5 Key Practices of Every Successful Christian Creative Entrepreneur

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After thousands of conversations with hundreds of some of the most successful and fulfilled Christian creative, artists, entrepreneurs, musicians and freelancers in the world, what are the five key elements, practices and habits that they all take part in? What are the things that if you were doing these five same practices that they do, what would it do for your career? Would you be able to attain and guarantee the same success that they have by following these same key practices? Well, we're going to find out because I'm going to share them with you on today's episode of The God and Gigs Show. Give me just a moment to welcome those of you who are new to our show and then we'll get right into this all important conversation.

00:00:58
Hello and welcome to our show. Thank you so much for making this podcast a part of your creative day. And if you are new to our show, thank you so much for joining us and giving me a chance. Let me tell you why you're in the right place at the right time. My name is Allen.

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I'm a musician, creative coach and author. And this show is here to help you bridge the gap between your creative life and your spiritual life. We help musicians, artists, freelancers, entrepreneurs, anyone in the arts and entertainment space, but also with a heart or even a position in ministry to solve temporary creative problems with timeless spiritual principles. That's why you're here and that's what you'll get. And that's why I hope you'll subscribe follow this show on whichever app you're using right now as well as find all of our socials and connections with our community in our description below.

00:01:55
Thank you so much for joining us and let me tell you why. This is a perfect episode. Whether you've been here forever or are joining us for the first time, we're talking about these five key practices and I am so blessed that I've been able to rub shoulders with so many of you. The people in this community and all of us were following the same god, the same principles, and we're trying to impact the world with our gifts. But some people have just figured out what the best practices are to do that effectively and I want to share them with you.

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I'm recently coming off as I'm recording going to a conference where I once again got the chance to connect with so many successful creatives podcasters content creators, some of them who were there from the very beginning of the online marketing and entertainment genre really just getting its start. I was able to see and hear from them yet again. And I'm going to tell you, it was the same story. The same five key practices were there in each one of their testimonies and their lives. So I'm going to share them with you today.

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Some of them you've heard before but maybe haven't applied and some may be totally new to you. So let's start with number one, the one thing, key practice that every single one of these successful Christian creative entrepreneurs has done. They all have committed to education through some type of course or training. Now, you might say, well, of course, as a musician or an artist, I've got to learn my craft, but I'm talking about the business or the effort to create a platform with that gift. They've all committed to education and courses.

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In that regard, I can speak of myself. When I first got started, I took a course with Amy Porterfield's email because I had no idea how to build an audience. I also took some courses from Michael Hyatt on Platform, and I just kept buying and investing in learning because it was one thing to be able to create by playing the piano. It was a whole nother thing to create a platform on how to write a book or how to create a website, or how to reach people who needed to be reached through online marketing. Those are the kind of courses and trainings many of us leave out.

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And I want to challenge you because every single one of the successful Christian creative entrepreneurs that I've spoken with, they've all committed to courses. They've all gone beyond just their training in their creative talent and reached out to business coaches and things like that and bought the materials, whether it be self study or some other type of formal training. And they've gotten the information and committed to education. So you haven't done that yet. You're shortchanging yourself, and you're not going to see the success that God has for you because you're not yet taking that first step into a key practice that every Christian entrepreneur who's successful has followed.

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That's number one. Number two goes right alongside it. Every single one of the successful creatives that I have interviewed, rubbed shoulders with, have connected with, they all have connected with and submitted to some type of coaching. Now, you might say, okay, coaching, life coaching, business coaching. Well, I'm not going to leave that label on it.

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But the key is they all have a coach or some type of mentor. I can say in my own life if I didn't have mentors, and people who spoke into me, who helped me write my first book, writers who gave me coaching and told me even how to start the first chapter, I remember the very first chapter of God and Gigs. I submitted it to somebody who was an amazing writer and reporter, and he wrote back and he said, hey, this is not good enough. You got to do certain things to get the people's attention, to get the reader's attention. I'm so grateful for that coaching and mentoring because my book would not be able to stand where it is now and impact people if they couldn't get to the first page because I hadn't submitted it to someone to help me get better.

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It's the same thing in your life. Wherever you are going as a creative entrepreneur, if you have not submitted to coaching, brought in somebody who can help you learn, who you're willing to be taught by, who you're willing to say, hey, I don't know what to do next. I am willing to invest in this person, then you are once again not going down the path of every other successful entrepreneur. They have all submitted to coaching. Most of them, even if they're wildly successful, are still paying for and giving coaches the chance to speak into their lives consistently.

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So that's the second one. You got to get a coach. Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, you name the high level profile person that has reached the pinnacle of their craft, they still had a coach. And you need the same. So that's number two, to have a coach or to hire a coach and have a mentor of some kind.

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The third thing that every single successful Christian entrepreneur, creative has done, every single one of them has also decided to commit to a community. Now, here's the one that kind of is tough, because you might say, well, I have my church. Yes, of course, your church or your worship ministry, whoever's in your circle, your creative local circle, has got to be a strong one. But I'm going to challenge you once again. Everyone in these circles, all of the great podcasters, musicians, artists, they all are not just part of communities that they are easily accessible to, but they also join communities that are not necessarily their same genre, their same talent.

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They oftentimes join bigger communities where they rub shoulders with people who aren't exactly like them. That could mean culturally, that could mean in terms of their creative gift, but it grows you so much faster when you get around people who do know what you know and who do want to grow the way you want to grow, but aren't necessarily just people that you know from childhood, people that you know from the very beginning. You've got to rub shoulders with people who are a little bit different from you, who can challenge you to grow. And that's the kind of community we have, both at 360, our God and Gigs platform, our membership mastermind level. But it's also the kind that you can find in other groups where you have to step out of your comfort zone and get around people who are going to help you see new ways of doing things.

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And every single successful creative entrepreneur that I know is a part of maybe several. I had this very conversation at the conference that I'm just coming from. This is what most of us can say. We're part of multiple tribes, multiple communities that give us multiple skills and help us to see the world and our businesses and our creative engine in whole new ways. So I'm going to challenge you if you've just got one core community that's very small and you're used to it.

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Maybe it's time to branch out, join a bigger or a different community of creatives online or locally that make you stretch yourself and make new relationships because your relationships will determine the size and the effectiveness of your career. That's number three. Number four, it goes right along with this, but this actually takes it to a physical and an action step. You have to attend a conference. You can see the alliteration now, right?

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They've all been seized. You got to take a course. You got to get a coach. You got to join a community that could be online, but then you got to physically go to a conference. I'm just coming as I'm recording from the 2023 Spark Media Conference.

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It was my first time going. Misty Phillip and her team are amazing. And I said, okay, you know what? I have attended podcast conventions before, but I've never attended one specifically for Christian podcasters. And I'm going to go.

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We got the money together. I was able to partner with my own church as I'm producing a podcast with that, and I was able to figure it out, and I said, I'm going to go. I'm going to invest my own money as well. And we are going to show up and we are going to learn from people that I have never been around. So this is what I am challenging you.

00:10:37
The very book that's over my shoulder. If you're watching God and Gigs also was launched at a conference. Most of the relationships that I've made where you've heard these interviews, they started when I attended a conference. So if you've never left your local area, if you've never bought a plane ticket, if you've never got a hotel and had to spend some money and put out some vacation days or save over some time to make sure you could go attend a conference in your creative niche, you need to do that. Because every single successful creative and entrepreneur that I have spoken with, they all have been and most likely had a major breakthrough of a relationship or connection at a conference, not just online and not just in your local area.

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So I'm going to challenge you right there. That's what all the successful creatives have been doing, and they are doing, and they have done. So if you haven't, it's time to find a place, look in your industry and see what's the next conference that you need to attend and start asking God and praying about it to make the resources and putting your own mindset into. I'm going to show up, I'm going to learn, and I'm going to be more successful and more effective after that conference. And finally, we've talked about courses, we talked about coaches, we talked about community, talked about conferences.

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But finally, here's the last one. And I'm guessing you knew this has to be part of every single successful Christian creative entrepreneur's life consecration. Now, I know that if you are called to what you're doing you may think, well, yes, I have got to be dedicated to it and I pray about it and I want God to be blessed. But you have to consecrate yourself, which means set apart your life and your career and your ministry and platform have to be set apart for the mission if you're going to be successful. If you have not consecrated and set aside that very dream that you have and said, lord, do what you want with this.

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Push me as far as you need to, make me as uncomfortable as you need to, make me as open and vulnerable as you need to so that I can accomplish what you would have me to accomplish through this creative gift business or platform. If you haven't consecrated it and willingly surrendered it to Him, you are not going to reach the success that you want. The Bible says very clearly that we can do nothing apart from Him. And if we have tried to do all the four things without Him and consecrating your gifting, your ministry, your art even and especially if it's not specifically for the church, you are not going to see the success that you have seen in all these other interviews. If you go through every single interview over the last six years and 250 episodes we've done to this point on the Guiding Gig show, you're going to find every single successful creative has consecrated themselves to the call that God put on their life.

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Whether it was hard, whether they couldn't make it at the time, sickness, money, financial, whatever the obstacle was, they were consecrated to that work. The gifting was given away to God so that he could use them more effectively and for his glory and then for the good of others. And as the Bible says so clearly, as Jesus told us, all these things are added, all of the benefits are added as we seek his kingdom first. So I'm going to challenge you my friend. Consecrate your gifting, your art, your business, everything to God.

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Consecrate it to Him, offer to Him, make it a sacrifice, a living sacrifice of your gift and then do the four that absolutely have to follow because faith without works is dead. You've got to get the courses, buy the training, you've got to get into the community. God and Gigs 360 is an amazing community that you probably should already be a part of if you're watching or listening. So get into the courses, get into the training, get into the community, attend a conference, find one in your industry, and then consecrate all of that to God. And then you will be following in the footsteps of again, I couldn't even name all of the people that I've been so blessed to be around, but every single one of them would give an amen to each one of those five key practices, my friend.

00:15:10
That's our show for today. Please make sure on whatever app you're using that you tap the subscription or the follow button so that you can get more encouragement, inspiration and knowledge like this. Every week we've got interviews, every week we've got more trainings and community. And as I just mentioned, all those seeds are available for you. As a matter of fact, I would suggest you go to Godendgigs.com Gold because we've got training, we've got the courses, we've got coaches, we've got the community, we've got all of that right there in Godandgigs.com Gold.

00:15:44
You can go check that out and get a free trial as well. Well, my friend, that's our whole show for today, but I pray that it has been a blessing to you. 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. Thanks for joining us here at the God and Gigs show.

00:16:08
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