Angel Marie 0:38

Well, my friend, I got some pretty exciting, but also pretty basic news for you today. And that is we adjusted the podcast title just a little bit. The podcast was just titled God empowered. We're going to make it a little bit more specific, and we're going to call it the God empowered entrepreneur. Now, why this very slight change? I want this show to be more specific to serving who this is really for. Anyone can listen to these episodes and anyone can be inspired. I truly do believe that. However, I'm finding myself wanting to get much more specific and higher level in teaching you and encouraging you and uplifting you through these episodes. And I'm finding that I'm feeling called to specifically talk to the entrepreneurial dreamer, the creative, the business owner. the one who's starting, or even the one who already started and is just wanting to scale. I find myself called to talk to you. A big part is because I have lived that journey, but another big part is because I have such a heart for entrepreneurs. I've said this before on these podcast episodes, but I'm just going to say it again. Entrepreneurship is literally taking something that does not exist in this world and making it exist. You are creatively putting your God given ideas out there into the world and showing up as a leader in those spaces. And what's so beautiful to me about it is that it's such an amazing reflection of being God's image. Why? Because God himself is a creator. He created the world. He took something that did not exist and made it exist. So, anyone that is representing the image of God in that way, by wanting to make impact in the world by pursuing the mission that God has them on when it comes to business, entrepreneurship, creativity, oh yeah, I'm all about it. Now, if you're a frequent listener of these episodes and maybe entrepreneurship or being a creator or creative in some sort of degree isn't your thing, that is okay. You're welcome to stay if you'd like. I'm sure these episodes could continue to inspire you in a unique way. And for those of you that are entrepreneurs, you are creatives, you are wanting to put your creativity out there in the world. Man, am I excited for you to continue listening to the weekly episodes we drop. Now here's the thing. Entrepreneurship. It's tough. We see a lot of the good of it. The positives. The freedom behind it, how we'll make our own money. The control we get to have, how much better it is over a nine to five job and listening to a boss. The confidence we'll gain in it. We see a lot of the positives, especially when you're scrolling on social media or you get an email and you're constantly seeing headlines like how I made six figures this month, how I got to a seven figure business in three years. We're always seeing headlines and entrepreneurship in the online world today that have to do with money and success. Therefore, it highlights the positives of it. But I'm going to be very real with you. It's hard. It's a lot of work. You will have moments. Where you are crying, you are on your knees, and you don't know what to do. And you will also have moments where you are happy, you're so joyful you made the decision to step out and go into doing what God is calling you to do as an entrepreneur. And you're just ecstatic about the choice that you made. Things feel like they're falling into place. And what's interesting is, I've learned that entrepreneurship isn't one or the other of those things. It's a rollercoaster of both. There are seasons of ups, there are seasons of downs, and it doesn't matter how successful you become. Because those down seasons, in some way or another, internally or externally, will hit you. And this can happen to anybody. But when it comes to entrepreneurship, there's a pressure. Right. There's a pressure to show up consistently to do your absolute best to work hard because everything relies on you. You are carrying the weight of trying to produce income for yourself. You have no security or stability in a paycheck or a job or health insurance. You have to find security and stability in what you're able to create within your business. So, it's hard. And can you eventually get to the level where you are successful and you feel good about the money that you're making and the impact you're making and the mission that you're walking in? Absolutely. But I think there's always going to be that heavy pressure. I have been a full time entrepreneur for almost three years now. Before then, I ran my business as a side hustle for a couple of years and then was able to transition it into a full time business. Now, I have reached six figures in my business. Praise the Lord for that. And I am on my way to scaling. However, I have my moments where that pressure hits. I have my moments where it feels heavy. I have my moments where I'm confused. I have my moments where I don't know what's next. And I have my moments where I just don't know what the heck to do. And that's what I want to talk about. In today's episode, a very random topic, it feels like, but the reason why I'm talking about this specifically this week is because I've had a lot of conversations with my students. And I just noticed a theme over the past month where a lot of them are just confused on their next step, whether they were. Beginner business owner, or they already had a business but they were just looking to scale or pivot, but they just had so many questions on what do I do and is it even the right choice? I believe that this is a question that we're always gonna have when it comes to being such dreamers and having entrepreneurial ambitions. Because, again, it feels like we are reliant on self. The choices we make can dictate everything. It can make or break our income. It can make or break how passionate we feel in showing up. It can make or break our confidence. And this is also the spiritual challenge. In entrepreneurship, I believe that you are forced to rely on nothing but God. We should already rely on God for everything. He's our savior, our provider, our comforter. But a lot of times living in this world, we just don't really rely on Him as much as we could. Entrepreneurship forces that because you can't rely on a job. A lot of times you're looking to relying on yourself for results and you're spiritually challenged to pivot that to instead rely on God in your business. And that my friend is hard, especially when you're feeling the pressure of what the heck am I supposed to do next? So No matter what stage of business you're in, if you are just in a season where you straight up are confused on your next step, you don't know what God is calling you to do next. You don't know how you're supposed to go about it. Things feel confusing, things feel overwhelming, and you're just stuck. I want to talk about how you can get unstuck. Specifically, what to do. When you don't know what to do, let's talk about it. Now, let's state the obvious. You gotta pray, okay? So many times when we are in Solution driven mode, trying to find solutions, trying to figure it out, what's next, where should I go, what about this? When we're in that mode of navigating, we unintentionally neglect prioritizing prayer. And it's because we're in survival mode. We're trying to figure it out. And if we don't figure it out, how are we going to make ends meet? How are we going to get here? How are we going to do this? We are in survival mode. And when you're in survival mode, your nervous system is triggered, your anxiety is at an all time high, you are overly stressed, and it becomes very difficult for your spirit to supersede beyond your fleshly negative emotions, and therefore give you the desire to even pray in the first place. We've got to normalize prayer in the seasons where we just don't know. Rather than normalizing the priority of figuring it out ASAP, let's more so normalize the priority of praying ASAP, consistently, over and over and over again. And I'm checking myself on that too. Last month, I did a really big launch in my business. It was amazing. God showed up. I'm super excited about it, all last month. I was in a constant state of figuring it out, trying to figure out the launch, how I was going to do this, what about this, what about finances and budgeting and what about here and that and this. So many layers. And it became hard for me to prioritize prayer when I was in the midst of prioritizing figuring it all out. So I had my moment those moments where you crash a little bit. You cry a lot a bit. And you just need time to honestly just feel depressed. I'm going to be honest. I needed that time to just like sit in the overbearing emotions that I was feeling. And eventually, with my fiance and friends that helped pick me back up, I was able to breathe. To find God again, and to bring my desire back in prioritizing prayer. Talking to God about it all. Praying to Him about it all. He's right there. And a lot of times, we just need to approach Him much more often. Especially in seasons when we just don't know what the heck is going on or what to even do. So that's the overarching main thing that I want to say, but now let me talk about more specific points that can help you get more clarity on what to do next if you don't know what to do in your entrepreneurial journey. First thing that I'll say, leverage where you're at right now to get clarity. Think about where you're at. Are you working a nine to five? Are you working with a lot of clients? Do you have your own programs and products and services, but maybe they feel all over the place. Think about where you're at in your entrepreneurial journey right now and what you have going on in your life. Whether you like what's going on in your life or not, just think about where you're at. Now, to get more deep, think about your skill sets, the conversations that you've had recently, where you're at. Think about the ideas that have been cultivated in this current season of your life, where you're at, because these things, when we're more self aware about them, we can actually position ourselves to learn through them. When we learn through them, we start to get more clarity of that next step, what we wouldn't do, what we would do, what we're willing to try right now, what we feel called to test out. We start to get a little bit more clarity. And the reason why I'm bringing this up is because when seasons of our lives are so overwhelming or frustrating, It's hard for us to learn through those experiences, right? If you're in a 9 to 5 right now, you don't like your job, and you are ready to just be a full time entrepreneur, but you're in this horrible, toxic job that you can't stand, it's hard to try to leverage the job that you're in, the skill sets that you're gaining, the conversations you're having at this job, that can position you to learn through it. To help you get clarity. It's hard to do that because you are blinded by your frustration. Now, let me say, I understand because I've been in toxic job situations before. So I feel you, but at the end of the day, everything is about perspective and you can allow the situation that you're in to take you down. Or to build you up. And I believe that when you're in a situation you do not like and you decide that you're gonna leverage it to build you up you learn you grow you start to even build confidence and a lot of clarity around your next step can come from that. I'm gonna give you an example. I had a 9 5 job before I transitioned into full time entrepreneurship. Now, I personally loved my 9 5 job. It was exhausting, but I did enjoy it and I worked with a great team. That being said, when I knew I wanted to leave, I was feeling burnt out, I wasn't as happy, I knew I was feeling called to something else. When I knew that, Instead of throwing a fit and being frustrated, I just leveraged where I was at. I paid better attention to conversations I was having with my team, uh, with the clients and customers we worked with, the partners we worked with. I paid really close attention to those conversations and those partnerships. I also paid close attention to the skill sets that I was developing through this work and it helped me to understand what I was starting to feel really passionate about, what I was starting to really love, and what I also didn't like, and that helped gain clarity in what my next step could be when it came time for me to leave. But I don't think I would have been able to see any of those things or be aware of any of those things if I was blinded by my frustration or my stress of no longer wanting to be at that job. Now maybe you don't work a nine to five. Maybe you run your business full time and you're looking to scale, but you're frustrated. You're stuck. Okay, well, how can you leverage where you're at right now? What have you learned in this season that you're passionate about and that you want to double down in? What have you learned in this season that you want to step back from? How do you want to change things in your business that will ultimately reflect more of who God is calling you to be and what he's calling you to do? What worked well? What didn't? When did you feel your absolute best? When did you not? Think about where you're at right now and let that help you gain clarity for what your next step could be. Don't let your frustration, your burnout, your stress, your overwhelm, and yes, even that depression. Don't let that blind you because it's so easily can leverage where you're at. Let that change your perspective, learn through the season of life and entrepreneurship that you are in right now and allow that to help you shape your next step. Second thing that I'll say, surround yourself with mentors. I cannot express that enough. You need people around you that just get you. They are in the same industry. And they're either in the same journey as you or they've succeeded that journey and they can teach you and guide you in how they did it. Now mentorship can be in the form of a lot of things. It could be finding a coach. It could be finding a community group. It could be finding a church group that's specific to that industry. Some church groups have them. It could be joining local groups. Finding that will one, help you to feel less alone to help you to get clarity because you're surrounded by people that can help you see things more clearly and therefore help you understand what to do when you don't know what to do. And three, guidance, just overall guidance. I remember for the longest people would tell me, Angel, you need to invest in yourself. You need to, you know, invest your time and energy in finding a mentor, or you need to invest your money in hiring a coach for you so that you can figure it out. I remember people would tell me that and the introvert part of me just didn't want to. I'm going to be honest. I was like, I already have so much going on. The last thing that I feel like I have time for is to go and join another group to learn and to grow. I have no energy for that. And then on the finance side, I was like, I'm just scared to invest any money in a coach. I just can't right now. Man, was I wrong. And this is me telling you the truth coming from my heart. When I finally put myself more out there to be a part of communities and groups that understood me, they were able to give me ideas I would have never thought about. That helped pull me out of the mud that I was in and feeling stuck. And then when I finally found a coach that I aligned with, someone that was God centered, someone that could help me particularly, he changed my business for the better. I got clarity. I got strategy. And it helped me understand my next step. A lot of times we don't want to do either of those things because we don't want to put ourselves out there. We'd rather stay in our bubble, trying to figure out on our own, whether it's a pride thing, an introvert thing, a scared thing, whatever it is, I encourage you to work beyond that and to be intentional in community and in mentorship. Start by looking locally. Are there local groups in your church or in your area of people within your industry? Are there events in your area? Are there online communities or coaches or programs or content that you can learn from, that you can feel guided by, that you can find community in, that you can find help in. You gotta do the research. You have to find what feels like it's an alignment to you, what you know could potentially help you and your business for the better. All right, that brings me to my third point, what to do when you don't know what to do. Practice your gifts. When we get in seasons where we just don't know what to do, a lot of times we freeze. We end up not making a decision at all. We end up not moving forward in any direction because we just don't know and we're scared to make the wrong choice. So we freeze, or we remain stagnant and we end up not moving. I would encourage you to just practice your gifts in different ways. You have gifts that you are skilled in. Gifts that you're passionate about. Gifts that God gave you ever since you were born that you have been able to build over time. Use your gifts by practicing them in your business journey. For example, if you know that you are great at speaking, but you don't know what your next step is to try to speak more or use your voice and get that God given gift out there in the world, practice it. How? Start a podcast, start a YouTube channel, start going live on Instagram. Practice it consistently. If you know that you are gifted in helping people reach a specific kind of goal based off of what you achieved for your own self. Maybe it's a goal in health, in fitness, in business, in marketing, in design. Whatever it is that you want to help people with and you know you're good at helping them reach that goal, practice it. How? Give advice to people. Have more conversations around it. Don't be afraid to talk about it online. Write about it. Start a newsletter writing about it. You just need to practice them and the way that you do that, that's less important. And I'm actually going to talk about that next. What is more important is you deciding that you are going to practice your gifts much more consistently. As you practice your gifts, you are going to get confident. And you're also going to get clarity on that next step. I'm going to give you an example. I know that I have a gift of teaching. I love teaching people. I love encouraging people through my words, through my content. So the best way that I could practice that was teaching more often. And as I prayed about it, I felt God encouraging me to be more consistent with this podcast and my YouTube channel specifically as a way to practice my gift of teaching. Because at the time when I first started this podcast, and even when I first started getting consistent on YouTube, I didn't know what was next. I was like, I don't know how this is going to work, I don't know how I'm going to do this, or how this is going to connect over here, and how it's all going to make sense, I did not know. But as I kept showing up, and practicing my gifts, things started to get more clear. I started to Gain an understanding I started to generate ideas. I started to pay attention to the conversations I was having with community members on YouTube and my podcast listeners and it just started to spark these new thoughts to where I finally felt like a light was shining on my next steps I knew the direction to go in it may not have been fully clear, but the direction was Maybe blurry rather than not being able to see it at all. That's how it felt. But even that felt so good because it was something. And I know that as I continue and continue that blurred image in regards to my direction it's going to become clear. More and more. And the same thing can happen for you too. But you have got to practice your gifts and do it consistently. Man, when you do, clarity is there and a light will shine on what your next step is, on what to do, on how to pivot, whatever it is that God wants for you, you'll start to see it more and more. Now that brings me to my last and final point that I want to say. What to do when you don't know what to do? After you've done all of the other points that I just talked about previously, take a step in the direction that you think it is and trust that God will come alongside in your choice. Why am I saying this? And I've said this before in these episodes, I'm going to say it again because repetition is so important for us to actually learn it and implement it in our lives. Sometimes, many times, God is waiting on you to move. He's waiting on you to take a step of faith, even when you don't know, even when you're confused, even when things don't make sense, he's just looking for you to move. He wants to see that you have faith. He wants to see that you can step out in boldness and just do it, do something, move in some direction that you think could be right. And as you move, pray, ask God to come alongside you, because I promise you, when you invite God into that journey and the choice that you made, he will meet you there. And if you allow him to, he will either sustain the direction you chose and allow you to find success there, or he will come alongside you and he will pivot you. He will teach you, he will shape you in that choice you made, and he will redirect you into the path that he wants you to be on. And as he does that, it probably will still feel confusing. But a few years from now, you're going to look back and be like, wow, I see what God was doing with me that whole time. It all makes sense. One day, one day, that will be the case. Move in the direction you think. Trust that God will come right there alongside you. And as you do, you start to figure things out step by step. Things just naturally start to be more clear. Alright friend, I know I shared a lot of pointers with you in this episode, but I hope that it encouraged you. I hope that it gave you some hope in that you knowing, in that you getting clarity on what to do. It's possible. I believe that you taking action on the pointers that are made can and will help you. I truly do believe that for you. Why do I believe that? Because it happened for me. Everything on these episodes come from my own experiences and also experiences from people that I've worked with. Because I want you to see what's possible. I want you to see that you're not alone. I want you to see That God has a calling over your life that you can absolutely walk in. And even though it's hard, even though it's overwhelming, it's stressful and confusing. And sometimes you feel insecure. Sometimes you get depressed. Sometimes you just don't know. Sometimes you're frustrated. Even though it's all of that. I promise you, walking in the calling that God has for you is worth it. It's worth you navigating and trying to figure it out. It's worth it because you have no choice but to grow in trust, in God and faith, in what He can do in you and through you. Let Him shape you, one day at a time, even when it makes no sense. Let Him give you clarity. Let Him help you understand what to do. just by you taking the actions that we talked about in this episode. And hey, if you're looking for community, if you're looking for more guidance, if you're just looking for some ongoing support, I do have a coaching and community space that is available for online entrepreneurs and creatives just like you. We do prayer calls, workshops, Q and A sessions. There's even personal voice chat coaching with me whenever you need help. There's a signature course in there that you get exclusive access to that will help you build your brand presence and launch your online offers and get confident in what God is calling you to do. All in all, it's a safe space. And if you want to check it out, I would absolutely love to have you there. You can head to the link in the description down below this YouTube video, or in the podcast show notes, where you're listening to this episode to learn all about the details. Thanks for tuning in, my friend. It was such a pleasure having you listen, and I will see you next week for another episode of the God Empowered Entrepreneur Podcast. Long title, but you know what? We're going with it. See you next week.