Stop This, Start That: The New Creator Playbook
We do a lot as creators. We show up when we want to show up, but showing up is not the same as moving the needle. If you want 2026 to look different — less busy, more profitable, less frantic — you need to stop a few habits and start a few others. Here is a practical playbook, the stuff I actually follow and the stuff Stephanie and Florence swear by.
What to stop doing (for good)
Some practices feel modern because everyone does them. That does not mean they work. Stop pretending that these will scale your business:
Posting everywhere with no strategy. One piece of content does not magically translate across platforms. Different platforms have different audiences and different behaviors. Spray and pray is lazy marketing.
Chasing vanity metrics. Likes and random follows feel good, but they do not pay bills. Focus on the actions that lead to revenue or to genuine relationships.
Building on rented land only. If your community lives only on someone else’s platform, you are one algorithm change away from disruption. Own your list, your platform, or both.
Half-hearted community management. Running a group and never responding is performative. If you ask people to DM or engage, be ready to show up.
Facebook used to be the town square. Now many of us feel boxed in by opaque algorithms and monetization quirks. Stephanie put it bluntly: if your goal is to work with a different class of client, your platform mix should change. Florence added a sharper personal take: stop listening to people who are not in your corner. That goes for platforms and for the people you follow.
If it doesn’t evolve me, it doesn’t involve me.
What to start doing (that actually works)
Replace noise with systems. Here are the actions that deliver true leverage.
Own a space you control. Build a community on platforms you can control — School, Mighty Networks, Circle, Substack, or your own hosted solution. That ownership matters.
Be strategic about formats and platforms. Match format to audience. Threads on Instagram, bullet posts on LinkedIn, and high-velocity shorts on YouTube each serve different goals.
Repurpose intentionally. Turn one recorded session into many assets: shorts, a blog post, a keynote, a workshop, a book. You are not recycling lazily. You are multiplying signal.
Go deeper in fewer places. Distribute smartly, but double down on the rooms where your key decision makers live. That might mean in-person events and niche communities.
Community over broadcast
A community is not a feed. If you want sustained results, design experiences that keep people engaged and that create mutual value. That means planning, cadence, and features that encourage participation.
Plan your community programming months in advance.
Use gamification where it helps: leaderboards, feedback loops, short challenges.
Resist pre-scheduling everything so posts do not become ghosted broadcasts.
Formats explained: reels, stories, carousels and more
Not every format is for everyone. The practical playbook is to pick formats that match your goals and audience.
Reels and shorts. High velocity and reach. Great for discovery and fast growth.
Stories. Ephemeral, great for real-time touchpoints, but do not rely on them to prove results unless you sequence them intentionally.
Carousels. Think of them as a small slideshow or a mini presentation. They are bookmarkable and shareable, which works well for how-to, but they often attract DIY audiences.
Stephanie’s approach is tactical: tailor the same source content differently for each platform — a reel for Instagram, a thread to tell the story, a LinkedIn post with a lead comment linking back to long form. Weight each asset against the platform’s strengths.
Repurpose smarter: greatest hits and the 94-asset method
Reuse your best ideas. One of the most practical exercises I teach is how to turn a single long-form session into dozens of assets. That means editing, slicing, and reshaping so you have evergreen content to keep feeding your pipeline.
Start a “greatest hits“ file. When you see repeat engagement on a theme, double down. Reposting or remixing a strong piece at the right time is not spam. It is sensible distribution. People need multiple exposures to act.
Simple revenue ideas for beginners
If you are just getting started, prioritize cashflow and lower risk. Here are practical revenue paths:
Joint ventures and paid workshops. Teach in someone else’s community where their audience needs what you do.
Affiliate offers and small courses. Create one low-friction product that pays back your time investment.
Speaker fees and paid live gigs. If you can speak, monetize events both on platform and off platform.
White glove services. Package a done-for-you offering for clients who value time over learning DIY.
Make the project cost neutral as quickly as possible. That might mean selling something small while you build your audience so the venture does not drain you.
Community etiquette and authenticity
Authentic engagement beats performative engagement every time. If your strategy includes inviting DMs or community responses, be ready to respond. Pre-scheduled autoposting that replaces real interactions is a sure way to erode trust.
If you want your community to thrive, treat members like humans, not metrics. Ask, wait, respond, iterate.
One piece of advice for the next 12 months
Find the right rooms and show up. That means go where the decision makers are — the conferences, the niche communities, and the networks that connect to your ideal clients. Reconnect with your old contacts and be deliberate about who you keep close. Networking is not transactional when done well. It is the single highest leverage activity.
If you help enough people get what they want, you will get everything you want.
Final checklist
Audit the platforms you use and decide which to own, which to keep for distribution, and which to sunset.
Pick one community platform you control and design a content cadence for it.
Create a repurposing playbook: one long-form session = multiple assets across formats.
Choose at least one revenue pathway that can get you to break even quickly.
Reconnect with your network and be intentional about the rooms you join in 2026.
This is not rocket science. It is a set of clear choices: stop the noisy busywork, own the parts of your business you can control, repurpose intelligently, and invest your time where it compounds. Do that and next year will look very different.
 | A guest post by
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