this week, which is insane. Like my youngest child is gonna be six years old, which feels so big, wild. And I also feel like I’m in this new season of parenting where.

It’s, it’s a little bit easier. It’s, it’s definitely like out of the phase of young kids, which is sad and crazy to say that. And also there’s some really nice pieces of it. I was just saying to my husband last night, like, I can go get in the sauna after we do dinner and clean up and everything and I can go get in the sauna and like my kids just kind of do their thing.

And I’m like, it’s kind of sad, but it’s also kind of nice. And I find myself to my older kids being like, come hang out with me. Just very different, right? Very, you know, if you have young kids, you know, it’s very different. so I’ll give you guys a quick update because some of you guys appreciate the different things I update on.

And last week I was like, today I am going to get an MRI on my shoulder, and then I’ll know what is wrong. So. Um, I do have a more serious shoulder injury than I was hoping for. So I went and got the MRI Friday and I was fully expecting my sports medicine doctor who ordered the MRI to call me and say, yep, what we thought it was s sprained ligament, you know, six-ish weeks.

It’s already been three and you should be able to start lifting overhead. And he called me and was like. Uh, it’s, uh, a little bit more involved. That’s how he said it than we thought. So I have a torn labrum, which is the cartilage around your shoulder ball. it’s a pretty big tear and it is also a full tear, but only a full tear in a small spot.

So, um, when he called me Friday. First of all, I was in shock. And it’s funny when when you get this news, it’s clearly from somebody who’s given this news a lot. So to them it’s like pretty neutral. And to me, I’m like, like, hold on, like hold on, you’re telling me this and I, first of all, I don’t even know what a labrum is, so pause, tell me what it means.

And he was like, you know, six months to competing again. Um, and to probably being back to normal. And, you know, surgery is kind of the next conversation. And so you need to go, I want you to go see my ortho and get an opinion. Um, so I was pretty upset Friday, last Friday, and I was in shock. I was like really just feeling devastated.

Um, you know, if you are an athlete or, or you are somebody who trains for competing or trains for events, you know, races, like it’s a big part of your life. And so when you’re injured. Everything shifts really fast and the biggest thing for me is my training. Like I love, I love the process, I love my training, and so to be told, you know, it’ll be six months until you’re back fully and possibly need surgery and just have that kind of.

Taken, I guess is the right word for me. It felt like that. It felt like that. And, um, I was upset. And, you know, we know that I like to control things and so all of a sudden the thing, which is my training that felt like it was constantly in my control, right? It’s just me versus me in the gym, felt like I lost all control.

Um, so I was really upset. I took the weekend to process and I, I spent about four hours. Researching labrum tears and like watching videos looking at what the cartilage actually looks like, because I truly believe that you can envision it healing. In order to do that, you have to know what it actually looks like.

So I’m expert now on labrum tears and what it means and how the body heals. And um, then I went and saw an ortho. So I spent a several days like pretty upset. No, I spent like three days processing. I had to process and I called, I called my coach, like within, you know, minutes of finding out was the first call that I made and I was crying and I was like, I just want my two hours in the gym still.

Like, I just don’t wanna be able to train. And he’s like, it’s okay. Like this is part of it. It obviously feels bad and, and we will make sure. So anyways, um, good news is a few days later, like five days later, I went and saw an ortho. And I was scared. I was actually scared to go see the ortho ’cause I didn’t wanna hear what he had to say because a lot of the, you know, consensus is if it’s a full tear, you need surgery and it is a full tear, full thickness.

But good news is he doesn’t think I’ll need surgery. So it’s a, full thickness tear, but like a small spot on my shoulder because my shoulder just like popped out when I was doing a, a jerk. And he was like, I actually never really see this. Usually it’s like an overtime thing.

anyways, he thinks that my rotator cuff will be able to compensate for the tear. It will always be there, but it will harden around it and, um, I can’t lift overhead for four weeks and then I can start gradually and it’ll be about three months. About to be back to normal. So it’s funny because when it first happened, if you would’ve told me three months, I would’ve been like really upset just by that, right?

Because I wanted to be better in like five days. I was so delusional that I thought I could still do the qualifiers that I was doing, and then the competition I had in a week, both I had to drop out of. and. Now it’s like perspective shift going from being told six months and possibly surgery to being told three months.

And I’m like, fine. Great. I am out for the CrossFit Open, which is the annual. competition, kind of like global competition to see where you place in the world. So I’m bummed about that because I have goals around that. Like I was in the, um, 89th percentile last year and I wanted to see if I could get closer to like 93rd percentile, but next year and, uh, it’s been a really.

Really incredible lesson, honestly, for me, as it always is with surrender. Um, and, you know, God, the universe taking that one thing that I was like, didn’t take it, but. Shifted it. The one thing that I was like, oh, I have so much control over this and, uh, teaching me a lesson in surrender. And I feel like I actually, even before I went and saw the ortho, I got to a place of surrender where I was like, okay, if I need, if he tells me I need surgery and that that is the best route to being able to get back to full capacity, um, in my sport, then I’ll do it.

And I was, I was like surrendered. I was expecting, I was actually expecting him to say that. So when he said what he said, I felt really relieved and just like, all right, like let’s just do what we have to do. And I’m gonna be really careful. you know, I am intense and I am disciplined, but I’m not reckless.

Like I don’t want to hurt myself. and that’s why I made the decisions of like dropping out of that competition. And I have an incredible like. Team of support here. Um, so I think sometimes people think I’m, I like push so hard that I will hurt myself, but I, I am really intentional. Now I’m pushing my body, right?

Like beyond the, the average place that it can go. But injury is a part of sport and uh, this is kind of my first knock on wood, hopefully for a while. Last, um, injury and, you know, I broke my arm as a kid, but I don’t have a lot of experience with it. And so I had some friends who were like, oh yeah, I played football.

I’ve had two shoulder surgeries and a knee surgery. Like, you’re gonna be fine. This is no big deal. And I’m like. Surgery. I don’t go to the doctor like ever. I haven’t been to, I went to, not the hospital, but I was in the ortho and it was right next to the hospital. I haven’t been in a western medicine facility.

I can’t even remember. I think it was an when I had ultrasounds with my kids and that’s it. I mean, I had natural birth, so. I will say I was highly impressed with this doctor. And, um, anyways, there’s the update. So injure my shoulder. I processed it. It’s the better scenario. Almost thought I was gonna need surgery.

And there’s a lot of lessons in it. Let’s dive into today’s content. There’s you guys’ update. I appreciate all of you. I shared a lot of this on Instagram and the amount of messages I got of support were just really sweet. So thank you all. Um, okay. Today I wanna talk about something that I’ve been really passionate about lately, and I’ve brought it about up in my trainings and in my webinars and.

And talk to people about this because I think it’s a really important thing to remember. So we’re in a time where conviction in your message is really important. You have to have conviction behind what you stand for, what you don’t stand for your overall brand message. Because in order to stand out, you need to have that conviction.

That’s how we stand out. I, I think I’ve talked about it on here, but I’ve been teaching what I call the three Cs, which is. Clarity, conviction, and consistency. And that conviction is really, really important because there’s so many people that are all saying the same thing. And I realized over the last several months as I was teaching, I realized how easy it is to get lost in what you think your audience wants to hear.

Right? In marketing, even myself, we so often teach. How would your ideal customers say this? What do they want to hear you say? What? What will they connect with? What will they resonate with? And as with anything, it’s not black and white, right? Like that has a place that is an important part of marketing, is aligning your language and your messaging and how you communicate, how you write, how you speak, how you talk about your offer, with what your ideal customer is gonna connect with.

Okay. However, I think that there is something that happens in business owners where this starts to become such a huge focus that we lose sight of what we really think and we become afraid of saying something that might offend, or, I don’t know, confuse maybe, but not resonate with our ideal customer.

Now, you don’t wanna be confusing, but here’s the reality. People are looking for leaders. When you think about solving a problem that you have, you are looking for somebody who has that conviction and has that leadership behind what they are saying, and they may. Say something that you didn’t think of before, but you’re like, oh, that makes total sense as to why I’m experiencing this or why I’m struggling with this, or whatever.

So we can’t lose that leadership in overthinking what we are trying to cater to our audience. Yes, we need to connect with them. We need to meet them where they’re at, which is where you, your job is to make a connection. But for example, if we even just say, let’s just bring my shoulder injury. ’cause I spent hours, I spent hours consuming content about it.

And there’s the scientific content of this is what it means and the information that anyone can say, right? Who’s an expert in that space. And then there’s the people who. Have the different methods of thought, the BPC that you can inject to help with your shoulder, the stem cells. The fact of saying like, you don’t need surgery.

Your body can heal more than you think. Right? Some people are not gonna resonate with that. There are people out there who love and trust Western medicine, who don’t really trust alternatives, and that’s okay, right? That that’s them. The people that I’m going to follow because of my beliefs is I believe our body can heal way more than doctors usually say that, can I believe in the peptides?

I believe in stem cells. I believe in going that route and doing everything you can to avoid a surgery, an intervention. So people who are willing to say that in their content are going to get my attention. And they’re gonna stand out. Now they have to be willing to be convicted and to tell me things that they think that I don’t know, because I’m not an expert.

So my point being, don’t get so lost in trying to cater to your ideal customer and not offend them. Not scare them, you know, make them uncomfortable. Instead think about what do you really think? That’s the first question. And I mentioned this on a podcast a few weeks back where I was coaching somebody and they were saying, this is something that my audience I know gets offended by.

They get offended by this statement because I see it happen in Facebook groups, and she was wavering on like, do I say it? Do I not say it? And I said, the answer to do you say that or not, is what do you think? Do you think that’s true? Do you believe that? Is that in alignment with your beliefs, based on your expertise and your wisdom and everything that is led here today?

What do you think? Because if you become convicted behind that, the people who are going to resonate with that and align with that are going to now follow you, and they’re going to now trust you. And it’s not going to be everyone. We are not for everyone. I am not for everyone. I understand that. I respect that and I don’t need to be, but I challenge you guys to think about maybe this week, maybe, you know, and something that you can actually do is sit down and think about the big kind of beliefs, right?

What are the, what are the contradictory things in. Your industry, what are the things that there’s like arguments about, or people you know, go one way or another with what they think and instead of saying like, let me think about what I could say that would most resonate with my ideal customer, or would most connect with them.

Think about what do you think? I think there is such a. Superpower and advantage to entrepreneurs who are willing to get quiet enough to sit with themselves and ask themselves the question of, what do I really think about that? Like, what do I really think about ai? What do I really think about where digital products are going?

What do I really think about meta ads and where they’re going about where the online business space is going? I have to get clear on that. With the information I have, with the experience I have, with the access I have to other entrepreneurs and feedback and conversations, I have to get clear on what I think before I could represent it in content.

And I have to do that separate from worrying about am I gonna offend someone? Am I going to scare a potential ideal customer? I right now, if I say I think digital products, digital programs, selling information, selling, even coaching is going to drastically change and almost be non-existent in the next few years.

That’s gonna make some people mad. That’s even gonna make some potential customers of mine go. I don’t know. maybe I can’t, you know, work with them because I have a digital program, but the people who are like, she’s onto something and I think I agree with that. As hard as it is to hear, right?

You might say things with conviction and you might say things that are not easy for someone to hear. That is the job of a leader as hard as it is to hear. I respect that. I agree with that. I can see that happening. And so therefore now I trust that person more. And you know, this happens to me a lot in coaching when I coach people, um, and I work with business owners, is I can tell when somebody’s ready to hear something or not.

Um, and I do pull back, like I’ll state my statement, but I know if they’re ready to hear it or not, and if they’re ready to receive it or not. And again, as a leader, you can’t force that. You can’t force someone’s journey. You can’t force someone to have a realization. You can just show up with, based on your experience, your wisdom, what you believe, what you have sat with and contemplated.

This is the truth. And that could change, right? You reserve the right to change your mind. That could evolve. But you have to show up in that truth today. And the more you do that, the more convicted you’ll be, the more authentic you’ll be, the more you will attract people who are drawn to that and who resonate with that.

And they don’t even have to fully agree with it, but there’s like a level of respect. So I want you to think about yourself as that leader. As that thought leader in your industry, and I’ve said this on the podcast before, but there was a speaker I was listening to, six months back who was like, everyone wants to be a thought leader, but no one has an original thought.

And I’m like, it’s so true because no one has an original thought because they don’t tune out the dang noise to have the original thoughts and. I think this is going to be such a superpower in the age of ai, of mass information, of noise, of oversaturation, of all of these things. I think if you have the discipline to tune out the noise, ’cause it takes discipline, right?

Everything in our world is fighting against us in tuning out noise. From books to podcasts to social media, to TV to YouTube, right? It’s all right there. Our brains love it. The dopamine, it feels easy to consume, so you have to be very intentional with tuning out noise and have discipline to do that, and I think the entrepreneurs and the leaders who do that are going to have far better content, far better messaging, and a stronger brand.

But you have to actually make the space of that for that. And I would argue that as a CEO, that is your job. That is one of your most important jobs, is to have the space for what do I really think? Where are we going, right? And how do I become that leader? And so my point in all of this is don’t lose yourself in the overthinking that can come with marketing of.

How do I say this? What do I say? Yes, it is important to use your ideal customer’s language like that is very important. You have to meet them where they are, but your job is to meet them where they are and make a bridge to new beliefs and new thoughts. Your, your job in your content, in your lead gen, in your offer is perspective shifts, is belief shifts, is getting someone to go, this is what I’ve been doing and it hasn’t been working and this is what I’m gonna start doing because now I believe.

That this is the way I believe that this process, this method, whatever, this belief, this new way of looking at things is gonna get me a different result. You are a leader as a CEO, not just a leader as like you run a company, you have a team, you are a leader to the people that follow you, that people that look to you for guidance, which means you can’t just regurgitate the things you think that they wanna hear.

What are the things that they need to hear? That as hard as they might be to hear, you know, it’s true. And the more you can connect with that truth in yourself and not water it down and not feel afraid to express it, the more convicted you’ll be, the better your messaging will be, the more trust you’re gonna build.

People wanna follow leaders. But leaders have to actually show up and be leaders, and you’re not a leader by just saying the same thing that everybody else says. So my invitation in this episode is to really, first of all, figure out what does it look like for me to create the space to contemplate without noise, to actually process and to connect with what I really believe before I think about what my audience wants to hear.

And once I’m clear and once I’m convicted on that, then I can meet my audience where they’re at, and I can make that connection for them. The more you do this, the more you’re gonna stand out, the more it’s gonna impact your content, the more bold you can be without forcing that. Right? Like, I’m not saying just.

You know, start saying crazy things online that you’re like, this’ll really get people riled up. Right? Like there’s a level of what’s your personality, but the more bold you can be. And the other thing I’ll say is a lot of times when I say this to people, they’re like, but I don’t wanna offend people. I don’t wanna make people mad.

I don’t want to, like, I’m scared of coming across as mean or, um, harsh. And what I always say to that is, whatever it is you wanna say, how could you say it with love? Because it’s just like when you’re parenting, right? You’re, you’re not always telling your kids what they want to hear, but you’re doing it with love.

So when you’re having a hard conversation with your kids or you are in a place where they’re upset, but they need to learn this lesson, they need to hear this truth. You’re doing it with love, but you’re being firm and you’re being the leader that your kids need you to be.

It’s the same exact thing with your audience. You can have beliefs. That some people don’t believe are true, or it triggers them, it offends them, that’s on them. And you can also do it with love. You’re not coming from a place of shame of like, you guys don’t see this and you suck. Right? So it’s, it’s all the intention behind it.

And it is possible to be bold and be direct and be convicted. And. Never come from a place of shame and never come from a place of, I’m gonna make you feel bad about yourself. ’cause when you come from that place of love and care, then if the person’s triggered, that’s on them. Right? It triggered something that triggered a truth they’re not ready to hear.

And that’s okay. That’s okay. We don’t wanna be for everybody. So that’s my thought for you guys today is really to think about that and to really balance like yes, what your ideal customer wants to hear in your marketing messaging and all those things that are important. For sure. With, what do you think?

What do you wanna talk about in your content? What do you wanna share? I think this comes up a lot with content too, of like trying to fit in a box. I need to do this carousel, I need to do this real, I need to say it like this. I need to make this video. Like what if you kind of just let loose on that a little bit and you were like, how can I creatively express myself the best?

What do I wanna say? How do I wanna say it? How do I wanna show up? Because the more you do that, the more authentic it will be, the easier it will be, and likely the better it will convert. All right everybody. Thank you so much for tuning in. Thanks for listening to My Shoulder Saga. I think we’re, we’re in the up.

We’re in the comeback and I’m proud of myself for. I showed up every day through, through this, I found out on Friday the, uh, MRI results and I, within an hour, made a few calls. I went for a five mile run. Crying. Crying, but I’m like, it’s, I can find so much gratitude for the ways that I still can move. So, all right guys, I’ll talk to you next time.