Stop Copying $297 Challenges - Do This Instead

The online space feels wildly confused right now, so I wanted to sit down and dispel a few myths about what actually makes people win in 2026 — based on what I'm seeing every single day coaching 38 clients at a high level, many of them generating six, multi-six, and seven figures from their launches and funnels.

I break down the three things people think are the secret to winning right now — challenges, "yapping," and how an offer is packaged — and why none of them are actually it. Then I share the one word that sums up what I really think makes you win, and exactly how to apply it to your offers, your content, and your selling.

In this episode we cover:
— The 3 things people think make you win online right now (and why they're wrong)
— The one word that actually sums up what makes people win in 2026
— How to apply embodiment to your offers, using real examples from creators I'm watching right now
— Why documentation beats teaching when it comes to content
— Why the "posting from the pool" era of content is over
— How to apply embodiment to your selling and pitches — and why proof points make people 80% more likely to buy

LINKS:
Jessi Jean's Yap Challenge: https://www.instagram.com/jessijeanhome/
Jun Yuh: https://www.instagram.com/jun_yuh/
Amie, Lazy Millionaire (Substack Challenge): https://substack.com/@lazymillionaireofficial
Vix Meldrew: https://www.instagram.com/vixmeldrew/

LINKS:

FREE GUIDE: Sell Out & Retain Mastermind Clients in 2026: https://ellieswift.com/mastermind2026

Connect with Ellie on Instagram: https://instagram.com/elliehswift

Subscribe to Inside The Mastermind Newsletter: https://ellieswift.com/newsletter

Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@elliehswift

Keen to work together?

1. Sell Out Your Mastermind: The Mastermind Model - https://ellieswift.com/model
2. Be Coached By Ellie to $500k+ : The Scalable Freedom Mastermind - https://ellieswift.com/scalablefreedom

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, my friend. Welcome back to another episode of the Scalable Wolf Freedom Show. I'm so happy to be here with you all. You may have noticed last week's episode, this week's, and next week's episode are all audio only episodes. And that is because it is a couple of weeks where we've had so much going on. I am going to Port Douglas on a holiday next week. And you know, full business, honesty, transparency, something had to give. A couple of things had to give. And for me, it was getting into the studio to record. So you're not going to have this every week where we just have audio only. We'll continue to have video. But it was just one of those months where something had to give and it wasn't going to be me. I was not going to be the cost. Video was, it's quite nice, actually. I definitely used to love just sitting in my office chatting out these episodes with you on audio. I much prefer exactly what we get to create for you when we're in the studio. But it's just nice to come back to these more personal, quiet, like I was going to say ASMR like episodes. They're not really. But it just feels like the introvert version of the podcast when it's just me on voice in my office as opposed to in the studio, you know? So really excited to be here with you this way, chatting all things online business. I've called this episode online business yarns challenges content and what actually makes you win right now. Because I think the online space is confused. I think the online space is wildly confused. And I wanted to dispel a couple of myths about what I'm hearing as to, you know, what the reasons are as to how and why you win in 26, what I see as actually being the thing that supports you to win based on, you know, right now I'm coaching 38 clients at a high level. I'm literally doing hours and hours of coaching every single day. I've got clients who are generating six, multi-six, seven, and multi-seven figures from their launches, their funnels, and so much more. I am in the trenches every day. I'm in the trenches in my own business. I see what works really intimately. And in fact, those couple of lines that I just shared, that authority there of what I know based on what I see every day. I'm going to talk about that a little bit more in a moment. I'm going to reference the couple of lines I just threw in there because guaranteed it probably made you want to listen in closer because of the fact that I shared all of the ways and reasons and evidence of why I really back myself in what I'm about to share. So I'll just like put a pin in that for a second and come back to it. All right. So let's start by having a conversation about what people think makes you win. And you might hear some of what I'm about to say and go, oh yeah, I've absolutely thought that to be true as well. Or you might be like, oh yeah, no, I know that's not it. Either way, you will resonate when I tell you or when I share with you some of the things that I'm about to say is that the internet at large thinks that these are the things that make you win right now. So let's just speak three of them out in order. So the first thing that people think if they do this, it equals success is a $297 challenge. You could switch out that $297 for $349 or $549. A challenge that is sold as being a month in length, six weeks in length, a couple of months in length, a la, Jesse Jean's launch, a la, Lazy Millionaire Substack launch, a la, June News upcoming storytelling challenge that I think he will have released just prior to this episode coming out. People are seeing the world of challenges right now, things being repackaged as challenges and instantly assuming that that equals success. I'm gonna tell you in a moment that it is not at all that it's not the price point, it's not the challenge itself. I'll tell you exactly what it is in just a moment. The second thing that people think is the thing that helps you to win is yapping. Again, not at all. We'll tell you a little bit more about that in a moment. And the third is that people will look at offers that are being sold right now and they will assume that the reason it is successful is because of the way that it is packaged. So what I mean by that is a little bit like how I was just saying a $297 challenge is the thing, people will look at, oh, I've seen multiple 15K masterminds being sold. And so that must be something that's really working high ticket. Or, you know, I'm seeing a lot of people selling, you know, three and a half thousand dollar 90-day mid-ticket programs. That must be the thing that is selling. Very seldom is the way something is packaged, very seldom is that the reason why it's selling. There's a deeper layer and a deeper reason to why it is successful, or a couple of deeper reasons. And I'm going to share with you what those three reasons are that I'm seeing most of all. But if I were to sum it up in one word, what it is that makes you win in 2026 in the online space, it is this. It is embodiment of your craft and then marketing that embodiment. And you know why that's amazing? Because it means you don't actually have to look outside of yourself for the answers. I'm gonna share with you what I mean by embodiment of your craft and then marketing of that embodiment and how you can take this principle and apply it to your offers, your content, and your marketing and sales funnels. All right, so let's talk about the three things. The first is how do you apply embodiment to your offers? The way that you do that is you build a niche offer around something that you did. The hack, the cheat code, the success in the online space right now, the products that will win is creating something that is built around your own wins, your own embodiment, your own thing that you have done. So, what cool shit have you done in your business, your life, whatever your niche is that you can package and share? Because the more unique and bespoke it is, the more you will win. For example, Jesse Jean and the yapping challenge. For example, a lazy millionaire has just grown to 30 to 40k months using Substack and is now selling a Substack challenge. For example, my client Lauren, who is now building to 20, 30k months through an evergreen recurring webinar funnel, she now teaches and packages that exact business model that she has done for the last two years plus. The more you share the thing that you've done and you stop worrying about having to be an expert, but instead just saying, hey, this is what I've done, the better it's going to be received. Another example of this is I just did a collaboration with my friend Vix that you will have heard me share on the podcast here. And we were literally like, hey, here's the playbook of how we're both working through integrating AI into our businesses right now. If you showed up for either of those live workshops, you will have heard me say, I am not an AI expert. Please do not ask me or us about the tech on these workshops. I have not done all of that myself. This is the process of what we're doing right now. This is where we're at. This is what we know. This is what we're still figuring out, and this is what we want to share with you. Because we're in a really fascinating time where a lot of the technology is new, a lot of what works in the online space, processes and playbooks that are very new, even like new to 2026. We're in a dynamic, fast-paced, ever-changing industry. The people that people will trust most are the ones who are willing to say, this is what I know, and this is what I'm still working out. I know that because people share it back to me that people find that so refreshing. People will buy how I generated X Result and How You Can Too, because it screams authenticity and originality. It's the reason why I'm the mastermind girly. Unfortunately, there are a lot of cowboys on the internet selling things that they have absolutely no business selling. So the more that you can showcase your own embodiment around a topic, the more people are going to buy it. Okay, so the second way that we can do this is applying it to our content. Less having to prep and more sharing the depth of what you did. People do not want to be taught, they want to be shown, they want demonstration. Some of my absolute favorite accounts to follow are people who are just sharing what they did that day, like literally just documenting their life. They, you know, some of my favorite coaches to follow, for example, are people who are just sharing how they coached their clients that day, examples of how they coach their clients, examples of how they went through and did copy review for their clients. Like I love that shit because A, as somebody who is also a coach, I just find that so fun to watch and witness. And B, it instantly screams expertise because what I see is somebody who is doing the thing. They're in their craft, they're demonstrating that. We were in a really interesting season in 2024, 2025 where people were so wow and in awe of more passive lifestyle, income freedom. So people sharing, you know, posting by the pool or traveling and like more time outside, less time working. People were really desiring so much of that because it was like, oh, I could do that too. I remember sharing a post about two years ago that was something along the lines of just remember the coaches who never post from their desk are also probably never working in your business or on your business. And it was a post that got so much traction. And not only that, I had lots of people like reference it to me so long afterwards. So I know it was something that really stuck. And I think we're in the era now where people are really seeing, okay, what somebody posts is the way that they're living their life. Do I want to buy the person who is embodying a lifestyle but actually not embodying their craft? Is that person going to help me as much? Probably not. Do I want to buy from the person who is actually fully in embodiment of the thing that they're teaching and preaching and is sharing results and expertise and examples of the level of depth and understanding that they have, yes, I'm probably more likely to want to buy from that person. So the way that you can apply this to your content is to showcase and share the depth of your expertise, the depth of your embodiment. And so much of that is just going to be from documenting your day today. Because if you're documenting your day to day and you're somebody who walks your walk, talks your talk, you're going to be able to show that. And people are going to love to see it because they just want to see that you are authentic and true to who you say you are online and the results that you're sharing and all of those things that relate to the offers that you sell. Hence, they are going to be far more likely to want to buy from you because we're in a trust economy and they want to see that they can trust you. The third piece here is then how to apply it to your selling. So the absolute best pitches, when I'm saying selling here, when I'm talking about sales, I'm talking about selling in DMs, selling off webinar, selling on your sales calls. The absolute best pitches include your own examples and the proof points of your clients. In fact, people are 80% more likely to buy with proof. And yet a lot of pitches, let's just say, for example, at the end of a workshop or a webinar, are manufactured from sales scripts without your voice shining through. Your buyer is likely someone who is discerning, who has heard so much of that messaging before. If it is not embodied, layered with embodiment of your own expertise, then they are far less likely to go into purchase that from you. So you want to ensure that whatever it is that you're sharing, selling, speaking to in your sales process, that it is absolutely embodied, congruent with what it is that you're selling and your own lived experience. The more you can share that, the more you can own that, the more you can embody that, the more it is going to translate to your ideal client, the more likely they are to purchase from you. So I really hope this episode has felt really maybe it supported you if you've been somebody who has been going, what are the through lines or what are the synchronicities between the people who are winning right now? Is it challenges? Is it that particular $297 price point? Is it something else? Like what is it? To be able to go, yes, and absolutely, I can see that it is absolutely the fact that each of these people are sharing examples of things that they've done that have absolutely worked for them and they're sharing from that place of embodiment, trust. Therefore, that's why they're having success rather than it just being packaged as a challenge or this price point is working. I hope that you can also see that the best, most effective way for you to win is to embody exactly what it is that you preach, you teach, your lived experience, your wins. That is the way your people are going to be able to trust you faster. Okay, if you've loved this episode, it would mean so much to me if you could go ahead and subscribe wherever you're listening right now, whether that is Spotify, YouTube, iMusic, wherever you're listening, go ahead and subscribe. It means so much to me. It means that we can get this podcast into the hands of more listeners and viewers. We're coming up to our 300th episode. I've been sharing on this podcast for literally five plus years. It is one of my greatest joys to be able to do this and share this with you. And it would mean so much to me if you can help me get it in the hands of more people. Now, in addition to that, if you want to go ahead and do more listening before next week's episode and you haven't already, you can go ahead and download my private podcast inside a seven-figure mastermind model business. This is a private podcast where I take you behind the scenes on exactly how I built my business to what it is today, how I built this mastermind model business, and how you can take it and implement it in your business too. I would love for you to go and check that out. If it's something that feels good for you, just head on over to elyswift.com forward slash mastermind business. Love you so much for being here with me. Thank you for listening in, and I'll see you next week.