5 Major Mistakes Every Creator Should Avoid in 2026

It's time to fess up. 

We can't celebrate the wins of this year without being honest about what went wrong.  

In this episode, we take an unflinching look at the missteps and mistakes that slowed us down this year in God and Gigs. Avoiding these 5 mistakes will help you become more effective, less stressed, and more fulfilled throughout the new year, so make sure to take heed to these powerful takeaways. 

Transcript

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (00:00)
What are the five things that you absolutely should not do in the coming year, 2026? Well, I can tell you the things that I'm not going to do as a creator, and they are the things that cause to be the most trouble in 2025. If you're new to our show, thank you so much for joining us. My name is Alan C. Paul. I'm the host and founder of God and Gigs. And in this episode, we're gonna help you to avoid the mistakes that me and several other creators made in 2025 so that you can have the most

successful year ever in the coming year by taking out all of the mistakes and frustrations and missteps that we made in the year prior. I know this episode is going to bless you. So make sure to share it with a few other creators so that we can all progress in our creative careers and make sure that we are becoming the creators that God created us to be.

Allen C. Paul - God and Gigs (01:01)
the five things Christian creators should stop doing in 2026. And why am I saying this with confidence that you should stop doing this in 2026? Because they are the things that I struggle with and caused me so much, like just frustration because of what I did in 2025.

So was 2025 a great year for us? Yes, it was a great year for Garden Giggs. Some amazing accomplishments that we were able to achieve in 2025, but there are some things that I would definitely change. And so that's what I want to share with you today.

The first thing that I am not going to do and I don't think any

Christian creator could do, should do in 2026 is to overcomplicate my organization. Now you might say that's kind of strange for me to start with as a generally a solo entrepreneur, solo creator. I do help run podcasts with a team at my church. So I do have a team. do have some people that are so helpful for me in God and gigs where it's a small team, but I do have

My virtual assistant who's been with me forever. She is such a great help who's helped me throughout the years. And our brand ambassadors like Simony and people like that who have been such, they've been helping with community engagement. There's so many people that are inside my world that have been a blessing to my creative career.

even though I have help and not a lot of people that I have to manage, what I did wrong was I overcomplicated so many things to try to make it feel like things are happening by adding more bells and whistles.

by adding more structures that didn't necessarily achieve anything new. I just wanted to look the part of a growing organization, of a growing brand. And so I added a lot of things that made it super complicated. This includes a quiz that I added, which by the way, the quiz is still active. But when I look back at all the different things I tried with it, I was like, man.

Did I even really think this through? There was so many complicated things that didn't quite work. And even now I'm looking back and like, ⁓ this didn't work and that didn't work. Cause I basically what I heard Star Trek, this is a great phrase. I don't know why it's from Star Trek, but I guess it's also an old quote that the more that you complicate the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain. And that's exactly what happened. I've found

people that were left in the cracks because they couldn't follow the breadcrumbs of all the different things I created for them to do. And overcomplicating that both the internal and the external made it so hard for these people to really get a sense of, what do I do next? What does Alan need next? I overcomplicated my organization, which will not happen. I can guarantee you if you have been tempted to add so much to your creator lifestyle.

to add other pieces, other software, to add more things that make it more complicated than it needs to be, stop right now. Do not do that in 2026. Join me in simplifying. That has been my number one thing throughout this month. The theme in our group is rest and renewal. And part of that renewal and rest is taking out anything that does not really need to be there.

any parts of your business, any parts of your creator lifestyle that are just complicated for no reason. There's no good added benefit or value. And this is where I had to take a hard look. This was hard, y'all. It was hard to take a look at the things that I created and realize that I didn't need it. I didn't need it. I overcomplicated it on just the desire to feel like I had to have some changes. So adding all these layers and things as a creator just...

It didn't really benefit. didn't add life or add any kind of benefit to the things that actually mattered.

This is a year for simplification. I've heard this from so many other creators, people that I respect and I, and I follow.

and people that are following me who are trying to build things.

Let's talk about the second thing that you should not do in 2026. And that is neglect to set cash flow targets. In a nutshell, this means I did not plan on how much money I wanted to earn. And we all know what they say about a failure to plan, right? A planning of failure to plan is planning to fail. And I hate to say it, but this was all on me. Can't blame anyone else.

The fact that I set up all these different plans and different things for selling, whether it be to do an album earlier last year, I think it was last year or two years ago that I wanted to do an album. And then there was these other notions that I tried things in terms of building up a whole cash funnel, a cashflow funnel or a sales funnel, use chat, chibi T, you know, everyone's using it chat to BT. So I was like, I want to build this big funnel.

But the entire time I never really sat down and said, okay, how much money do I really want to make from this? What will it take to make that kind of money? Creators, we are oftentimes very guilty of this. So I know I'm not the only one that needs to leave this in 2025. Don't do this in 2026. If you are starting something, even if it's just to set a hundred dollar budget or a hundred dollar target or a thousand dollar or a hundred thousand dollars, whatever the amount, don't start it without

Really saying this is my goal My goal is this much because what happens mentally is once you have a goal that you've set You now have parameters in which to decide how you're going to achieve that goal Just starting to sell something like I hope I saw a few even the goal is again super small gives you a gives you a Playing field it tells you what game to play and how much you should be trying or what you should be trying to do this

Without that playing field, you're off just floating, just hoping things happen. And that was me. I hate to say it, but this is really what got me honestly in a lot of trouble this year. Financially things weren't awesome. There were months that were great, but there were other months that I didn't. And again, the reason why it was kind of like back and forth is because I didn't set a consistently my goals.

And because I didn't consistently set my goals, I found myself floating back and forth. Do I try it? Did I this work? There's not, and I just never sat down to say, okay, this month, this is how much needs to come in. This is what I'll need to do to get that much. Again, thinking as a business, thinking as a creator, I know we don't like to think about budgets. I know we don't think they like to think about planning financially. We kind of want to like, just go out there and create and hope things happen. But this was a big problem in 2025 that I am not taking the 2026 guarantee you.

by the end of 2026 or 25, I should say before we get to 2026, I will have a goal for January. I have a cashflow goal for February. I have a cashflow goal and I will talk it out and write it out. How much do I want to make it? What do I need to do to make it? That was a big issue. 2025, I'm not the only one I'm pretty sure that had that issue that did not set cashflow targets because you were like, I'm just going to sell, I'm just going to write, I'm going to play, I'm going to perform. I hope money comes in.

just the wrong way to go about it. I'm raising my hand again. I want to make sure that y'all didn't think I was coming in here just telling you the five things that you need to stop doing. They don't think that all of us need to stop doing. So this is a we problem, not a you problem. It's a me problem as well. So that was number one, over-complicating our organization, just reviewing so we keep together. Number two, neglecting the set cashflow targets. That's the second thing we we got to stop doing in 2025.

Number three, this one is another big one that I hate to admit, but also hopefully will help you. And that is ignoring clear signals from my community. This again, I hate to admit this because you are my community as I'm spoke speaking to you right now, but I did ignore some obvious signals. One of those signals was from my email list, which was I was spending so much time on the emails. Y'all I want to be

very open with you in terms of those of you who subscribe to God to the newsletter, the creator checkup newsletter, which is basically the, I try to make it as the written version of this. So you can always get that at Godandgifts.com slash newsletter. But what you're going to see recently is very, very not even close to how much I was writing at the beginning of the year. So I was really using the newsletter as almost like, you know,

I bonafide like four articles, three or four articles per email. I was writing all of this stuff out. And so every single time I got this email out to you guys, and then I would see no clicks and click rates, not a big deal, but I would just realize that I didn't know if I was giving you guys value with those long emails. Were people even reading them?

Were you even going all the way down, scrolling out? It was a clear signal to me that I was adding all this stuff. Now, if I'm wrong and you guys liked long emails, please tell me and I will bring them back. But the clear signal was this is, and I was staying up late to try to finish these and all this kind of stuff. And so, you know, again, very, very honestly, even on Wednesday, I didn't get it done. I released it on Thursday and

I just felt this, the click rate was about the, not click rate, the open rate was about the same. So the clear signal is y'all ain't worried about Wednesdays because you opened it on Thursday. And the clear signal is nothing really changed when I made it shorter. So if I had made it shorter and the open rate had dropped or the headlines had dropped and then, you know, people weren't really reading them or just got tired of reading them, then I would have seen a huge dip.

I didn't. So it was almost like a, well, this, what I was adding was not adding more value and nobody complained when I changed it. So the clear signal was, this is what I ask you guys to do for 2026 is ask the questions. Do you really want this? Do you really want this? You know, particular event, do you really want all these emails? Do you really want me to do social media five times a day? Cause they may not want it.

They may not be following it or finding it and it's not valuable to them. And why would you keep doing it just because you know, you're on this hamster wheel. So 2026, I'm telling you all, and I'm telling myself, stop ignoring the clear signals. If something's not working, it's okay to let it go. All right. I'm talking to myself here. It's okay to let things go when things are not working. Don't ignore the signals.

As soon as you see, can try it for a little while, try it for 60 days, but after 90 days, something like that, if there's a clear signal that this is not working, be okay with cutting it down or changing it up and pivoting. Okay. Something I'm definitely going to learn and I'm to do less of or really not, not do it all in 2026. All right. We're to number four, almost done. This one again was one of those, oh, everybody who's reading and listening and following this, please.

Don't repeat my mistake. This one hurts because this has to do with employment, paying people. But yeah, I overcommitted my resources without a plan. So one of the big things I wanted to do this year was to take on a virtual assistant and take her on almost not full-time, but definitely more on a larger role. And I'll be honest, I did not plan that out well. So.

Right now we've rolled back a little bit to where I'm doing more the day-to-day work, which again, it's not a huge deal, honestly, because I'm simplifying as a creator. So honestly, I'm able to dial back on my virtual assistant because I am also making things simple so I can actually keep things done, get things done. So this is for all of you who like to buy all the software. This is me too. You buy all the software. Every single time a guru comes out with something, you want to try it.

You feel like you have to be cutting edge. So you gotta have the best camera, gotta have the best microphone, have the best keyboard. You gotta have the best everything, but you don't have a plan on how that's going to reinvest into your company or your business or your creator lifestyle. This is not a good thing. I am again, if you are here watching and you are, this has happened to you, please be honest and share it in the comments later if you're not chatting because this can burn you in 2026.

If you overcommit your resources, what's going to happen is not only are you going to get frustrated because your resources are dwindling, but the things you should be focusing on are not going to have either the cash or the time or the energy that they require. And it's just so easy, like I said, to get into what I know the business people call sunken cost. The more you try something and the less it's working, the more you don't want it to fail and your emotions take over and you try to save it. I had to admit to myself,

This was over committing. didn't, I can't sustain this and be honest with people.

So in 2026, let's not overcommit our resources, at least if you're going to invest more, like we said, number one, have a plan on how much it's going to take for you to do that. So that goes back to setting your cashflow targets so that you know exactly how much it's going to take to get the resources to build a certain thing, but don't do it willy nilly thinking that, you know, faith alone, again, I know prayer is the most important thing, but

Faith without works is dead and prayer without some wisdom is also just a dead end. So let's all realize that we have to be careful about planning how we're going to allocate our resources when it comes to people, software, the equipment, whatever it is, make sure you have a plan on how it's going to sustain itself. And number five, we've talked about over-complicating organization. We're not going to neglect to set casual targets. We're not going to ignore clear signals from our communities.

We're not gonna overcommit our resources. This one again is the last one, but it also hits the hardest. And I don't wanna do this in 2026 and neither should you. I will not let my pride stop me from asking for help. This one y'all, especially if you're entrepreneurial and you don't feel like you wanna be a charity and your ministry is not necessarily ministry alone, but it's also very much a ⁓ commercial venture.

Asking for help feels like failure. I admit that I have a tip jar or really a giving. Yeah, it's kind of like a tip jar, but it's forgiving. And for many, many, many, almost the entire year, I never really mentioned the fact that we could also accept donations. Even when things were getting kind of tight, never thought about it. Same thing when it comes to like asking for help on some of the different things that we do that I was paying for it, that I probably should have just asked for help with.

Instead of hiring, I could have just, you know, asked someone to volunteer. No, I tried to do it myself. And honestly, that was pride. It was pride trying to look the part when things were not really happening. And so y'all please again, learn from my example. Don't be too proud to ask for help. And even if that help comes or you're asking for it in terms of a voluntary or free basis, just be, just be honest about that. Just say, Hey, I can't pay you now.

Are you willing to do this? Are you willing to be a volunteer? Am I going to repay you in some other way and be willing to ask for the help?

can't tell you how blessed I was when I did this, basically a appeal to give, godandgigs.com slash give, I might even have it here, for people who were not going to buy anything. I mean, I was just assuming that they were always gonna buy something, but maybe they didn't wanna buy something. I'm gonna make sure to bring that banner right now, just in case you guys wanna use it right now, because I'm gonna let my pride go and be honest and say, hey,

Not everybody has to buy something, but we appreciate donations. I appreciate when people help without having to, you know, be put into some type of funnel.

And then when I gave my appeal on my podcast and I said, Hey guys, we do accept donations. And immediately I didn't even, don't know where they saw it. I don't know if they responded to the email. I don't know if they responded to a YouTube post that I put, but I saw $20 pop in from someone who just decided to give. And y'all that was humbling. It was humbling to realize. Ashana, thank you so much for that. I want to make sure I got it right.

So I appreciated that donation more than the months where five or six people bought like a hundred or $200 course.

That absolutely blessed me. It blessed me because I realized that my pride and my feelings of wanting to be a big time entrepreneur, creator entrepreneur, big time YouTuber, podcaster, as if, right? Like what was I thinking? And to be honest again, I don't think I was thinking that.

but the mentality seeped in. I don't think I'm anyone special, but I think the comparison and the desire to look apart definitely seeped in. And so for me to mention and say, hey, know, things aren't going good this week. I need some help. Hey, can you come in and help me with this? Can you help me with this? you, can I borrow some info? Can I, can I get some information from you? This was super, super, super powerful for me to actually say, all right.

This may not be the money-making venture, but I'm still going to lead by example and show people that, hey, you know, as Adam Curry says, who I'm highly, highly, highly, you know, indebted to just for, you know, giving me a new idea on how to structure my podcasting and my content. He calls it value for value. And I just need to say, hey, if you get value from this, please provide value. Simple as that.

If you buy something, that's great, but this is a value for value. I will continue to give value even if nobody buys a courses or joins the membership. But if you get value from this, I can honestly say, hey, the Bible says it's better to give than to receive. Does that mean I have to be in the position of receiving sometimes and humble myself? Yes. Because how can I give you the opportunity to give if I'm refusing to be open to receiving?

This is really, really powerful. And I love the fact that Lashonda is right here, our bootstrap, biz, advice, mentor and coach. She says, so proud of you. Just keep reminding people of how they can support you and trust the Lord to use his means to provide you doing incredible work. Again, y'all don't understand. Y'all don't understand. I'm going to cry. I mean, I can tell you some stories literally right now of something Lashonda, I'll talk to you later off camera. Things that have happened in the last 24 hours are like, okay, Lord.

The world is going insane and it's coming to my doorstep and I'm going to need your help and your provision because I don't have answers to this. so just knowing for you, all of you that are watching replay live, but Shonda, ⁓ again, I think I should I Shonda that is such a blessing to know that you can put your, your, feelings aside and say, Hey,

I need a community. Honestly, that's why the membership exists. That's why got a gigs.com slash membership. The God against three 60 community exists because I need more than money, more than income, more than cashflow. need a community. The community makes it all worth it. And so when I talk about the community is honestly, I'm to one of Lassandra, you'll see this more and more. And I'm learning from you all the time. I'm not necessarily promoting the, the, the, the higher level coaching.

the bi-weekly coaching, just if you just joined at the 20, uh, the, $17 a month, just under 17, I'm trying to keep it under $20 just to make sure that we can pay bills. It's like we talked about, Hey, this is something that I need to be aware of and be set my cashflow targets. So I do have a cashflow target just to make sure that the membership is paid for. But after that is gravy. So basically it's how can I sow into more people through my creator lifestyle?

How can I build more bridges through my creator lifestyle? How can God use my talents, my gifts, my abilities through my unique creator lifestyle, whether it be full-time work, part-time, hybrid, whatever, my creator lifestyle, which allows me to bless more people in 2026. That's the goal.