In this episode, I’m exploring the role of AI in online business growth—and how to use it without losing what makes you unique. I talk about how AI can support faster content creation, simpler systems, and more personalized marketing when used intentionally.

I also unpack the challenges AI brings, including over-commoditized content, increased competition, and the risk of expertise feeling diluted. We look at why more content isn’t the answer—and what actually helps you stand out.

Finally, I share practical strategies to navigate this shift with confidence, focusing on delivering real transformation, grounding your work in lived experience, and strengthening your personal brand so your expertise remains clear and trusted.

 

AI is powerful for execution and efficiency, but your lived experience, insight, and judgment are what create real value. Tools don’t build trust—people do.

When content is everywhere, results matter more than information. Focusing on clear, fast wins helps your audience experience your expertise—not just consume it.

Your voice, stories, and perspective are what set you apart. The stronger your personal brand, the easier it is for people to choose you—even in a crowded market.

 

Connect with Teresa on Website, (Grow, Launch, Sell), Sign up to Teresa's email list,  Instagram, LinkedIn, or Facebook, Subscribe to my Youtube

 

AI has changed the online space as we know it, but is it all good or are there some things that we need to look out for? In today's episode, I'm gonna take you through the good and the not so good that AI has given us in the online space and things that course creators, membership owners and coaches can be doing in order to help them grow their business with ai, but also came to act some of the problems that it brings us.

If we've not met, my name is Theresa Heath wearing, and every single week I bring you an episode that helps you grow your online business. So if you are a course grader, a membership owner, or a coach, then you are exactly in the right place because I'm gonna be sharing with you real tactical and strategic things that you can do in your online business to help you grow.

Having been in marketing for over 20 years and been in the online space for about nine of those, I help every single day, course creators, membership owners, and coaches create an online business that [00:01:00] they love. And in these videos, I hope I can help you do the same. If you haven't already hit subscribe on where you are listening, or if you're watching this on YouTube, then I would really encourage you to do so and that way you'll be notified next time I do a video.

Let's talk all things ai. I'm gonna be sharing with you the benefits of having AI in our life, the problems that it might cause us, and the solution to those problems. So let's start with the good thing and some of the most obvious, one of the huge benefits of having AI is that it helps us create content quicker and easier.

I am in AI every single day. My favorite is chat, GBT, and I am constantly dipping in and out of there, talking about ideas for YouTube videos, asking its thoughts on various different things. So it is. A hugely sped up the work that I do. In fact, as a marketer with over 20 years experience, I can't actually imagine how we survived without it for this long and how long things used to take.

So [00:02:00] when it comes to creating an online business, the main part of an online business is that content creation piece. Not only. The content you are creating that you sell in your offer, but also one of the most important things of being an online business owner is that you have a personal profile and you have a personal brand.

And one of the really key ways of doing that is creating content. So like me creating these videos, standing on stages, guesting on other people's podcasts, you need to be creating content. And AI has made this so quick and so easy. Even within some of the platforms themselves, they will map out whole courses for you or they will help you create that content a whole lot quicker.

One of the other really good benefits to having AI in our world is that it is a low barrier to entry. So AI has given us. Tools and technologies that again, even like two, three years ago, we couldn't have imagined having. So being able to put [00:03:00] yourselves out there, create videos, edit videos, create podcasts, edit them, come up with blog ideas, put blogs out on things, create actual platforms or tech solutions for things, it has helped.

A real even playing field out in the online space, because no longer do you have to have a tech part of your business that helps you create these things. You can come into this space for relatively low cost and create an online business and put yourself out there. So. If you are new to the online space, then you are coming in at such an amazing point because you have got things available to you that people just didn't have two, three years ago.

And the last benefit that I want to talk about is the personalization when it comes to ai being able to personalize things. And I'm gonna give a really like simple thought, but one of the things that is so helpful is when I'm doing a launch for myself or helping someone in Grow launch sale or one of my consulting clients, and we are doing.

Let's say sales [00:04:00] emails, and we have people who came to a webinar, people who didn't come to a webinar, people who have bought this thing in the past or didn't buy this thing in the past. Whereas in the past, writing emails for all of those different audiences would've taken a lot of time, and in most cases, people don't do it now.

It's so much easier. You create one template for your sales emails and then you say to ai. Recreate these sales emails, but aimed at people who came to the webinar, recreate these sales emails, but aimed at people who didn't come to the webinar. And with a matter of minutes and tweaks, you have got all these different varying sales emails that are personalized.

And that's not even to mention the tech that you have with AI where you can personalize things. For instance, some of the really cool platforms out there that enable really smart personalization, and the more that we can personalize things in the online space, the better. The more someone feels like we are talking directly to them, the better.

So these are amazing features and have really [00:05:00] helped. Even the playing field have that online business be available to pretty much anyone. But there are some downsides and some things that we need to consider. So the downside and the problem of having content creation be so very easy is that content has now become over commoditized.

And what I mean by that is there is so much content and actually there are plot. Forms out there that, well, for instance, I could go to chat GBT and I could ask it to create me a course that teaches me something based on what it knows about me, and it could basically create me a course. It's quicker and easier for people to go to something like a large language model and ask a question than necessarily head into your membership and log in and go and find the question.

So how do we compete when there is content? Everywhere. So one of the problems is how do we compete where there is literally content everywhere. When we look at the next benefit of a low barrier to entry, the problem that that [00:06:00] gives us is that you are going to have more and more and more people entering this space.

Now the online space is due. To grow phenomenally over the next 10 years, and that's great news for all of us in the online space because we are in it in fairly early doors, even though it's been around for at least nine, 10 years. Actually, it's still in its infancy. So if you are here, brilliant, keep going.

Keep doing it because this is only going to grow. But because of how easy things are, it means that more people are going to be coming in. And it means that more people are gonna be coming in who aren't necessarily experts in their field. So this is a potential problem when we look at ai because anyone could go to AI and say, write me a course on how to start piano.

I have no idea how to play piano. I. But technically I could create a course and put a call site there and try and sell one on a subject that I know nothing about. And that means people are gonna be moving into your industry and into your spaces that are potentially [00:07:00] going to try and take some of your market share, and they're not anywhere near as good as you.

And then the last benefit that I talked about, which is personalization with ai, the problem with that is that there are. Fully created AI courses. Like I said, I could happily go to one of the large language platforms and say, create me a course that is personal to me and how I like to learn. And again, when you can get that level of customization.

You then start to worry that why would they buy a course that isn't that customized to them? So as I've already talked about, there are some real benefits to having AI in our world, and as people who have online businesses or want start online businesses, having AI around to help us with that content creation, help us with personalization and all those other things are brilliant and having that low barrier to entry.

But they each cause their own problems. So how do we. Counteract the problems that AI are bringing to us. So number one is you need to [00:08:00] focus on the transformation and deliver it to your customer as easy and as fast as possible. Because we have a huge amount of content out there. We don't need to create big in-depth courses that go into every single detail that everyone needs, when what your customer wants more than anything is the transformation.

The reason they're searching for this content is because they have a problem that they're trying to fix. So. Whereas in the past we might have created a membership and the membership would've looked more attractive by having all of these things in there. Now it's about how can I create something that will deliver the transformation as quickly as possible.

Also, while I'm on memberships. The other thing that you really need to focus on because of the over commoditized content that's out there, is the community aspect. So where is your membership? In the past maybe would've had, would've all been about how much content you'd got in there, how many courses, and how many experts you'd had [00:09:00] in.

Now it's about giving them that transformation, but what's keeping them in the membership is that community. When it comes to a course, like I said, it's not about having 60 modules that are all an hour long. It's about saying this will deliver the transformation. As quickly and as succinctly as you can possibly do.

The next solution for combating AI and all of its wonders that it has for us is to focus on the real person and real experiences. One thing that AI can't do is it can't tell you what it's like to sit and wait for a webinar. Pray and hope that people will turn up. It can't tell you what it feels like to open the car and have tumbleweed.

It can't tell you what it feels like to finally sell out your offer because it's never experienced. It has no lived experience of those things. And yes, it's wonderful at mapping something out, but unless it knows and understands the nuances of you and your. Customers and the audience and the offer, then it [00:10:00] can't give you that nuanced result.

Generic advice. Ends up with generic results. So our customers need to see that as well. Our customers need to see the real us, so they need to see us showing up on video. And what's been so interesting actually, about doing this YouTube journey, I've had my podcast for years and years and years and years, and my podcast was fairly relaxed and it was very me and very.

Honest, and one thing that I found when I came over to YouTube is I wanted to obviously produce something that worked well for YouTube, but I realized that actually I wasn't coming over as natural as I normally do. And it has taken me a little while and I think it's still taking me a little while to create a video that will be good for YouTube and be searchable and people will find engaging.

But also while being me and being as natural as possible, because for me, I don't know about you, but when I look at AI generated content, and it might be like video that [00:11:00] just isn't real, or images that absolutely are not a real person, it makes me want to see an experience and be even more real. So the more you can show that.

The more you can show behind the scenes and some vulnerability and some real authentic, not only you, but your customers and what you've done with them, the better. So the more slicker and perfect AI gets. The more real I want you to show up. So the final thing that you can do to combat some of those things that AI are bringing in is I want you to show and demonstrate real expertise similar to what I've just said with point number two in terms of, of showing as real as possible.

Again, AI doesn't have the experience. AI didn't build the business. AI didn't coach those people. So therefore, I want you to show and demonstrate that you have real expertise. That actually you are the solution. You are the thing [00:12:00] that can help someone with the problem they've. Got. So I want to see you on those stages.

I want to see your personal brand and personal branding is as strong as it's ever been and is going to continue to get stronger in a world of AI and genericness. You need to stand out and you need to have a really strong personal brand and. That is going to build trust. Where there is a trust recession and a trust recession is that we just don't believe anything.

And that's interesting 'cause that's actually changed. The trust recession used to be. People would go online and say, I can help you make millions. Pay me hundreds of thousands and I'll tell you how to do it. That's one problem we've got. The influencer is another thing that we just don't trust what they're telling us the truth.

Do they really use that product? But also the trust of, is this real and is this advice real? And is this based on facts? Because so much of stuff that comes out maybe through AI is not facts that this is a time to lean into that trust. Even [00:13:00] more be showing, look, I'm here doing this thing. I got picked to do this thing.

I'm speaking on this stage. I'm guesting on this podcast. Build your personal brand and make sure that you are demonstrating all the time that you are an expert. As you are aware, AI moves at the speed of light and at the point I'm recording this, I'm sure by the time it comes out, new stuff will be out and it can do even cooler things than it's already doing.

But as business owners and as online. Membership owners, coaches, or course creators. We need to lean into the things that are the most important, that are going to help us combat some of these AI things. And as much as they're an amazing benefit to us to help us create content quicker, put ourselves out there more, there is also downsides to that, and we have got to lean into our strengths that AI can't do.

So let me remind you of those three things that I want you to focus on as we move through 2026 in order to combat. Some of the benefits that your audience might [00:14:00] get from ai, I want you to focus on the transformation and deliver it as fast as you possibly can. It's not about more content, it's about the transformation.

I want you to focus on being a real person and showing real experiences. Show a bit of the messy middle show up authentically. Show some behind the scenes. And finally, I want you to. Build that personal brand of yours and show up as the expert that you are and make sure that you are demonstrating that you really are an expert in your field.

I hope that you find this episode useful. If you did and there is someone that you think this would be super helpful for them or you have an audience that you think could benefit from what I'm talking about, then please I would be so very grateful if you would be willing to share it. I will see you next week with another episode.