2026 isn’t about growth. It’s about earned trust.

Goodbye Creator Toolkit. Hello Creators In Business.

👋 Welcome to Creators In Business, a newsletter where creators learn to think like CEOs, and businesses learn to move like creators.

Before we bring in the new year, I’ve put together the five things to lean into as we shift into a new era of the internet.

While everyone is predicting more AI tools, more platforms, and more content.

The real shift in 2026 is psychological.

If you’re building for 2026, the question is no longer “How do I grow faster?”

It’s:

“Who am I earning trust from, and how clearly am I demonstrating this?"

Trust will become the defining currency of 2026. It takes longer to cultivate, and it’s harder to earn, especially in this climate.

But there are ways to do it. These are the signals and trends to pay close attention to and activate in your 2026 content strategy.

Let’s make 2026 our year,

Jess Smalley 🔑

Create with purpose or get filtered out

What’s happening:

People aren’t consuming less content; they’re heavily curating what they consume.

Mindless scrolling, often driven by short-form content, leads to brain rot and a sense of uncontrollability over your own time. Your audience is more ruthless about where and how they spend their time, so make sure your stuff makes the cut.

To put it simply: Passive scrolling is down, selective loyalty is up.

By creating purposeful content, you’re showing people that you respect their time, and respect builds trust faster than frequency.

2026 behaviour shift:

In 2026, credibility comes from what you’re willing to show before the result.

What’s happening:

AI has changed the way we interpret content.

Questions like, “Is this AI or is this real?”

“Am I being misled to believe that AI wasn’t used?”

“Do I care that AI was used to create this?”

This is the new filter system your audience has created to determine value as more AI-generated content floods our feeds.

So, depending on the desired outcome, you need to do a few things to make sure your output is valued the way you intended.

Polished outputs are no longer as impressive as they once were. Anyone can generate “smart-looking” content. What makes something “impressive” is transparency about the process and what it took to create the “smart-looking” content.

2026 behaviour shift:

Conversion is what moves the needle; follow count becomes a data point

What’s happening:

The rules of the internet have changed, and the follower count no longer holds the same value as it once did. Why? Because it’s harder to trust the value of just a follower count. In fact, a higher follower count could lower your trust value.

What matters is the conversion rate. Does your audience trust you enough to take action when called upon?

By 2026, trust will be entirely quantifiable, manifesting through actions rather than “vanity” metrics.

2026 behaviour shift:

Community isn’t a growth tactic. It’s an operating system.

What’s happening:

We are all craving community and connection.

Not only are we becoming more socially lonely, but we’re also becoming more cognitively and creatively disconnected.

Right now, we feel its absence in our ideas, our productivity, and our trust-building. One of the things that suffers is the cultivation of culture.

No community → no repetition → no shared meaning → no culture

Companies can't manufacture culture, so they have to borrow the invisible glue created by repeated, meaningful interaction from creators.

2026 behaviour shift:

Successful outliers embrace human imperfections, distinguishing themselves from perfect sameness.

What’s happening:

We’re at a point now where everything is optimised, frictionless and perfect, yet it all feels a little… lifeless.

Human critical thinking is being outsourced to AI chatbots, creating sameness and flattening our experience on platforms like LinkedIn and Reddit.

What’s missing is our own unique sense of taste. This is the electricity that injects energy back into the internet.

2026 behaviour shift:

I know it’s tempting to chase what we’ve been prioritising for the past decade: follower count, virality, and clout.

But this won’t give you the outcome you’re looking for if you want to outperform in 2026.

The advantage will be to those of you who can abandon the tired old way.