54 | Why Every Course You've Taken Still Left You Stuck And What's Actually Missing

Have you invested in course after course, desperately hoping to find the breakthrough formula, but ended up more confused than ever? Spent money on Facebook ads training, launch strategies, and marketing blueprints that promised "zero to six figures" success—only to find yourself still stuck?

In this vulnerable episode, I'm sharing the costly mistakes I made following voices motivated by worldly success instead of Kingdom advancement. For years, I chased after expert strategies, secret formulas, and proven systems, not realizing the real problem: I was building my author business on the wrong foundation.

If you're a Christian author who feels paralyzed by conflicting expert advice, exhausted from implementing strategies that don't work, or wondering why God's calling isn't translating into results—this episode is for you.

We're talking about:

• How to discern which voices to follow when everyone's making promises
• The red flags I missed in course marketing (and how to spot them)
• Why information overload keeps Christian authors stuck
• The difference between building FOR God versus building WITH God
• What Matthew 7's parable about building on rock vs sand means for your author business
• How to know if you're following worldly metrics or Kingdom principles
• Why you might need the right foundation before any strategy will work

This isn't about bashing courses or saying all expert advice is bad. It's about learning to hear God's voice above all the noise, understanding what foundation comes FIRST, and building a Spirit-led author platform that actually aligns with your calling.

If you're tired of chasing "successful author" formulas that leave you feeling like a failure, ready to stop comparing your behind-the-scenes to everyone else's highlight reel, and hungry for GOD to break in—turn up the volume, because this episode will set you up for heavenly transformation.

Mentioned in this episode: Proverbs 14:12, Psalm 127:1, James 1:5, Matthew 7:24-27

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Transcript

I'm not proud of this, but there was a time in my life, not too long ago actually,

that I was so desperate for more book sales that I invested in pretty much every course that circulated in the author community.

Facebook ads, courses that promised secret methods,

launched strategies that guaranteed best seller status.

Proven formulas promising breakthrough. And here's the thing,

all the testimonials looked incredible.

Authors like me went from zero to six figures in just a few months.

But months and a ton of time and energy spent later,

nothing had really changed for me.

Somehow the secret sources and proven formulas failed to work on me.

Or perhaps I was missing another element and needed another course.

And so the cycle continued.

But here's what took me years to figure out.

The problem wasn't the courses themselves.

The problem was following voices motivated by the wrong things and not having the discernment to tell the difference.

So today we're talking about how to know which voices to follow when you're desperate for breakthrough and everyone's making promises,

and why most courses out there will keep you stuck.

Turn up the volume, friend, because this one will most certainly set you up for heavenly breakthrough.

This is episode 54.

I'm Urcelia Teixeira, ex real estate agent turned award winning Christian fiction authority.

When I wrote my first novel on a bucket list whim, I had no idea it would spark a spiritual journey that would redefine my calling. But you know what, friend?

Self publishing wasn't easy. I got caught in the hustle, chasing rankings and sales while desperately trying to stay rooted in Christ.

Now, by God's grace, I'm building my author business his way. And now he's called me to help you do the same, saying,

welcome to the Anointed Scribe podcast, where faith meets business for Christian writers. Let's write, publish, and grow our author business God's way. Are you ready? Well then, let's get started.

Hey, it's your author friend, Urcelia. And welcome to today's episode of Anointed Scribe.

I'm extremely grateful that you are here and chose to hang out with me today, friend. Whether you are a regular listener or find me for the first time,

I trust that this message is exactly what God needs you to hear today.

So that intro. Yeah, that was hard to record because admitting you made costly mistakes,

that you spent money you couldn't really afford,

that you chased after the wrong things for years,

not exactly the highlight reel we like to show the world, right?

But here's why I'm sharing it anyway. Because I know some of you are Standing at this exact same crossroads. Right now,

you're looking at a sales page. You're considering another investment.

You're thinking of going into debt. You're thinking maybe this expert has what you've been missing.

And if my story can help you ask better questions before you click that button, buy now button, then the embarrassment is worth it.

Because, friend, I wish someone had told me what I'm about to share with you.

I would have saved myself so much money, so much time, so much confusion and heartache.

So let's talk about it, because I'd hate to see you make the same mistake I did.

So let me take you back to where I was about three years ago.

I'd published multiple books by then.

I was consistent with my marketing efforts. I was building my platform, doing the work.

But my income, it wasn't matching the effort I was putting in.

And this wasn't just about wanting more book sales or success or even validation. This was about providing for my family.

Real bills, real groceries, real school expenses.

The kind of financial pressure that keeps you awake at 2am doing mental math about how to stretch the budget one more time.

So when a course would show up in my Facebook feed promising the breakthrough formula or the secret strategies successful authors use,

it didn't feel just like another marketing pitch. It actually felt like an answer to prayer.

Especially when the testimonials showed authors who looked just like me,

same genre, same platform size,

who were now making six figures. That was the dream, right?

Financial breakthrough through the calling God gave me,

finally being able to provide for my family through my writing.

Proving that stepping out in faith to become a full time author wasn't a mistake.

So I bought the courses. The Facebook ads course that promised to reveal the secret targeting methods the big authors didn't want you to know about.

The launch strategy that guaranteed best seller status if you just followed the exact formula.

The email funnel course that would turn subscribers into buyers on autopilot.

The platform building blueprint, the social media masterclass, the Amazon algorithms decoded.

And here's what the cycle looked like.

I'd see the course, get excited, feel hope rising each time, thinking this could be it, this could be what finally works.

And I'd buy it, often on a payment plan because I couldn't afford it all at once.

And then I'd consume the content eagerly, take detailed notes,

feel motivated and inspired.

I'd start implementing,

see, maybe a tiny uptick in something, just enough to keep hoping.

But then I'd hit a wall or get confused or realize this strategy completely Contradicted what the last expert taught me.

And before I knew it, I was frustrated and disappointed all over again.

Old familiar lies came back. Like maybe I was the problem. Maybe I just wasn't implementing it right. Maybe I just don't have what it takes. Or worse,

that I had somehow claimed this purpose for myself and that God hadn't actually called me to be a writer in the first place.

But then, lo and behold,

another course would show up, Another promise, another hope.

And the cycle would start all over again.

Now, do you want to know what's really embarrassing?

I can't even tell you exactly how much money I spent during those years. And because I'm honestly afraid to add it all up.

But it wasn't just the money that it cost me.

It was the time,

hours and hours consuming content instead of writing my next book.

It was the energy trying to implement five different strategies at once, all while managing the guilt of not spending enough time with my family.

It was the confusion.

Expert A, saying do this, Expert B coming along saying do the opposite,

Expert C contradicting them both.

And me stuck in the middle, paralyzed, not knowing which voice to follow.

And it was the hope. Every time a course didn't deliver what it promised,

a little piece of my hope died.

A little bit more of my confidence eroded.

Until I started wondering if maybe I just wasn't cut out for this.

Maybe God didn't actually call me to right. Maybe I heard him wrong.

Now here's what I couldn't see at the time.

The enemy was using my desperation against me. See,

I didn't need to stop from working. He didn't need to stop me from working. I was working plenty hard.

He didn't need to make me give up on my calling either. I was still writing and I was still publishing.

But what he needed was to keep me confused,

to keep me overwhelmed, to keep me chasing breakthrough through worldly methods while calling it obedience.

Because a confused, exhausted, striving Christian author that's not a threat to the devil's kingdom,

but an author who knows how to hear God's voice and follow his plan.

That's dangerous, right?

And he knew exactly how to keep me distracted.

Information overload, conflicting expert advice,

golden carrots all wrapped in language that sounded spiritual enough to bypass my discernment.

Looking back now, the red flags were everywhere. Though.

The marketing was almost entirely about money.

0 to 6 figures,

7 figure, author empire,

scale, your income.

The promises were all about worldly success markers,

bestseller lists, USA Today rankings,

sales numbers, chart positions. Me, me, me, me, me, this is how I can make you shine brighter.

The testimonials focused on revenue, not kingdom impact.

Taglines like I made $100,000 in my first year instead of God used my books to transform thousand lives.

Even the language secrets the successful authors don't want you to know.

Or the one formula for unlimited sales. It was all about finding that one magic trick, that secret sauce, that proven formula.

But friend, here's what the Holy Spirit said I wasn't getting.

Kingdom building doesn't have secret formulas.

God's strategies aren't hidden behind paywalls.

And breakthrough doesn't come from discovering what the successful people know.

It comes from what God is asking you specifically to build.

But when you're desperate, when bills are due and provision feels scarce, those red flags look like green lights.

They look like the answers to your prayers. Right?

Because maybe God wants to provide through this strategy.

Maybe this is how the breakthrough comes.

Maybe financial success is how I'll know I'm on the right track.

Except that's not how God's economy works. Jesus never measured success by income.

Paul didn't define breakthrough by best seller status.

The disciples didn't scale based on worldly metrics.

And you know, Proverbs 14:12 kept echoing, in my spirit,

there is a way that appears to be right, but in the end, it leads to death.

Those courses appeared right. The strategies seemed sound.

The experts looked successful by every worldly measure.

But the foundation was wrong. Their motives were wrong.

And no amount of excellent strategy can overcome a faulty foundation.

You know the parable in Matthew 7, the one about building on rock versus building on sand?

Both builders are constructing houses, right? Both are working hard. Both probably have good materials and solid techniques.

But the difference isn't the quality of their work.

It's what they're building on.

When the storms come. And Jesus says, when, not if the storms come.

Only the house built on rock stands.

The house built on sand, it falls. And Jesus says, it falls with a great crash.

That phrase always hit me hard with a great crash. Not gently, not quietly, but catastrophically.

That's what happens when you build on the wrong foundation,

no matter how good your building techniques are.

And here's what took me way too long to realize.

Those courses were teaching building techniques how to construct,

how to optimize, how to scale, how to compete.

But they weren't teaching me about foundations.

They weren't teaching discernment, how to know which voices to follow.

They weren't teaching surrender, but how to hear God's specific blueprint for my business.

They weren't teaching the difference between building for God and building with God.

And without that foundation, every new course just added more confusion to the pile.

Because the real question isn't what's the best marketing strategy?

The real question is God, what are you asking me to build? And how do you want me to build it?

Those are completely different questions,

and most courses don't address that second one at all.

Here's where things started to shift for me.

Psalm 127:1 became a verse I couldn't escape. And it says this. Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labour in vain.

I've been laboring so hard, so desperately, so long,

following experts, implementing strategies, trying to force breakthrough to happen. But I was laboring in vain,

because I wasn't actually letting the Lord build the house. I was following everyone else's blueprints and then asking God to bless my efforts.

I was comparing my lack of success with the success of authors who weren't even Christ followers.

Of course, the enemy was using them to lure me in. It's how he sways believers. He makes it look so easy, right?

But being a Christ follower calls us to be a living sacrifice and to not conform to worldly patterns.

Another anchor scripture was James 1:5 that says, if any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.

Here's why this verse hit me so hard and what the Holy Spirit revealed through it.

Because I'd been asking worldly experts for their wisdom,

asking courses for strategies,

asking testimonials for hope,

instead of asking God,

oh, I was praying.

But here's the honest truth. I wasn't waiting for his answer. I'd pray, lord, should I invest in this course?

And then immediately I'd click Buy now. Without giving him time to respond.

Or worse, I'd hear that gentle whisper, that check in my spirit, saying, wait, not yet, not this.

But I'd ignore it,

because I couldn't afford to wait.

We needed income now. Bills were due now. I had to do something now.

So I was praying with one hand while frantically clicking Buy now with the other,

inviting God to follow me instead of following him,

treating him like a consultant I occasionally checked in with, instead of the Lord of Lords, whose plan is the only one that actually matters.

And that's when I started asking different questions.

Not which course should I buy next, but whose voice should I be following?

And here's what I started to see.

Most of those successful experts,

their motivation was money, not kingdom. Advancement.

Not seeing lives transformed,

not stewarding their calling. Well,

money.

You could tell by how they marketed it,

by what they promised,

by what they celebrated.

I went from zero to six figures in 18 months. Use my secret formula so you can also make more money.

Okay,

but do I serve God or do I serve money?

Here's another one.

This launch strategy made me a New York Times bestseller.

That's great. But is that God's definition of success for me?

Or how about this one?

Scale your author business to multiple six figures.

Fantastic. But what if God's asking me to stay small and deep instead of wide and shallow?

See, there's nothing wrong with making money. Don't get me wrong.

Nothing wrong with successful launches. Nothing wrong with growing a business.

But when those become the primary motivations,

when those are the metrics that define your success,

when that's what puts a spring in your step and finally gets you to wake up with a smile,

that's a worldly foundation,

not a kingdom one. And friend,

as Christian authors, we can't build kingdom businesses on worldly foundations. It just doesn't work. It's not how God intended it.

So I started learning to discern. Before investing in anything,

I'd ask this.

Is this voice motivated by kingdom advancement or income generation? And you've got to be very, very careful. You've got to look at it very closely because they'll say all the right things and it'll look like it's all the right spiritual words.

But deep down, it's actually all about income generation. That's the bolded tagline.

Another question is, are they teaching me to build with God or just asking God to bless worldly methods?

Does their success come from obedience or optimization? Or big tag word is diversification?

Are they measuring breakthrough by worldly metrics or kingdom impact?

And suddenly you'll see most of those successful experts,

they don't pass the test.

Their foundation,

as I discovered, was worldly. Their motivation was money.

The definition of success was based on metrics God never mentioned.

Nothing wrong with in building worldly businesses. But that's not what God called us to.

He called us to build kingdom businesses.

And those require completely different foundations, right?

Here's what started becoming crystal clear as I went through, through this checklist.

The courses weren't necessarily bad.

The information wasn't necessarily wrong.

The strategies weren't necessarily useless.

But without the right foundation, without God,

those courses couldn't help me because I was trying to implement someone else's strategy when God was asking me to build something completely different.

And that's what was actually missing. Not more information,

not better strategies, not more expert guidance.

What was missing was the foundational piece that comes before all of that,

the piece that makes you equipped to actually use all those strategies you've already learned.

The foundation those other courses assumed you already had.

That's what was missing.

And without it, every course just adds more confusion to the pile.

Now, here's what I want you to hear.

Once that foundation shifted for me, some of those courses actually became useful.

Not all of them.

Some were still teaching pure, worldly methods that didn't align with what God was asking me to build. But the ones teaching solid, practical strategies.

Once I was building on the right foundation, those strategies finally started working.

Because the problem was never the strategies themselves. The problem was trying to use them on the wrong foundation.

It's like trying to plant a garden in concrete. It doesn't matter how good the seeds are. It doesn't matter how expert your planting technique is. Nothing will grow in that foundation.

But break up that concrete, prepare the soil properly, build the right foundation,

and those same seeds suddenly flourish.

That's what the right foundation does. It makes everything else finally work.

So if you're listening to this thinking, I've invested in courses and I'm still stuck.

I'm desperate. I need breakthrough. Nothing's working.

The question isn't, were those courses bad?

The question is, am I building on the right foundation?

And here's how you know if your foundation needs work.

If you're following voices that measure success primarily by income.

Foundation issue.

If you're implementing strategies without surrendering to God's specific plan.

Foundation issue.

If you're striving in your own strength while asking God to bless your efforts.

Foundation issue.

If you're paralyzed by conflicting expert advice because you don't know how to discern whose voice to follow.

Sorry to tell you, it's a foundation issue.

If you feel like you're working harder than ever but getting nowhere,

friend, it's a foundation issue.

None of that makes you a failure, though.

Please understand what I'm saying. You are not a failure, friend.

It just means you need the foundation piece first. It's the one piece I was missing and why no matter how hard I worked for years, I. I stayed stuck.

And, friend, if all of this sounds like where you are right now, my heart literally aches for you.

Just preparing for this episode took me back to when I would literally cry myself to sleep,

begging God to show me and to come through for me.

And so I know this is exactly why God called me to doing this podcast and why he's now stretching my comfort levels once again by having me create something to help you with your foundation.

I'll let you know up front that it's not another course teaching strategies,

it's not more information about marketing or launching or ads or scaling,

but what it is is a transformational program that addresses the foundation issue first.

You're going to move from building on shifting sands to to building on rock.

And it's called Revive to Thrive. And I'm hoping to launch it in January because I so want you to thrive despite your worldly circumstances. I want you to go into 2026 completely different, transformed and just stronger to do the work that God needs you to do.

This is a self paced transformational program that gives you the missing piece of the puzzle you've been praying for. It's the exact foundation God revealed to me was missing and why none of the other courses or strategies were working.

So if you find yourself in that place right now where you've tried everything and you just know something is missing but you can't figure out what or where to find it, friend,

then I'd encourage you to go and find the Revive to Thrive link in the show notes and get on the wait list.

Because here's the truth that eventually broke through all my confusion. I didn't need more expert voices.

I didn't need more information.

I needed to learn how to hear the voice that actually matters.

God's voice, his blueprint, his strategy for my specific calling. And once I had that foundation, everything else started falling into place.

Not because I suddenly had better strategies, but because I was finally building on solid ground.

Friend, if you take anything from today's episode, I want you to know this. You are not failing.

You're not necessarily doing anything wrong.

You haven't misinterpreted your calling.

You might just need transformation.

You might just need the right foundation first and that that changes absolutely everything.

Friend, before I let you go, I want you to use the send me a message link in the show notes and let me know where you need God to show up for you today so I can pray for you.

It's 100% anonymous. I can't see your name or your email or your phone number. I can't even reply to you.

But I can read your request and I can pray for you.

So I encourage you to use this feature to send me a private message to let me know what you are struggling with right now so we can come together and take this to the Lord in prayer.

And if you found today's episode helpful, please consider subscribing and leaving a review.

You know firsthand the impact this has on discovery. So please help me get this show into more listeners ears. I have a mission and I cannot do it without you.

Oh, and if you want more tips outside of the show, sign up to my monthly 5 minute Mana emails. The link is in the show notes. Okay, so that's it for today's show.

Thank you for listening. And remember, for such a time as this,

you have been called to thrive as God's anointed scribe.