I’ve just spent the last 5 days working on a framework for how I would like to approach 2026. I feel like (no, I know) I’m SO CLOSE to the goals that I’ve quietly been dreaming of for honestly-years. And in looking back at this particular year and it’s so clear to what did and didn’t work. I’ve kept that in mind as I thought about workflow, how my energy tends to ebb and flow throughout the year and what I’ve observed my audience reacting to in the past. Then, I spent some time thinking about what tools will actually help me do the work that I’m trying to do and what tools won’t. So, today I thought I would share how I planned out my business for 2026 and everything that went into designing a more thoughtful approach to my upcoming business year.
The Tools I Used
Paper and pencils. Seriously, I literally bought a desk calendar. You know, one that you put on your desk and use a pencil to write all of your important dates, etc. It’s a totally different experience from using AI, just typing into your Google Calendar or using a more compact journal (I have all three). In the future, I plan on using this system again because it was so much easier to see where I was overbooked, what needed more time and I ended up identifying a huge opportunity to do something cool in 2026
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Listen to the Episode
The Breakdown
What Are My 2026 Goals
One of the things that I really started to think about deeply around 2024 is how brand complexity complicates your goals. There’s a reason why people tell you to focus on one thing. If you’re working towards multiple goals-you can achieve them, it’s just going to be slower. The brain energy it takes to run a project, troubleshoot, pivot is a lot for one project. Multiply that by 2, 3 or even 4 projects and you’ve slowed down your timeline significantly. In my case, I have 4 projects that I’ve worked on concurrently or not through out the years. I’m going to briefly share what those projects are and how I made a decision around how they factored into future goals.
- Your American Money-This is my oldest brand and it’s positioned in the personal finance space. It’s also my most difficult project to work on energetically and requires a lot of reacting in the moment. I’ve won multiple awards for the work I’ve done on this project and currently it remains on a long-term hiatus. It takes up too much energy during this moment in time and so I made the decision to pause working on it a few years ago. It’s also my hardest project to monetize. I do not regret pausing working on this project.
- Creators Getting Paid-That’s what you’ve landed on. I’m focused on helping creators in the Content Creator Entrepreneurship space, in particular Black, Brown and legit Progressives, make money with the work that they’re doing to prosper and expand the impact of their work. This project currently has the most momentum behind it and is pretty easy to monetize.
- Square State Colorado-This is my fun project that’s all about the city of Denver and the state of Colorado. It’s a wildly easy project to monetize and the most difficult thing that I’ve been doing with this project is trying to figure out how to integrate it with Creators Getting Paid content. I’ve finally figured it out.
- My Romance Pen Name-Wildly fun to work on and when I’m in the right headspace, relatively straightforward to make money with. I’m finally in the right headspace. This year I’m going to write the books FIRST then schedule the pre-sales. Usually I’ve done it the opposite way and it just hasn’t worked in recent years because of all of the stuff going on.
What are the goals that I’ve identified as they relate to my projects and the systems that I’m setting up for 2026. I’m not sharing all of my goals, just a few of them.
The Goals
- Double-down on monetizing in the easiest way possible for each project. What does that look like?
- Creators Getting Paid-Affiliates, Products and Services
- Square State Colorado-Affiliates and potentially ad revenue
- Romance Pen Name-Sell books
- Host an online summit-I’ve already identified a pain point that drives me crazy and have picked out a date, content context and the guests that I would like to join me. I do want to mention that I’m a part of another online summit that I’ll share in the collaborations part of this conversation.
- Write a business book-Technically, I was supposed to write and publish it in 2025 and then life happened. I want to get it done in 2025.
- Publish a romance series-Finally, for the first time since the pandemic, I have a romance series concept so good that I can’t stop thinking about it and I know that I can write and publish these books in 2026.
- All of the “How Many and How Much Questions”
- How much money would I like to make in 2026
- How many podcast downloads would I like to have
- How many newsletter subscribers would l like to have
- How many YouTube subscribers would I like to have and do I want to start a YouTube Channel?
- How many community members would I like to have in The Creator Income Collective my free/crowdfunded membership on Slack.
Fun Vacations
It has been WAY TOO LONG since I’ve traveled abroad. I really miss the experience of otherness that you have when you’re in another country. I’m also talking about vacations that aren’t associated with attending a conference. I’ve blocked out several trips and experiences that I would like to have in 2026 and when ideally I would like to have them. I’ll keep you posted.
Social Media Breaks
I love taking time off of social media. I didn’t do that this year and I’ve made a point of adding them to my schedule.
Product Launches and Product Design
(Marketing)
This was huge. I spent most of 2025 building out products. In 2026, I plan on refining and selling those products. With that in mind, I gave myself twice the amount of time I thought I would need to do things well and not stress myself out. If you’re focused on done for you services and are getting tired, start thinking about building out digital products to help you serve more people and better manage your energy. One important point to bring up is to ask yourself how much time do you have allocated towards marketing. It pains me to admit this but I have way under-marketed my work and I’m convinced most people struggle with this issue. My plan is to go on podcasts. I love them and think I show up at my best in that space.
Random Aspirational Stuff
What’s the random shit that you’ve always thought about doing? Write that down and keep an eye out for it. If the Miami Vice reboot needs extras or a small role filled-call me. I’m your girl.
Fitness focus
I truly miss going to dance classes. I’ve literally scheduled that into my week. It’s now a non-negotiable part of my week and a part of my self-care.
Livestreams/Collaborations
For the past year I’ve collaborated with Corey Gumbs the founder of The Black Podcasters Association and Angela Hollowell founder of Melanin MVP and Please Hustle Responsibly. We host a weekly (or bi-weekly) livestream called “Shh, We’re Talking” where we discuss the creator economy from the Black perspective. In 2026 we’re hosting our first online summit called “The Anti-Grifters Social Club” Virtual Summit where we’re reflecting on “The Power (and Importance) of Story”
Workshops That I Would Like to Host
Typically I host free and paid workshops throughout the year. In 2025, that really didn’t happen. I would like to get back into doing that in 2026. These are important from a growth perspective and from an authority building approach.
Newsletter Focused Goals
I’m a HUGE advocate of list building as a core component of a healthy business and brand. My top areas of focus in 2026:
- Connecting with my community-really getting to know them and supporting their work and communities. I want to connect with them as often and frequently as possible.
- Growing My List-My aggressive goal is 20,000 subscribers by the end of the year.
- A Click Through Rate that is consistently at 7% or higher (this is aggressive)
- An open rate of 50% or higher (this is aggressive)-Amy Porterfield recently mentioned in a podcast episode that her open rate is around 38%.
Using the Desk Calendar
Made it so obvious when I was pushing too hard, adding too many projects at a certain time and underestimating my capacity. I also want to mention everything that I added to my calendar.
- Time with family and friends-Each week I make sure that there’s plenty of time blocked off for socializing and support of friends and family.
- The Anti-Grifter Social Club Livestreams that I co-host every Tuesday with Angela and Corey on Substack
- The Done is Better Than Perfect Weeks that I host for The Creator Income Collective-the membership that I host on Slack. Go to: https://creatorsgettingpaid.com/membership to become a member.
- Sunday Livestream Series-In 2025 I hosted The Creators Getting Paid 8 Week Holiday Sales Sprint on Substack livestreams. I loved that this content series gave me an opportunity to highlight my expertise and share additional content on the Substack platform. In 2026, I plan on launching 2 more content series in additional to the Holiday Sales Sprint.
- Conferences that I would like to attend and added in the additional travel time
- When I would like to host a workshop each month and when I shouldn’t
- The dates for my online summit and the summit that I’m hosting with Angela and Corey
- When I would like to publish my business book and my romance books
- Additional Product launches
- Social Media Breaks
- The dates for my In-person Meetup here in Denver that I’m launching in January
- Newsletter publishing days
- Festivals, Concerts and other random fun shit that I’m wanting to do and where I want to do it here in Denver or elsewhere.
- Spanish classes/meetups/etc. (typical day)
- Favorite fitness and dance classes (regular days)
- Even the Super Bowl made its way onto my calendar-I’m watching Bad Bunny and the Broncos this year (crossing my fingers on the Broncos making it to the Super Bowl)
Having everything laid out on a giant calendar just hits differently. By the way, this is just a framework for my year. There are no rules around this. By planning in this way, I’m getting a birds’ eye view of what I’m hoping to do, what I can do and what I will do in 2026 and then I can make more nuanced and thoughtful pivots throughout the year.
