In today’s solo episode, I break down the five key shifts we all need to make to successfully market and sell our online businesses in 2026. The online space has changed dramatically, and what worked a few years ago simply isn’t enough anymore. I share what I’m doing in my own business, what I’m seeing across the industry, and the practical steps you can start implementing right away.

 

 

I explain why connection now outperforms content volume — and how focusing on real conversations builds trust and momentum.

 

People want belonging, not just information. I share how I’m reshaping my offers to create deeper community experiences.

 

Search and discovery are shifting thanks to AI. I talk about the small tweaks I’m making to show up where my audience is actually looking.

 

Launches need to feel more personal and supportive. I cover simple ways to elevate your launch without overwhelming yourself.

 

Authenticity matters more than ever. I share how being more open and human has transformed the way my audience connects with me.

 

Connect with Teresa on Website, (Grow, Launch, Sell), Sign up to Teresa's email list,  Instagram, LinkedIn, or Facebook, Subscribe to my Youtube, Ep 427

 

Transcript

The online space is changing, and the way we used to launch back in 2020 and 2021 has shifted massively, and some of those things are not working anymore. So if you are trying to sell a course, a membership, or a group coaching program in 2026, then you are going to want to know these five shifts that you can make in your business and your marketing, and how you show up in order to help sell your online offers.

My name's Teresa Heath Wareing and I have worked with hundreds and hundreds of online business owners, helping them grow their online business with confidence and without burning out. The online world has changed back in 2020, back in 2021. The online world went through a real boom, and it was honestly as easy as being able to put something out there and people would buy it, and you could do a webinar or a quick challenge and you would have hundreds and hundreds of people come through your launch experience, regardless of the size of your [00:01:00] audience.

But it's changed. And actually I am happy that it's changed because during that time, lots of people created content and created courses and memberships and programs. That were just not where they should have been. And people ended up buying them and getting their fingers burned, basically buying things that they thought they were getting that would help and they didn't help.

So consumers in the world of AI and online world, and now in the world we're in currently with AI and tech and online. We are becoming much more discerning as consumers, and that is a good thing. Even though it's getting harder for people to sell online and to be as successful as maybe people want, it's actually a good thing.

'cause it means that when people do buy, they're making those decisions correctly. They're not being forced into them, and hopefully they are buying something that they know what they're going to get and they feel good about that [00:02:00] purchase and that's what we want. I have been in the online space for about nine years now, and during that time, I have had only ever one person ask for a refund in every single thing that I have sold, and that one person asked for a refund because it was COVID, and they couldn't put into practice the things that I had actually told them to do.

I very politely declined. And said that I would offer them some more calls in order to help them when the world opened up again. But I think there's a really good reason why I don't get refunds. I don't get people asking for their money back, and I don't get people necessarily saying things online about me and my offers because I am much slower in the way I sell and the way I market to them.

And some of the things that I'm going to talk about, some of these shifts I have already been doing, and yes. I could have probably grown my business a lot faster if I showed up differently, but I would've had way more refunds. I've had a, would've had way more people angry on the internet about me, and those things just [00:03:00] haven't happened.

So I am very happy to take the slower route to grow more organically and not have to deal with that side of the online world. Anyway, that wasn't necessarily what I came on here to talk about, but it is kind of relevant because of the fact of I want you to create an online business that feels good for you, feels good for your audience, and is something that you can sustain for the long term.

'cause if you are here watching me, I know you are very passionate about the thing that you are trying to help people with, and you are not in it for get rich quick. 'cause if you were, you wouldn't be resonating with me. So I'm gonna take you through these five shifts that you need to. Think about and to make in your business and in your marketing, in order for you to succeed and grow your online business in 2026.

Shift number one is relationships over broadcasting. Previously, and I still stand by this, we need an audience. If you want a successful online business, people have to know who you are. [00:04:00] It's not just about getting the size of that audience, it's about having that connection with your audience. You can be wildly successful with a smaller audience if you have a really strong and good connection with them, and one of the ways in which you are going to do this, which I have been.

An advocate for, for a long time, and I teach on is becoming the go-to expert in your industry, is becoming the face that people see and is hearing you as a trusted voice in their industry. And one of the ways that you're gonna be able to do that is by putting yourself out as that trusted person, getting on podcasts, getting on stages, having people see you.

On the stage, on the podcast, hearing what you've got to say and building that relationship over time. Now, interestingly enough, I had a conversation with someone who is in my world, who I work with recently, and they were really frustrated that they were getting on podcasts, and it just wasn't working quick enough for [00:05:00] them.

They weren't seeing the results immediately for the podcast they'd been on. This is a slow burn. This isn't going to be a super fast thing. You're not gonna do one podcast and then suddenly your business is gonna boom. There are definitely some podcasts out there. If you can get on them, then that might happen.

But on the whole, if you're not being invited on diary, the CEO, for instance, then you are going to need to do quite a few podcasts. You are going to need to do this consistently, but this is a good thing because you are building the trust organically, and when you build that organically, the time it takes to build, it means it's so hard to lose.

You have to do something really stupid to lose that trust, so that isn't a bad thing. I know it's going to take time, but getting yourself out there as the expert, putting yourself on podcast, putting yourself on stages is going to be the strongest way in which you can build that relationship over just building an audience for each of these shifts, I want to give you a couple of really practical examples that I want you to go away and do.

One of the most important things [00:06:00] in my world is about taking action. Gone are the days where we've done all the courses, we've been in all the programs where we just hope that being there by osmosis will make us successful. The people that I see have the most success are taking action. So this is my hope for you that for each of these things, I'm going to give you something to take action.

So for the first shift, what I want you to do is I want you to pitch to go and speak on two or three podcasts. Or pitch to go and speak and train in other people's groups if someone has a group. So for instance, I deal with online business owners. So if I know someone who has a group that is aimed at online business owners, then I might offer to go and do a session about something.

If you want help with your visibility, then I have a freebie that will help you if you scan the QR code on the screen or go to Theresa Heath wearing.com/visible. You. You will get [00:07:00] my free five day challenge with workbook. That will take you through the exact steps that you need to take to get on other people's podcasts or get in front of other people's audiences.

So like I said, click the QR code or go to, theres heath wearing.com/visible to grab that. Shift. Number two is all about creating community, not just courses. Now, I'm not saying don't sell a course and you should have a membership. That's not the case at all. I'm talking about how can you create something more than just a course that someone does online.

Again, I'm not saying that that is not working at all. There are definitely still some, uh, people out there that are selling courses that are standalone evergreen courses that are working. But if you want to be successful in 2026 and going forward, then you really need to look at how can we bring more of a community aspect into what you do, because.

We are in a world that is inundated with content. [00:08:00] We are not short of content. We have AI where we can literally get it to create a course just for us about the thing that you want to learn. What that doesn't give us is the person who's been through it, the other people who are going through it with you.

The community aspect of having conversations with people who understand what you are doing and the ability to ask questions, for instance. I have a puppy who is now 12 weeks old, and I bought a course on how to train the puppy, and that's great. Like I'm really happy with the course. It's really good, really useful.

The thing that I'm really loving is the community. The community that goes alongside it. Because what I'm able to do is when I watch something in the course and I try it with my puppy and it doesn't work, then I can go into the community and go, why isn't this working? And they can help and give suggestions on what I might be doing wrong or how I might change it.

So yes, we need the content, obviously, but how can you bring in that community aspect to what you are offering online? The [00:09:00] other thing that having a community within your content can help with is that support and the accountability. Again, we are in a world where we have done all the courses, we have bought all the things in hope that they are the answer.

What really moves the needle and what I see all the time in my program Grow Launch Sale is someone will come to me, they will say they've watched a particular lesson within the program, and then I will tell them how to tweak it specifically for them, their audience, how they like to show up, how much their offer is, what they want to do to promote it.

All of the things mean that I give them a more personalized, tweaked experience in terms of how to go ahead and do the thing, which should give them better results. So when you have that community aspect, whether it's you in the community or whether it is a community that you just have alongside, what you're doing is you're helping with that support and that accountability.

And if someone [00:10:00] takes action on the thing that they've bought. Then they are more likely to have much more fonder thoughts about it and promote it to other people. So your action for shift too could be, can you introduce a monthly q and a that you offer to people who have bought your course? If you have a standalone course, can you find a way to create more of an experience and more of a community for the people who you already have in your world?

This could be as simple as having a Facebook group or a Slack community or a WhatsApp community, or as simple as sending a weekly email with some accountability or a check-in. What can you do to bring in that community more of that community to the thing that you sell online currently? Because that's the thing they're going to stay for.

That's the thing that they're going to. That's the thing that's gonna help them move the needle and get to the transformation that you are offering them. Shift number three is all about how [00:11:00] people find you. This is obviously changing massively with the world of ai. So for instance, we would've had SEO and things like Facebook ads that would've converted much easier than they do currently.

But because. We have AI that now we've gotta write and create content for things like chat, GBT, and also the trust has got to be much higher. Those ads that were fairly cold to a cold audience don't convert as well. So shift number one that talked about making you the expert is one part of this. But the other part that I'm talking about here is the content that you create.

I had this conversation just today when someone said to me, I told them that I'd started a YouTube channel, and they said to me, how do you know that you're not creating too much content? Because why wouldn't they just take it and go and do it themselves? And I talked about the fact of that when you create content online that is very [00:12:00] generic content, whether you want it to be or not, because.

Your business, your offer might be different prices, so you might have a low cost offer that's $19 or 19 pounds, or you might have a really high cost offer that's 5,000. You might have a massive audience or a tiny audience. You might have a warm one or a cold one. You might love doing live stuff, but you hate doing prerecorded or writing.

You might find that your audience. So I have one client that works for me who's a dietician that actually her email list does not work well for her, but Instagram works really well for her. So even though I can come on here and I can share content with you to show you that I know what I'm talking about and that I'm an expert in the field, it's not personalized to you.

Now, there are some people that will watch your content. There are some people who will watch this and take what I say and go and fly with it and be brilliant, and that is great. No problem at all. They were never going to buy from you or me. Whereas there are some people who will watch this and go, that was [00:13:00] really helpful, but I'd really love to understand how that would work specifically for my business.

And then they might consider working with you. So when you are creating the content and creating content isn't new, you should have been doing this hopefully for a long time. But you really need to think about what people are asking and what they are searching for in terms of how they're using ai. So, for instance, YouTube videos, blogs that have very clear how to titles content that is very specific on how to do a particular thing and answers very specific problems.

So my action for you is I want you to go and come up with a list of 20 questions that your ideal customer might be putting into ai, and I want you to think about how you can create content to answer those questions. The key thing here is to have each piece of content answer one question [00:14:00] specifically so that AI can find it.

Shift number four. That we need to think about that launch experience better than we have previously. And what I mean by this is previously it's like, okay, I want to sell a course. I want to sell my membership. What shall I do? I'll do a webinar, or I'll do a bootcamp because I like them or because they're easy and I've done one before.

We really need to think about. How that particular launch experience fits in with the thing that we're selling and the level of audience that we have. I did a video recently which talked you through a strategy on how you can pick the right launch experience that fit with the offer, price and your audience based on how warm they are.

So that's the first thing. Go and check out that video. We'll make sure we've put it in the captions and in the notes. The second thing is it's not just as straightforward as doing a quick webinar. We need to put [00:15:00] some more serious thought into that experience, and we really need to think about how we can make that experience even better and more involved for the people taking part.

So for instance, one of the things that I did in my latest launch and my previous launch was I run a bootcamp. And in that bootcamp we had things like a music playlist. We had a podcast playlist that I'd put together. We did a community in the bootcamp to make sure that I could have that interaction with them.

I included mindset sessions because I'm a certified coach, so that fit really well. I also did things like I posted something to them, and that might seem really odd that for a bootcamp, why would I spend money to post something to them? It's adding in those extra elements that are making you stand out.

These launches can't just be, I need to do something, let me whip up a webinar. We really need to think about how we're engaging our community, how we're showing up, and what we are giving them, and the transformation they're going to get while working with us. So you need to [00:16:00] give your launch experience way more thought than maybe you've done previously.

Your action for this one is I want you to go back and watch that video where I show you the matrix based on how warm your audience is and the offer that you are selling, and I want you to work out what would be the best kind of launch for you to do based on those two things. And shift number five, I want you to show up as a real human, not a perfect expert.

Again, in this world of AI where I dunno about you, but. I don't trust hardly anything anymore. 'cause it's like, is that image real? Is that video real? Can I trust that this hasn't been made by ai? We need to counteract that by showing up as even more human than we have done before. So whereas, you know, probably five years ago, it was all about the perfect...