10 Ways to 5X Your Business by the End of 2026
Updated: Aug 24
Dr. Erin Oksol, "The Success Psychologist" and founder of The Higher Life, is an expert in the psychology of success and helps evolve the human behind the business. She is the best-selling author of the book Mind Your Own Business, a keynote speaker, high-performance mentor, and host of the Oh How Human of Me Podcast on Substack.
You don’t need to become less human to become more successful. You need to become better at being human because your business can only expand to the degree that you can hold the expansion.
10 ways I would 5X a business before the end of 2026
Stop trying to fix yourself: You are not the problem your business needs you to solve. Most entrepreneurs have accidentally turned personal development into a full-time job. Another limiting belief to clear. Another morning routine. Another wound to heal. Another version of themselves to become before they’re finally “ready.” Enough. What if you built from the assumption that you are already the way? Your humanity isn’t interfering with your success. It’s the raw material for it.
Become the CEO, Chief Emotional Officer: Your ability to feel it all will determine your ability to have it all. A bigger business comes with bigger emotions. More visibility. More responsibility. More opinions. More uncertainty. More opportunities to fail publicly. More money to manage. More people depending on you. The goal isn’t to become unbothered because nothing bothers you. It’s to become unbotherable because you know what to do when it does. Build the emotional capacity to hold the business you’re asking for.
Stop believing everything your brain tells you: Your brain is an incredible organ. It’s also occasionally a terrible business consultant. It will tell you. Don’t launch yet. They’re going to judge you. Nobody wants this. You’re behind. You should probably change your entire business model because three people didn’t like your Reel. You don’t need a more positive brain. You need to become the leader of your brain. Thoughts are information. They aren’t instructions.
Decide sooner: Indecision is expensive. You can spend six months asking, "Is this the right offer? Should I change my niche? Should I start the podcast? Should I raise my prices? Is this the right message?" Or you can decide, gather information, adjust, and keep moving. Confidence isn’t knowing your decision will work. Confidence is knowing you can handle what happens after you make it. Decide, then become a person who can count on herself.
Stop outsourcing your knowing: AI, or artificial intelligence, can give you information. Google can give you strategies. A coach can give you perspective. Instagram can give you approximately 14,782 opinions before breakfast. But none of them can tell you what is true for you. Your competitive advantage in the era of AI will be your ability to access your own inner intelligence. Your signal. Your genius. Your way of creating. Your way of selling. Your way of leading. Your way of making money. Use technology to amplify your intelligence, not replace it. You are the way.
Fire yourself from the four jobs that are bankrupting your energy: Proving. Pleasing. Perfecting. Performing. These four will happily consume every ounce of energy you could have used to build your empire. Stop creating to prove you’re smart. Stop selling to please everyone. Stop perfecting things nobody asked you to perfect. Stop performing a version of success you don’t even want. Imagine what you could build with all of that energy back.
Make your business unmistakably 'you': 2026 does not need another beige business saying the same thing as everybody else. Your weirdness is valuable. Your stories are valuable. Your opinions are valuable. Your contradictions are valuable. Your lived experience is valuable. Your particular combination of expertise, personality, wisdom, taste, humor, failures, obsessions, and genius is your intellectual property. Don’t dilute it trying to appeal to more people. Turn up your signal. The goal isn’t for everyone to like you. The goal is for the right people to recognize you.
Increase your capacity to receive: Everyone talks about making more money. Not enough people talk about becoming someone who can comfortably have more money. More clients. More attention. More support. More praise. More opportunities. More ease. Sometimes we’re incredibly good at chasing success and surprisingly uncomfortable when success starts chasing us. Notice where you immediately shrink, sabotage, overwork, or create a new problem when things get good. You don’t only need the capacity to pursue what you want. You need the capacity to receive it when it arrives.
Stop waiting to feel ready: You can be scared and launch. You can feel uncertain and decide. You can have imposter syndrome and walk onto the stage. You can feel disappointed and try again tomorrow. You can have a bad morning and still make a million-dollar decision at 2:17 p.m. This is the freedom nobody talks about. You don’t have to feel better before you can do better. Being a human is tricky. Build the business anyway.
Build the business your highest self would actually want to live inside: Not just, "How much money can this make?" Ask, "Who do I become while making it? Does she like her life? Does she have time? Does she create? Does she laugh? Does she travel? Does she sleep? Does she have relationships she actually gets to enjoy? Does success feel like freedom or like another jail cell with prettier furniture?' The goal isn’t simply to 5X your revenue. It’s to 5X the life your business makes possible.
Because the biggest business breakthrough of 2026 might not be another funnel, strategy, algorithm, AI tool, or morning routine. It might be realizing that the human behind the business was the technology all along.
Your ability to think. Your ability to feel. Your ability to decide. Your ability to trust yourself. Your ability to receive. Your ability to lead yourself through uncertainty. That’s the strategy. That’s the advantage. You are the way.
Dr. Erin Oksol, High Performance Psychologist, Speaker & Author
Dr. Erin Oksol is an expert in the psychology of success and human optimization. She blends science and spirituality to help visionary leaders create a business and life sourced from their truth. She founded The Higher Life, where high performance is informed by and co-created with one's highest self and higher power. Her mission is "to set the captives free", freed from any limitations and freed to live with purpose, peace, and prosperity.
