1.5 Million Prayers: How Consistency and Obedience Leads to Favor w/ Alison Delamota, Podcaster

Allen C. Paul 00:00:00
What can God do with five minutes? Now, I know as I asked that question, you might think five minutes is really nothing. So, I mean, maybe he can do a lot, but five minutes seems like a very small part of my day. But as you're going to find out, just giving five minutes of your day to God through an act of obedience and faithfulness can lead to some extraordinary things. You're going to learn this from my friend and guest today, the host of the My Morning Devotional Podcast, Alison De La Mota, which is one of the leading podcasts for daily devotions in the world. Now, how did that happen? Well, it happened from a small step of faith that Alison is going to tell you about. But most importantly, you're going to learn how faithfulness, obedience and community can be the key to your creative life, increasing an impact and finding how God can touch you in everyday life in extraordinary ways. I can't wait for you to meet Alison and listen to this podcast, but just give me a moment to welcome those of you who are new to God and gigs, and then we'll get right into this inspiring conversation.

Speaker B 00:01:04
Artists, musicians and creatives of all kinds looking for help balancing your passion to create with your everyday life. Not sure if your faith can coexist with your profession? Welcome to a place where real artists discuss real life. You're listening to the God and Gig show. Visit Godandgigs.com for show notes, links and more information.

Allen C. Paul 00:01:26
Hello and welcome to our show. Thank you so much for making this podcast a part of your creative day. If you're new to God and gigs, thank you for giving us a chance. And let me tell you why you are in the right place now, first, my name is Allen C. Paul. I'm a creative coach, musician and author. And we are here to help you as a musician, artist, freelancer, content creator, anyone working inside the space of the arts and entertainment world. But you also have a Christian or faith focused foundation, and you want to navigate this space without losing the values that make you you. But you work outside, perhaps the church. Maybe you do have a ministry, maybe you don't. But the most important thing is that you want to preserve these values. So we help you to build that incredible creative life from the inside out by applying these spiritual principles to all the problems you might be facing. That's what we do here. And that's why I believe you need to subscribe, follow us on all our socials and stay connected to God and gigs, because we are here for you. I am so excited to introduce you to my friend and sister in Christ, Alison De La Mota, who is the host of the My Morning Devotional podcast. Every weekday, Alison, for the last two years as I'm recording, has been sharing five minutes of daily devotional and prayer with her community on her podcast. Now, this did not start as a big thing as you are going to hear her share. It really just started as a small part of accountability for her to increase her prayer time. But as of the time that I'm speaking to you and recording this, her podcast has reached over 1.5 million downloads, which means 1.5 million times people have connected with God through prayer, through Alison's efforts. Now, this was not a simple step for her. You're going to hear how her creative and entrepreneurial journey had twists and turns, how God had to lead her through some journeys and some valleys and some places where she had to really have a test of faith. But you're going to learn how following God, creating community and prioritizing prayer can have an incredible impact, not just on your life, but on those around you. This is an incredible story. I'm so glad Alison, who is my sister in Christ and happens to be a member of my local church, is really going to help you to do the same thing in your creative life. So, without any further delay, I present to you my friend and podcast host of the My Morning Devotional Podcast, Alison De La Mota.

Allen C. Paul 00:04:05
Ladies and gentlemen, I am so honored, so pleased to have a fellow podcaster, a church member, one of my fellow sisters in Christ and also in our local church. It's just amazing that we have begin to cross path this way. So now I get to welcome her onto my podcast. So, Alison De La Mota, welcome to the God and Gigs show. How are you?

Alison Delamota 00:04:31
Thank you so much. I am great. Thank you for having me. It is an honor to be on your show with you today.

Allen C. Paul 00:04:37
I got to tell you now, it is strange to hear, even as a podcaster, once you start to hear someone's voice, even though we know each other in real life, and then you start to hear someone that you have heard every morning for a while, it's still weird. It's still a strange experience. So it's so funny that this is now us talking on our own podcast and sharing with the world, really, whoever wants to hear it, whoever wants to pick it up. And yet we have this interaction face to face. But I always have this weird way of trying to start my interviews, right? I want to start with, oh, just tell them all about you, or tell the 32nd elevator pitch. But I thought it was going to be interesting for us to start with how I almost ruined your engagement.

Alison Delamota 00:05:22
Yes. I love that story.

Allen C. Paul 00:05:25
This will put me in the seat of man. Allen, how could you do this? So you can just see how podcasting, our lives together in our local area and your new life as a wife, they all intersected in this crazy story. So I figured let's start with that, and then we'll get into all the amazing things you do with your podcast.

Alison Delamota 00:05:43
That sounds great. I'm going to let you start the story, because I was on the receiving end. I didn't know what was happening when I was true.

Allen C. Paul 00:05:51
Okay, so everyone knows now, obviously. We've been talking about podcasting for a while. Alison has a podcast. I have a podcast, and we have this podcasting convention called Podfest that I've been a part of it for years. Really thought Alison is blowing up. In my morning devotional, I said, this will be amazing for her. Now, in the meantime, her, at the time, not yet fiance boyfriend was in one of my groups at our church, our local connect groups, right? So I said, Well, Manny's not really technically married to her yet. I don't want to go through the boyfriend to ask the girl. She wants to be a part of this convention. I said, you know what? Let me just ask her directly. She would like to go to this particular convention and network and stuff. And I sent the invitation to you, right? You said, hey, that's awesome. It's Oleo is closed. I would love to be there. And then I got a call from a certain person from Manny saying, hey, did you invite my girlfriend to a podcast convention? And said, yeah. Why? He's like, oh, well, you know, just so happens just a weekend I'm planning to propose. So you take it up from there, because I don't know what happened, but apparently there was a lot of stalling and hemming and hauling about how he got you out of that and able to actually get your own engagement.

Alison Delamota 00:07:17
So Manny and I, we were talking, and we have a shared calendar, and I had the event on the weekend for that weekend. And I told him, I said, we need to get tickets. We need to plan if we're going to go to Orlando, because I'm going to go to Orlando for this event. And he's like, Why can't that weekend? Because I'm busy. What are you busy? Because it's not on the calendar, and we have a shared calendar for a reason. And he's like, Why can't that weekend? It's just not a good weekend for me. And I said, but this is really important for me. My podcast had just hit a million downloads. This is it. And he's like, no, you can go, but I'm not going. And I'm like, how are you not going to come to the first event that I get to go to as a podcaster? And he's like, oh, no, I'm just busy. And so he kind of just, like, fizzled it out, and I sort of kind of caught on to what was going on, and so I stopped asking questions, and I just let the weekend play out.

Allen C. Paul 00:08:14
Wow. Okay. Well, my apologies to Manning, to anyone else, in that I was so excited about your podcast. I was so excited that yeah, okay. So everybody, I'm raising my hand, if you're not watching on video, as the person that nearly wrecked this beautiful marriage that you are now enjoying. But no, it would have gone on no matter what. I'm sure that God knew. God knew to get Allen out of the way. Podfest and all the other convention things will happen in time. Okay? So now that they know our crazy interaction and how we get let people know a little bit about your podcast, because you just mentioned it. You hit a million downloads, but this project of yours, you did not go into life saying, hey, I'm going to be a top podcaster in devotionals and sharing prayer and helping people to grow in their faith. That's not how it all started. So give me just a short window of how this whole podcast thing in terms of my morning devotional, even started for you.

Alison Delamota 00:09:07
Yeah. So I came to know the Lord back in 2016. It was well, really 2013. I walked into a woman's conference at Metrolife Church. Didn't know anything about the church. My mom was invited from a coworker, and we walked into a womanity conference, and it absolutely changed my perspective of life. And it took three years for that seed to just go into the soil and stir something in me. But in 2016, after my crazy college days, I said, I cannot live like this anymore. I need to come home. I heard the voice of God saying, Come to my home. And I knew that that was him saying, Come back to church. You liked it that one time. You can come back and just try it out. And so I went back to church in 2016, and I really fostered a relationship with God at that time. And it was something that I worked on over a series of years. And I became very involved in my church, and life just happens. And I got distracted with a boyfriend that is now a husband. And I don't necessarily recommend this all the time, but I decided to pull away from being super involved in church so that I wouldn't scare him off. And so this is not advice for anybody, especially those of us walking in Christian lifestyles, because this is not what I would want from my daughter, my future daughter. But that's what I did. I pulled away. And in my pulling away, I realized that God was working in me because I started to slip in my prayer time. And I remembered from where I came from, we can talk about my family testimony later on, but I remember where I came from, how God and the church really centered me. And I was losing that by taking that time away. And so in that, I said, well, I need to keep myself accountable for morning prayer. So on my instagram, I just threw up. October of 2019, I said, does anybody want to be a part of an email chain. I had 30 people give me their emails and I started just a morning devotional email. It was my morning prayers email format. I would miss a day here and there. Sometimes people would ask, hey, I didn't get an email today. I figured people were liking it, but I wasn't really committed to it. The email list grew to, like, about 100 people over the course of two to three months. In March of 2020, the pandemic hit. And obviously everything changed for everybody. And I had three different people ask me if I would consider moving the emails into an audio format. And so I said yes. And I just announced that I was going to go live with a podcast. And in May, I figured it all out quickly. I bought a mic. I went on to fiverr and I found someone to do music so that I can do, like, my intro song. And I just recorded my first episode, threw it up on June 1 of 2020. And I have not stopped since. I think today was 720 episodes. One point, almost 8 million downloads later. It's a worldwide global community and it's a blessing, really.

Allen C. Paul00:12:06 
Okay, so first things first, awesome date to start your podcast, which also happens to be my birthday. Justin, again.

Alison Delamota 00:12:15
So funny. 

Allen C. Paul 00:12:16
I'm never going to forget that. And then number two, just the fact that you started this from you mentioned, like, your relationship with God and your desire to make this a part of your day started the email chain. Tell me why it was important to include other people. Why was it I mean, now you said it. It's a worldwide phenomenon that you created. God has blessed it. But it started with the seed of you not saying, hey, I'm just going to start reading my Bible alone. I'm just going to start praying alone. It started with you saying, hey, from the 30 to the 300, right? It's almost like the exponential thing where God increased it. But it started with you saying, I want to connect with more people. Why was that important to you? That devotional and sharing time with God should be a shared experience.

Alison Delamota 00:12:58
I think that it came from probably more of a selfish reason and it has blossomed into something much more than that. But I need accountability in people because I'm quick to give up on other things. So I'm really hard with like, 30 day challenges to go to the gym. If I have no one keeping me accountable, I won't do it. I'm really easy to just give up on what I told myself. So my word to me, that's something I'm working on. But my word to another person means a lot. And so if you know that my show is going to air every single day, Monday through Friday, then I gave you my word. And my word is stone. It's written on stone and so that is why I decided to include people, because I knew that and, you know, it's something that God's working on me is the opinion of another person very high or something that you hold to a high regard. Maybe that's how it started, but that's not how it is anymore. Now I see the blessing that God used that and he blossomed it. And now I hear testimonies that come in, and I know that this is a lot larger than me. So it's no longer just my prayers, but it actually helps people go get through tough seasons. And so now I don't approach it. Well, I told them I would be online. Now I approach it. People need prayer every single day, and God is using me as a vessel for that. So everything I think in life is a personal journey, and then God uses your personal journey to bless others.

Allen C. Paul 00:14:27
That's beautiful. And it's so interesting that you just said that about the tough lessons. And one of the things I've struggled with, we always hear in the Internet streets about imposter syndrome, right? But it really is tough to say, hey, not only am I going to lead or I'm going to do a podcast, going to put something out, but it also is very personal. You just mentioned it like you needed the accountability. And I wonder, even as you put those prayers out, even as you share and now lead, right. You're now saying these things, but now people are looking to you. Has there been anything in your development as a believer, as a Christian, the tough stuff that's helped you to lead? When it's not so easy, when people are like, hey, I'm counting on you. Hey, what's the prayer going to be? And you know, people are counting on you, but you've gone through some things that probably have helped you to even grow stronger that didn't involve just podcasting.

Alison Delamota 00:15:19
Yeah, I would say that in my young adult life, that's what developed strength in me or discipline in me. I come from a really great family. I had a really good dynamic at home. Mom, dad, two other sisters. So there's three of us. It was a family of five. We love to go to Disney World. We love to do all the things. And it was a beautiful home environment that I grew up in. But unfortunately, in high school, my house caught fire in March of 2009. So it was right when the recession hit and my mom was the primary breadwinner and the company that she worked for packed their stuff and they moved out of Miami and they went to Nashville. They offered her a position, and she said no. So we were stuck without a house, without her taking that job. And my dad then started to dabble into his gambling. And what spiraled a couple of years later was a narcotic addiction. And so the family dynamic really fell apart. And at one point, my mom ended up moving to Nashville. It was in 2015 when she did that, and my little sister graduated high school. I kind of stepped in there as mom and dad for a while, just as they were figuring out their things. And when she moved to Gainesville, to UF, I was home alone with the middle child, Allenandra. And so Allen got a job in London and she left to London. So there was a period of time that my mom was in Nashville, amanda was in Gainesville, Allenander was in London, and I was home. I had an empty nest. I was 21 years old.

Allen C. Paul 00:16:53
Oh, my God, you're already experiencing what I'm dealing with at 30, 40 years later.

Alison Delamota 00:16:59
Yeah. And I stayed home, and I didn't know. I fell to my knees. That's really when I found myself at the foot of Jesus. I met Him early in 2016, but it wasn't until late 2016, October, when I decided to get baptized. And he was my strength in this because my family dynamic had fallen apart. My dad still struggles with addiction. It's not a really pretty relationship. I honor the memory of us growing up, but it was a lot of trauma that happened in a short period of time. And that's life, right? No one has easy cards. And I don't tell my story to say, oh, pity me, because I feel like in that point of time, I was very resentful for what was happening. And I would look to other people and say, well, if my life is so tough, I wonder what that person is walking through. And I wonder if they are going through something as tough. Or I take the crown on this and that's not the way to look through life. And God really softened my heart as I've come out of that. But now married and now with a husband, I have to remove myself from being, like, the provider in the home because I was the provider for ten years, and I am learning to become a nurturer. So in all of that, I say all of that because I learned a lot of lessons along the way, and I learned discipline along the way, and I learned to be a provider along the way. And in some sorts, I feel like I'm providing prayer for people. So it's something in between that I'm working through every single day. But it is an honor to lead thousands of people in prayer every morning. We'll go back to impostor syndrome. That's something that I struggle with daily, every single day.

Allen C. Paul 00:18:45
Yeah. The authenticity and the transparency you share in each five minute. And by the way, Kudos, again, podcaster to podcaster. Just your ability to nail that format, the feeling of hate. We're waking up together, we're praying together, and within five minutes what is your do? I like a five minute daily dose of heaven. Daily dose of heaven. I was just like, why did again, it's like you said, why me? Why can I think of that? Lord, I've been doing our long podcasts. These are hard, but talk a little bit about I like to talk about the valleys. You mentioned the valley being 21, feeling like you were alone, your dad's addiction. All these are valleys that we go through, right? And God walks through with us through the valley of the shadow of death. But of course, it's to get to the other side. So talk about a little bit about the mountaintop. What was the moment you're doing this podcast? You start daily things. And I've even been thinking, literally as I was jogging, listening to you, I was thinking, you know, maybe somebody else wants to start this. What do they even know what it's like to be a creative? Right? Because you are a creative. You're a baker as well. You've started different businesses and you have created things. But this was something that was a new creation for you. And just talk a little bit about when did it hit that this is something special? When did it hit you? Was there a moment, an email, something else that happened on social or just the downloads? What made it clear that God was moving in a whole new way in.

Allen C. Paul 00:20:09
This project you had?

Alison Delamota 00:20:10
I would say that the moment came to me in August of 2021. So that's a year and some after the show aired, I knew that God was using it because I am not an influencer of some grand large number. I have 3700 followers on Instagram, and I say that number because it's very small for being someone with a podcast that has 1.8 million downloads. I actually don't use my social platforms at the level that I want to. I feel like I can reach more people with the show that way, but I'll get to that eventually. But in August of 2021, it hit me that he was doing something special. Because when we go back to my story in 2020, in March, I had a business, and it was a baking business, like you mentioned. And when the pandemic hit, I had to reinvent how I was going to do this business because it was no longer safe to serve people. And I started to bake on the weekends and deliver. I was doing custom cinnamon rolls, and I was delivering them to people's homes on Saturday mornings. And that had to kind of just fizzle off. I started the show, and in 2021, I got a call from Uber, Uber Eats, saying that people were looking for my restaurant and if I was interested in getting onto the platform. And so I made it happen. In two months, I said, okay, I'm going to throw up a fundraising page. My family and friends donated. I raised something like $12,000 to buy commercial equipment. I found a commercial kitchen. I got on the Uber Eats platform, and I left the nine to five. I went down to a part time with the company that I worked for, and I made it happen. And in March of 2021, I got the phone call from Uber. In May, I was open for business and in a commercial kitchen in a food hall type situation in August that's three or four months later, completely burned out. I had no money, and I was waking up at five in the morning every day to lug £50 of flour around. And suddenly my hobby for baking became the shackles that I found myself in. And in August, I looked at Manny and I looked at my sister, who had dropped absolutely everything to follow me on this venture, and I said, I don't think that we're going to go forward with this. And she said, I agree. Manny said, I agree. We closed shopped. And in August, my downloads tripled. And I just felt like, God, this whole time I was making sure that the podcast was going to air. I never have ever missed an episode. And I just feel like at the end of August, I got to it, and he said, okay, you pushed this door open for yourself. All your life. You've held on to the identity that you're a baker, but I've wanted to use you for so much more. I let you do it. I let you burn through all that money, and I let you figure it out. And you got to this point and he said, Just trust me with this next chapter. So it was never about the number of downloads. It was never about how many episodes I was producing. It was always about God's voice through it and how I felt from a spiritual if I was aligned with what was going on. And at the end of Sequoia, that was the name of the company, I just feel like God was just looking at me like, okay, are you going to trust me now? And I said, okay. I'm going to trust you. And that's when things change.

 Allen C. Paul 00:23:46
Oh, gosh. All I can see in my head, Alison, is Jesus saying, Throw your net.

Allen C. Paul 00:23:51
On the other side, right?

Allen C. Paul 00:23:53
And Peter is like, we have been working out here. What are you talking about? All night long, 05:00 in the morning. And like you said, it's very interesting. I want to go back to something I wish I could name the preacher, because he has come to Metro, but he said it years ago. He said, Be careful of assuming that God only speaks through open doors. And I think so many of us are like, especially in the creative space and entrepreneurial space, we assume an open door means go, when it's like, God's like, no, there's many paths, but not every open door is your door, and you proved it by closing the door. And a closed door for you in Sequoia was actually the opening to this becoming now where I see you with merch, I see you with subscription books and people following you. And again, it's more about what God is doing in you versus what you're doing in your own strength. Would you say that's kind of like almost like a lesson that you've adopted almost as, like, your persona in terms of leading this community?

Alison Delamota 00:24:50
Yeah, I would say that this has always been and I like to remind my audience because new people will drop in. These are my personal prayers. I did not study theology. I am not a pastor. These are my personal prayers that I write down and I publish for other people to read along. It's always been a personal journey, and it is an honor to bring other people in with me. But it's a personal journey that God is using, and it's pretty cool that I get to document my personal journey for others to read. And it's become something that has blessed thousands in the process of doing that. So it's never been, again about the number. It's always been about what he's doing in me and then just using that and being vulnerable to showing other people that life is not always rainbows and butterflies. It's a Monday through Friday shows, so there have been shows that I'm crying because something was happening in my personal life and I had to record. And so tears come out because my personal life doesn't stop because of the show. The show is my personal life that I display for others.

Allen C. Paul 00:25:55
Okay, so now I'm going to do a pivot now because you just opened the door to this. This is where we can shop talk, right? We can talk shop because we're talking to other creators. We're talking to people who do exactly what you just said. They have to get up. The show has to go on. The song has to be written, the TV show has to be you have to act and what's going on, on the inside. Right. It is such a weird thing because I never want us to be considered hypocritical in terms of trying to show up with a face and mask and say everything's okay and everything's not okay. Right, but you just said it. There is this level of understanding that I have to be authentic, but I also have to show up, which means there are days that I don't feel like doing this. I'm talking about creatives. Right? There are days you don't feel like writing, you don't feel basically the word I'm looking for is inspired. I don't think, and I'm just going to ask you this question, writing out what amounts to about 300 prayers a year, right? 200. 300 prayers and devotionals and things like that. I don't think every day you've been inspired. So talk about that creative process in terms of where that comes from, is your personal prayers. But you still have to package it. Right? It's. A creative spot where you have to put things together and plan. So tell me a little about your creative process in terms of keeping the show going and how you keep that going.

Alison Delamota 00:27:06
It has actually changed in different seasons of the show to try to find a rhythm that worked for me, my schedule, my creativeness. And I noticed that I was best at night. I feel like the whole day had to download and then at night I was able to record for the next morning. It got tiring. I remember that sometimes I couldn't batch I'm talking to creators. Sometimes you have to batch there are days that I had, for instance, my sister's wedding, and we were flying to Asheville. And so I needed to make sure that the show was going to be aired Monday through Friday. And so that meant creating a week's worth of episodes at a time. This was at a time in my creative process that I was still working a nine to five. I was working a full time job helping my sister with her wedding. We had to fly and I got maybe four batches done. And the most important was going to be aired the day after her wedding. So I needed to record the night before, which was the night of her wedding. So I completely did not do that correctly. And I ended up having to go to sleep and I was exhausted from the wedding, wake up at three in the morning. So I needed to give myself a cat nap, record upload and process that show in my hotel room underneath some sort of COVID So that's to show you that the show has to come first because there are people counting on you. And I say that lightly because I also think that there is room for you to take a break if you need it. Right? But because my show is Monday through Friday and I have no way of telling these people, hey, there's no episode today. I take it very seriously. So that turns into recording sessions in hotel rooms when I'm traveling, recording sessions in my closet. I started in my closet, then I eventually got an office. But there is different flows of creativity that comes out today. I'm really happy that I'm not necessarily writing at one in the morning, even though that's what I did for probably a year and a half. I'm now pre writing my devotionals, but I record them the night before, so it's still fresh. And the reason why is because I learned many times over the last three years that things happen in the world. And with a morning show, you need to address certain things so I can't batch a month's worth of content. Because like we saw just two weeks ago, turkey had a terrible earthquake and so we needed to pray over the people in Turkey. And if I would have batched a month's worth of content well, then, now I seem insensitive. So it's just figuring out what kind of content you're creating, what the flow looks like for you. Now I'm writing before I record. That gives me some sort of room that I have a block to be creative in writing, and then I have an hour every night to record, whereas before I was writing and recording at the same time. So that worked for me in one season. This is working for me in this season. That's not to say that in a year or two years, I'm going to say once, because God is going to bless us with a family. So once I have a family, I don't know what that's going to look like, but just be really flexible. That creativity comes and goes. There are days that you don't feel like it, and there are days that you just have to show up and sometimes you have to just be your authentic self. It's not about looking the best. There are episodes, I upload, I'm like, that was not good. And then the next morning, I'll get, like, three different messages. Wow, God really used you to see.

Allen C. Paul 00:30:50
Okay, I had to stop you. That's the one that bugs me the worst, isn't it? Like, the ones that we are like, this was terrible. And again, it could be songs, it could be music, it could be podcasts, it could be anything. It's usually the one that you think in our own standards was subpar, and that's the one God uses to touch people, and it just reminds you that it's not about you, it's about what he puts inside it versus our standards.

Alison Delamota 00:31:14
Yeah. Also, get yourself a group of people who understand the importance of what you're creating and pushing when you don't want to be pushed, like, when you don't want to push yourself, you need to have a community of people who are going to say, hey, you told me you were going to write a song. Where's the song? Because exactly. It helps keep yourself accountable.

Allen C. Paul 00:31:32
Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Alice this is where I feel the kinship and the fact that we speak the same language. It's not just the fact that we go to the same church. It's not just the fact that we're in the same medium, is that you have the same drive to say, hey, this is important enough. I say this in from one of my master classes, is that the one thing that guarantees your creative success is recognizing the value of your creative calling. So I feel like that's what you're exhibiting right now. You recognize the value of showing up. You recognize the value of faithfulness. Right. And you talked even in one of your last devotional series about the seed, and you're planting these seeds and you gain a harvest. And it's not a question, it's like, I'm going to plant. There's going to be a harvest in the story. But it's such a beautiful reminder to all of us. Again, your my Morning Devotional podcast is literally being faithful over that five minutes. That ten minutes of saying, hey, I'm going to show up. I'm going to give God the first part of my day. And knowing that you're going to be there, you're encouraging so many other people. So, yeah, what would you like to say to somebody who's either wishing they had a community like that or maybe they're thinking of forming a community, they want to do something? Like, you send that first email out to those 30 people. What would you say to them on the other side that you wish you knew back when you started?

Alison Delamota 00:32:49
So something that I wish I and I still tell myself of all the plans that I have, just get started. It's something that I learned early on in life, and it's something that I watched my husband actually struggle with. And I was having a conversation with a member of our church, Tito, and he said, the over analysis paralysis. Get over the over analysis paralysis. And I love that phrase because it's so true. I'm actually quick to get over that. And it is a strength of mine that I would encourage everybody to just do it. You learn lessons faster, but sometimes it's not about time. It's just about getting through the lesson. And for instance, with Sequoia over analyst paralysis, that doesn't really exist too much with me because I got the phone call and I did it. And then now, six months later, I'm like, okay, I'm going to close shop. But I learned quickly. Rather than sitting on that phone call from Uber and saying, oh, I really want to do it, I could have prolonged that for a year, two years, three years, and then you find yourself five years later, you said, wait, what would have happened had I started the podcast five years ago? And what would have happened if I would have just written the album that's been on my heart five years ago? So just getting past that, I guess it's a combination of impostor syndrome. People will listen, maybe people don't listen, but you did it for yourself. And that's the most important part, because you proved to yourself that when God speaks to you to do something, that you're going to act on it. And if it really is a God spoken dream or calling, he's going to multiply it. I promise you that this show is as successful as it is because this is the first thing in my life. I have dabbled in every type of entrepreneurship journey that you can ever imagine. I've done all of the marketing, all of the network marketing companies. I have done everything and anything under the sun when it comes to baking, I've done everything when it comes to pretty much everything, clothing lines, everything. And so this has been a God dream because God instructed me to do the show, and I just did it. And so here we are three years later, or about to be three years later, and God has blessed it and continues to bless it. And it's not something that can replace an income, but it's something that has really blessed me internally. And so sometimes that is much more important than just the overall. What can I gain out of this monetarily it's? What can I gain out of this spiritually? What's my eternal ROI?

Allen C. Paul 00:35:34
Someone at yes Lidoming, yes, he said.

Alison Delamota 00:35:38
That he had a whole series or a sermon on what's your eternity ROI, and that's what you should think about every time you do something.

Allen C. Paul 00:35:49
Okay, so much in that. Alison I love that advice and not falling into the analysis paralysis. By the way, shout out to the family business with the Alessis, because, again, that's our podcast. And Lido Ming has been in on that podcast as well. So we're just all over the place sharing amazing lessons and learning from our experience. So if you're listening to this, watching this, you're learning from people who had to take those leaps of faith who are sowing, like you said, sowing the seed and getting eternal harvest. But I'm going to speak over that. Be careful, because we talked about speaking in faith and you said not a full time income. I don't think God is into the part time anything. I think God is full time investing into you. And so I'm going to go ahead and just speak it. Alison you're going to be on some big stages pretty soon talking about this. Maybe it'll be podcast. It won't be during another engagement party, I promise, but it's just amazing what you've done. But tell them how they could find your podcast, how they can connect with you. I know we have all the links in the socials and all that kind of stuff, but some people are old school. So tell them where they can find you and how they can connect with your amazing platform course.

Alison Delamota 00:36:51
So you can find me on all of the streaming platforms. Spotify is probably the one where most people listen, but Apple, Amazon, Music, pretty much anywhere that you listen to music, you can find the podcast. You can also subscribe if you would like. I have a monthly prayer journal that goes in conjunction with the show, and I created that earlier this year to give people space to continue to write down their prayers and revelations along with every episode. And so that comes out the month before. So on the last week of the month, you'll receive your journal, and then we start the series for the following month together. And you can find that at mymorningdevo co. I'm currently revamping the website, but I have a feeling that by the time this show goes live, the website will be live. So just go to mymorningdevo co, and if you need to email me for anything. Hello at mymorningdevo co and for prayer, you can just reach out prayer at mymorningdeepo co. So I love to pray over any prayer requests that come through. And that's where you can find me. On Instagram, Facebook, all of that. We have a community on Facebook that you can join and pretty much on all the outlets.

Allen C. Paul 00:38:04
Well, again, I could not imagine every time I start one of my morning runs, I'm just like, okay, can't start without Alison, cannot get I have to hear that intro, have to get my five minutes daily dose of heaven. And for all of you guys who are listening and watching, remember, she's leading by example because she took steps of faith, because she said, like she just told you, just do it. Don't overanalyze. Obedience is better than sacrifice. And ecclesiastes is very clear. It says, Cast your bread upon the waters. You don't know which one of those things is going to come back. So whatever God's put into your heart as a creative, as a believer, as somebody who has a seed inside that you could share, and just like Alison, you might see it multiplied by exponential, by millions. And Alison, thank you so much for being an encouragement to me personally and to all of our guiding Gigs audience. I hope we're going to do this again sometime. Thanks for being on this show.

Alison Delamota 00:38:53
Thank you so much for having me.

Allen C. Paul 00:39:03
My friend. I am so glad I got to share Alison's amazing story with you. And now you know not only the power of daily devotion, of putting yourself in a place where God can speak to you on a daily basis, but also including other people. And maybe you've got a dream on the inside of starting something like a podcast or a platform or something that will honor God, but will also bring other people into a space where you can share together. Well, Alison has shown you how powerful it is when you walk in obedience and just do what God has given you the gift to do. So, Alison, thank you so much for being on this program. Make sure you follow the My Morning devotional podcast again. It's a daily part of my day. I listen as I run or the beginning of my day, or as I'm driving to work. It just reminds me every single day that I can connect with God through people who really know and love Him, just like Alison does and the rest of our God and Gigs community. I know you share that same sentiment. And by the way, speaking of devotionals, god and Gigs also has a devotional which is perfect for you as a creative that you can also follow along on a daily basis. This is our Seven Keys to Prayer guide that we have, which is available to you free simply by going to Godandgigs.com prayer or just look for the link inside this description of this episode. And it will give you seven days of quick thoughts to think about, a Bible verse to think about, and a prayer to pray over your creative life. This is the kind of thing that will get you jump started into creating the habit of daily prayer that, alongside Alison's podcast and other resources that we share, is perfect for you to really reignite your faith and get into that habit where God can really connect with you on a daily basis. Well my friend, go check out those resources, follow everything we've been sharing and make sure to follow God and gigs as well on all our social platforms facebook, Instagram, we're also on Twitter, and we share resources all the time through those social media platforms. And more importantly, we can keep this conversation going so you can share what's going on in your life and we can share resources and things that will help you to continue to build that great creative life and to follow God as he leads you in everything that he's gifted you to do. Well, my friend, that's our show for today. So until next time, continue to become the creative that you were created to be. God bless you and we'll see you next episode.

Speaker B 00:41:38
Thanks for joining us here at the Garden Gig Show. Please leave us a review on itunes like our Facebook page, or visit Godandgigs.com and tell us what you thought of this show. We'll be back soon. In the meantime, go create something amazing.