5 Big Shifts in Marketing & Content Creation for 2026

We are in the middle of a major shift in how marketing, content creation, and online business works.

If you’ve been feeling like the way things used to work no longer feels aligned — like strategies that once worked suddenly feel heavy, noisy, or ineffective — you’re not imagining it.

In this episode of The Aligned Business Show, I’m sharing 5 big shifts we are seeing heading into 2026 that are reshaping how we market, create content, and attract clients.

Think of this as a transition moment — similar to the early days of the internet — where everything begins to reorganize and old ways of doing business no longer work the same way.

In this episode, we explore:

• 5 major shifts in marketing and content creation for 2026
• Why traditional marketing strategies are starting to break down
• What is replacing outdated visibility and sales methods
• Why so many entrepreneurs feel out of alignment with current strategies
• How to adapt your business to this new era of marketing

If you’ve been questioning the way marketing is done today — this episode will give you clarity on what is changing and why it matters.

💛 Which of the 5 shifts feels like the biggest breath of fresh air for you?

I'm exploring this so much deeper inside the Aligned Business Movement on my Istagram, come join: https://www.instagram.com/the.aligned.business/

#MarketingTips #BusinessGrowth #ClientAttraction #AlignedBusiness

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Aligned Business Show. Today we're going to be talking about this giant, huge, crazy shift we are in right now and how it's going to affect our business and especially how it's going to affect our marketing and content creation and the way we show up. I'm going to go a bit nerdy today because I'm going to bring in human design. Human design has been the biggest transformation, the biggest force of growth in my life as it entered about eight years ago into my world. And I am continuously blown away about how accurate it is and how easily we can get an understanding and a language for who we are, how we show up, alignment, disalignment, disconnection, conditioning, and all the things that we are facing as human beings. Now, there is one important thing you need to know before I tell you these five really huge shifts we are going to see within content creation and marketing. I'm predicting that in four months or less, we are going to see every huge guru on the different platforms speak about these changes. And we are going to see a 180 flip. Now, the reason we are is because we are exiting a 400-year cycle that's called the cross of planning. Now remember a few years back when we were moving more from Pisces into Aquarius, that was a big thing where people were talking about this new time and new way of living on Earth and all the things that are going to shift. That is a very slow shift. But within human design, it's actually a certain date where we go from one incarnation cross that is the dominating frequency that affects Earth and everything on it, into another one. And that is happening next year in 2027, in February. And everything that has been happening these last few years and is happening right now is leading us up to this big change because it is a big change. Everyone on Earth right now is born under the cross of planning, and so was their parents and grandparents and great-grandparents. So this has really been a dominating way of structuring life and being humans on this planet. And we have seen it within business as well. All the systems, all the planning, all the structures. Like if I do this, I can expect this, the input, the output. And every system we see in our entire world has been built under the cross of planning. But all of those things are coming to an end. Now it's not gonna end from one day to another next year, February 2027, because we are still the dominating frequency when we talk about the people on the planet. But everyone that is going to be born after February 2027 is gonna be born with this dominating energy of the new incarnation cross. And it's night and day. So when we look at a lot of the strategies, when we look at a lot of the content advice, when we look at business success advice, all of that has been very much affected by the cross of planning. If you just for a second think about the advice you have seen the last two years at least, with batch creating content plans using AI to make 360 pieces of content, and everything is really structured and is really planned. That is not how we're gonna run business from this point on. And if you feel like it's actually been hard to follow the current advice, you will see improvement. It will feel easier. And like this is the base of an aligned business. It is building a business that's right for us. And the cross of planning has been kind of strict and rigid about what is right and what is not, and how to do it and how not to do it, and how you are correct and how you're not correct. And it has nothing to do with the individuals, it has everything to do with the collective. Now, when we are moving into this new intercarnation cross and this new energy, it is about the individual and not the collective. So we have been listening outwards a lot. We've been looking towards experts, we've been looking towards authorities, we've been looking towards systems and structures out here in the world that we could follow, that we could implement. Some of us has found it quite hard to follow those rules and have been kind of rebellious and not following them anyway. But this shift and this new energy is so much more about individual truth and really owning your way of doing things and operating the way you are meant to, and following your truth and your persuasion and your way of navigating, learning input, output in your life. And when you do that as you, it will be good for everyone else. But you are the focus. Whereas everything out here has been the focus up until this point. Like as long as you were of value to society, it didn't matter that it was on your expense. As long as you made other people happy, it didn't really matter that you were miserable. As long as you were a value to society, that was great. Everything else inside you was second or third or tenth because it wasn't that important. That is gonna shift massively. So I predict we're gonna see five really big changes within marketing and content creation. And I already see them happening. I already see the threats of this big change being woven into this current moment. And I have felt it personally like crazy. But I have two of the gates in the incarnation cross we are entering into the next year, the cross of the sleeping phoenix. And before I dive into the five big changes that you need to figure out how you feel about and how you want to navigate it, I want to tell you a bit about the next 400 years and the cycles we are entering into. Because the cross of the sleeping phoenix is a rebirth of the individual. It is really about self-responsibility, like you being responsible for your energy, for your emotional intelligence, for your power, for how you use your energy. And it's a lot about embodied truth. So, what we've seen a lot within business and within marketing is the idea that you can just follow somebody else's steps and you will have the success that they proclaim you will have or that they had. But we also see a lot of business owners having tried to implement every single step, having tried to follow every format, having tried to do everything they've been told would work, and it still haven't. And the reason is it was so far from their personal truth that it was never ever gonna work. And even if they made it work, it was by force. And there is gonna be a big awakening about power versus force in the next 400 years. And another thing we're gonna see when the sleeping phoenix arises, or when we enter into that incarnation cross, is authentic communication and authentic connection. So, again, if we look at a lot of the strategies that is out there right now, there is not a lot of connection. There is not a lot of authentic connection with the AI, with the menu chat, with the autoresponses. Everything is mass reach and it's like putting in place these systems that can take our personal time and connection and engagement away from the equation and away from running a business. But that's not gonna work long term. I'm not saying you can't use many chat, I'm just saying if you rely on only building an automated business, at some point you will see it will work less and less. But again, this shift is gonna take time. So I'm not so interested in trying to make you change something that you feel is working. And if planning and structure and content plans and automated responses work really well for you, and you build an entire business and funnels, and you don't actually have to ever talk to a person and it works for you, you are born under the cross of planning. So there might be elements of your natural chart, of your design, of your energy that supports that is right for you. Now, what we're seeing is a change in the demand and in the people that's coming and in the way we are evolving as human beings. So if that has not worked for you, if that hasn't feel right, if you don't feel like you have been able to create a fully automated business, and if you don't like the whole many chat auto-response thing and you actually want to talk to people, we are moving into a time where that might feel easier for you because that is the supporting energy. And what's been naturally for you has not been what you have allowed yourself to do fully or what the energy has supported. And also, I'm not saying that you could not have any structures in your business, or you should not have any structures in your business, but we are just moving away from that very structured relying on external things way of running a business into a more self-trust, self-led and inner guided way of running a business with deeper connection, truer connection, and where we allow ourselves to build our business and run our business and market our business the way that is actually true to us. And that is everything I am here for. I am so on board for this. So, this shift is a lot about sovereignty and self-trust. That means if you do have a lot of structures in your business, look at which ones are actually supporting you, which ones are allowing your growth and allowing you to do things the way you want to do, and which ones are kind of restricting you. In this shift, we are also seeing a really heightened importance in understanding your emotional capacity and your emotional intelligence. Because one of the gates that is part of the cross of the sleeping phoenix is gate 55, that's called the gate of abundance, and that is really a lot about emotional intelligence and interpreting everything that goes on and being aware of your inner state and how that determines everything you see in your world. So this is basic manifestation. Another one of the four gates, it's gate 59, and that is about connection, like really genuine, honest connection, not just trading things, not just if I give you that, you give me this, not the cold surface level, but real actual connection and how we bond and how we build relationships. And when you think about it, essentially business was relationships. Now, then we took the whole just sell a PDF, you don't ever have to talk to a person, comment to get this, automation, and there was not a lot of connection there. And really, the only thing that sets you apart in that way of marketing is the connection, is the who am I? Why me? Because if you are just selling, like people some people are selling just AI-generated things. They are researching a market and they are popping in prompts to AI, asking it to find out what the biggest problem is within that market, and then they are asking it to create a solution, and they are asking it to package it into a course or a program or PDF or something, and they are asking it to create content for that, and then they are selling it. And there is not a single thing they have actually done themselves besides typing the prompt that initially started everything. That won't continue to work because more and more people are gonna be able to do that themselves. So they don't actually need another person to type in the prompt, they don't need another person to do the market research and just ask the machine that they have access to themselves to deliver a solution and then they try to follow it. It's gonna be so much more about lived experiences and embodied truths, and and we're going back to that relationship way of building businesses. The remaining two gates of the Cross of the Sleeping Phoenix are a lot about how you use your your power, how you use your energy correct for you in the moment. So again, all the planning ahead, all the content creation for six months ahead, if there is no room to navigate in the now, if there is no response in the now, if there is no adaptability to the now, or even just an anchor in the present moment and speaking from that and acting from that, it won't actually work the same way. So we are seeing a huge shift. What we're gonna see when it comes to marketing is that most of the content out there is gonna be noise. It's gonna be overlooked, it's gonna be forgotten within five seconds because it is not felt and it's not present in the moment. It is not activating anything, it's just mass-produced and it's all made from the same assumption that has been dominating within the marketing context for years now that is about quantity, like mass production. Put it out there, stay top of mind, make sure you post every day. And every platform that we've been marketing on is endorsing this behavior, even when they say they don't. I know the head of Instagram is saying you don't have to post every day, it's not about the quantity. But if you look at the app, if you look at what it celebrates, if you look at the insights, if you look at the recaps, everything is about do more. Like next week, you can top it by doing this. And even a lot of the growth experts have been preaching. You know what? I have started posting four times a day instead of three times a day. And some of them have been posting five times a day instead of four times a day, and some have even been experimenting with posting 10 times a day, and some accounts have made a crazy experiment where they have posted 150 times in a day. It has been so much about quantity and very little about quality. Now, I have taken a lot of Instagram courses. I have been curious about a lot of different ways to grow, and not a single one of them is saying it's about the quality. It has been so much about your next viral post. It's already sitting in your drafts, just posted. You know, um the whole trial reels, when that came, there was a big trend of you don't know what to post, or you're still thinking about what you want to post. Well, I just posted 150 trial reels in the last week, and here are my results. It has been so much push, push, push, push, push the content out there. B-roll after B-roll, where there is no intentionality about the actual footage or the video, but it's just been about create a new hook, different angle, tweak it, turn it, flip it upside down, say it again, repeat it. And we are fed up with the amount of content we are being exposed to. That is also why more and more tests and data is saying our attention span is shorter and shorter and shorter. And the way we've been trying to work with that is to grab attention faster and faster and faster while we have overloaded our brain and our nervous system, and we are just becoming mind-dumb, scrolling zombies. And there's so much, so we are overwhelmed, and a lot of business owners feel overwhelmed with the amount of content they have had to create. And if we look at it, most of it hasn't performed. So, what all this content advice has created is a lot of bad content, is a lot of bad content and consistency, consistency, consistency, and people have been posting, posting, posting, posting, and it haven't worked because they haven't been connected to their message. They haven't allowed themselves to let the message grow and mature. They have just posted it the second the idea came, the second the thought came into their mind, they posted it because you know what? It's better to get it out than to keep it. And that's not true. That is not true when we are going with half-assing energy, no intentionality, mass production and quantity over quality, and we are not being true to our authentic voice. So, what we are seeing, and what we're going to see so much more within the next few months and throughout 2026 and on, is that we are craving something else. And we are craving it both as consumers and also creators. Because we don't actually want, as consumers, we don't want your five crappy posts that you just made to stay top of mind or to make sure that your reach doesn't dip because you create less content this week than you did the week before. We actually rather want your true message. We rather want something of depth and of value than just five surface level conversations that is basically the same, just you tweak a word or you suck one word for another, or you use a different hooked, or you use a different footage. So here are the five really huge shifts that I predict we're gonna see. And again, it takes time for things to catch on, but this has already started. And if you were to start a completely new account on any of the platform you're using, you would see that there is a lot of different content out there that you haven't even seen yet because the algorithm has just served you the same, the same, the same, the same. And I see at least three of these areas I'm gonna share with you are already taking place. And I have felt on my own body that the difference on how it feels. So the first shift is we are moving away from the fast-paced, rapid movement, many shifts content to slow content. Again, our brain has been fried. It is overwhelmed with all the impressions and everything it needs to kind of hold on to and see and process and figure out if it's important or not. For your content and your marketing, that means calm shots. That means a little to focus on. You can actually be present with what you're saying or what you're showing or what you are taking us through, and not having to adjust to everything shifting and changing all the time. It's very good for the nervous system. And if there is one thing we feel we all need is a calmer nervous system. There is so much to keep focusing on and attending to and remembering and keeping track of. The second one is intentionality. So I'm not saying it has to take four hours to create a piece of content, not at all. And I'm not saying you need professional gear and everything has to look perfect. I'm just saying be intentional about the shots, about the pictures. A lot of the advice has been just use whatever you have in your camera roll. And often we have seen a message and a video or a picture that has conflicted and has not really worked well together. So be intentional about it. Why this picture? Why this shot? Why this message? Why this hook? Why this audio if you put it on? Why? What is the greater meaning of it? How are all the pieces going to fit together? Not just so they are like separate puzzle pieces that don't actually fit, but you just kind of force them to make a post. And the hook goes in one direction and the picture goes in another direction. And the audio, I don't even know what that is, but at least it's trending, right? So it should work for reach. That doesn't fly anymore. Number three is aesthetics. And I know that some people, a lot of people are gonna feel resistance about this. And I also know there are still a lot of growth experts and Instagram gurus and TikTok gurus that are gonna say it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter at all. It's gonna matter. It's gonna matter like crazy. Because we constantly communicate with everything, not just the hook, not just the caption, but also our pictures and our videos. Everything is part of the whole package that whoever lands on our content receives, and every part of it communicates. And what this mass production of content And just get it out there, create this in five seconds. I just had had AI deliver this to me, and it took me like a nanosecond. If you look at anyone's grid, it's ugly. It's ugly as hell. Not everyone, because some of them have actually been really focused on the aesthetics all along and it's a part of their identity. So they create a real cover that looks more aligned to their brand. But the weird still shops where the video starts and the giant square with color and hooks on it, it looks really ugly. And when you when you're having a business and you're building a brand, there is a part of it that is the visual, that is the the look of it, that is the vibe you get. And if you look at Instagram now, for most businesses, it's messy. And it doesn't give a great feeling, a great vibe. And the only reason we have these ugly reels is because there has been this idea that you have to create so much of it that it should be easy to figure out which one should I watch when they land on your page. But we are gonna see a different curiosity, a different kind of curiosity, where a picture with no hook and nothing to ruin the aesthetics can draw attention and curiosity and make people want to see what hides behind that picture. So it's not about perfection and it's not about fake and it's not about forced. Like even still be real. If you are if you are an artist and you love colors, I would not for the world advise you to make a really neat choose one color or two color uh aesthetic look on your Instagram, or that you should tone down every picture so you only have this dark moody vibe. It's really about authentic and what is true to you. So the aesthetic look should be authentic and true to you. Like I'm a mom, I have three kids, I have one space, one wall in the entire house that looks sort of okay. I wanted it, I made it, I colored it, I chose the decoration, I built the tree, you know. So if I am to take shots other places in the house, it's not gonna look the same, but with angles and with intentionality and with the eye for authentic and real, but not completely out of context or off-brand, you can actually take a picture or a video, short video that still aesthetically fits your brand. And we have actually seen a clue to this with AI because a lot of people are starting to create pictures where they look better than they do in real life, and where they are in better surroundings than they have in real life, and where it's fake. And I am not preaching fake. I would, for the life of me, not want you to go and create an entire fake image just so it looked good. Again, it needs to be real, it needs to be real. That is really that is the essence of what I'm here to preach. It needs to be real, but we are moving towards beauty, easy on the eyes and visually appealing. Again, because there is so much to focus on. So if it's all over the place, we kind of space out. If it's confusing, this is like a marketing rule. When you are writing things or when you are making videos and when you are delivering your messaging, if it's confusing, people won't buy. A confused mind won't buy. It's the same if we come to your page or to your profile and everything is just all over the place, and we we don't even we don't even know what to look at, and we don't even know what we are looking at, then it's confusing. And there is a part of us that's like, ugh, that's too much trouble. And that's the biggest part of us. That is our subconscious mind saying, takes too much, too much effort, we don't want that. Just move on. There's probably another one. And there is, there is, because there are so many people out there speaking about what you're speaking about. And if you are not making it true to you and unique in the way that you actually are and authentic, you are just competing with everyone else, talking about what you're talking about. So this new error is really about standing out individually, not the way we have seen people try to do it, by be something they're not, or take on a role or play a part, or adopt an energy that they have seen work for somebody else, but really uniquely you, true to who you are, standing out. And that is something we're gonna see in the content as well, because right now we're just seeing a lot of the same, a lot of the same shots, a lot of the same ideas, a lot of the same templates, a lot of the same uh trending styles, a lot of the same hooks, a lot of the same everything. And that's that's gonna change if you really want to stand out, if you want to build a business that is aligned to you. Then we have number four. And for your deep souls, you're gonna love this. And again, like I said, if you feel like something has been hard because it seems like the whole world has been moving at another pace and playing by different rules than you felt like you were built to, this is gonna be really a really nice time for you. And if you are a deeper person and if you rather want deeper conversations and not just small talks and tiny fractions of whatever you want to talk about spewed out over the entire internet in 70 different ways to create enough content, you're gonna love this because the number four is depth over mass reach and push strategy. There has been a lot of mass reach strategies. There has been a lot of push strategies. Get your things in front of as many eyes as possible, get them to opt in for something, get them into a funnel. And I'm not saying that freebies or lead magnets and anything like that is not going to work anymore. I'm not saying you can't use many chat. I'm just saying we have seen accounts overuse this and milk it. So there has been no personal connection. There has been an auto-response hitting everyone that ever replied to anything, no matter if they use the trigger word or not. There have been direct messages landing in your inbox. You have not asked for it just because somewhere along the line or in the process of creating the system, something wasn't actually working. I don't know about you, but I've stopped commenting. Like I comment a trigger word so rarely that I can't even remember the last time I did it. And I've stopped commenting on the posts of the people that use Many Chat because every single time I have left a genuine comment because I actually took the time to read what they have been writing and to listen to what they were saying, and it did something to me. I did not want the three guide, I just wanted to express my thoughts or to share that it resonated or thanked them for the message or whatever. I have been hit with an auto-reply and a message in my inbox asking if I wanted the thing they were promoting. That is not a true connection, and I don't care how much you are a fan of Many Chat and how much you preach it and how much money you've made because of it, that is not genuine connection. And you will lose people if you don't think in genuine connection moving forward. The fifth one is my favorite, it's real overpolished. I can't tell you how sad I felt in my soul with all the fakeness I've seen within the last year shared on social media. And I hate to say it, but my immediate thought whenever I see a picture right now that looks a little too polished, or when I see a video, or when I read something, is this AI? That's my immediate thought. And I know I'm not the only one. And I know real or polish can seem a bit contradicting when I also mention intentionality and aesthetics, but it really goes beautifully hand in hand because again, intentionality was never about being intentionally something you're not. It was never about creating a fake image, it was never about perfection. And also, again, aesthetics was never about perfection. It was never never about one set of standards you have to live up to. It was never about that it there is only one type of grid that's gonna work, there's only one type of videos that's gonna work, there's only one kind of pictures that's gonna work. It was never about that. It was always about the real, it was always about the authentic. And with the surge of AI, pictures and videos and and voices and everything, copy programs that was never made by a person and has never been tested, has never been lived, has never been embodied, real is gonna be rare and cherished. And when we look at the new incarnation cross and the dominating energy and frequency we are moving into in 2027, real is the only way. Real is the only way. Again, I'm not saying you can't make money. I'm not saying if this works in your business and you absolutely love it and you feel like it's the best thing you ever did and invented it in a way where you are free to not even talk to a person. You can just create a lot of content with AI, you can have them create your programs, you can have them run anything that they need to run or are capable of running. I'm not saying you need to change that. This is for the people who felt like that's not for me. This is for anyone who felt like they have tried to follow the rules, they have tried to follow the steps, they have tried to follow the strategies, and it hasn't worked. And it has felt like self-betrayal. It's felt like they were fake. It's felt like they had to sell their soul for success. If that's you, that's who I'm talking to. Because moving forward, we are seeing a different energy that allows you to be more you, that wants you to be more you. That is highly emphasizing the inner truth and the self-responsibility and your emotional intelligence and your inner world and how you tend to it, and really aligning to who you are in everything you do and using your power, using your energy towards that, your creative life force to what is true in the moment, in the now, not what anyone else is saying you have to do, not what your schedule and content plan is telling you you have to post, not whatever step you are at in the suggestion from your coach or the challenge you're following. What is actually true to you and what is emerging, arising in the now. I don't know about you, but I am looking forward to this shift and I am so excited to see where this takes us. And you can dismiss this and just say, you know what? That's just biggest opinion. But it's not an opinion. It's actually what I've seen, and everything in my chart is showing me that I am here to build the bridge to a more beautiful world where we get to be who we really are, where we cherish that uniqueness and where we see it as gifts, and where we are not trying to follow rules that were never meant for us, and where we are not trying to follow steps that somebody else took. And we can't take them unless we take them in a way where we abandon ourselves, or where we betray who we are, or where we feel false. And I truly believe that's why human design found me. Because there are some people that are bridging this gap and and helping this transition. And those are the ones who speak about uniqueness, authenticity, integrity, alignment, being true to who you are, showing up fully as you, not following the rules, asking yourself the questions, the hard questions that allows you to see where you have been living a lie or living in a way that isn't right for you. Because we are moving into a completely different era, 400 years of the sleeping phoenix incarnation cross, of sovereignty, of uh uh inner truth, and doing what's best for us individually, not from an ego, not from an unbalanced, fearful place, but truth. And I will always be where we uh are the most valuable to everyone else. What is truly good for me, truly good for me, uh, will also be good for everyone else. So I'm very excited to hear what you think about these changes. If you are if you've seen some of them already, like I have really seen uh a rise in the slow content. Really, and I enjoy it. Oh my god, I enjoy it. I enjoy a video where I just see the calm rain and there is a short message or there is a spoken message in the person's own voice. Not where there are rapid shifts in the text on screen, and I I can't even read it, and my brain is already confused, and I'm tired, I get tired. If I scroll for 20 minutes, I get so tired, and I feel like I've given so much energy and not really getting anything in return. And we are definitely gonna see a shift in that. Now, I will always preach quality over quantity, intentionality, real, and actually sharing what you want to share and what you feel is valuable, and knowing, being uh mindful that somebody else uh is gonna see this and they're gonna be affected by it positively or negatively, and it uh could potentially live forever. So, what I put out there is something that I actually want to look at 10 years from now and still be proud. Not saying I I can't have grown and evolved or maybe even changed an opinion, but I can still be proud about the realness and not just having shared it for the sake of sharing something, and not just having jumped on every trend in order to have more reach, and not just having sold my soul again and again for success. If you have any questions, feel free to write them. This is so exciting, but at least now you know where we are moving and why we are moving in that direction. And I can't wait to see where this takes us.