I wanna talk about something today that is not talked about too much, especially in the online entrepreneurial space. And that topic is God versus the algorithm. Yep. We're diving into it. We all know what I mean when I say the algorithm right. Social media algorithm, how basically an online platform works in showing your content to people, how it works, in what type of content, seems to work well over others, and pushing it out to the right people. How to grow your following, what works on that specific platform. That is what I am referring to. By definition, an algorithm means a set of rules to follow, to help you provide a solution to a problem that is the algorithm. So if we're talking about, for example, Instagram algorithm, Facebook algorithm, TikTok algorithm, LinkedIn algorithm, whatever it is, there are specific things that you can do AKA rules to follow in order to make the platform work in your favor when it comes to growing your following, engagement, all that stuff. But as entrepreneurs trying to build. Any brand in the online space, we can intentionally become so obsessed with the algorithm because we are just looking to grow. We want our brand to be more out there to people. We want people to see our stuff and our content and how we wanna help them with our products and our services and what we talk about. We wanna become known. So because of that and because the algorithm working in your favor leads to growth and therefore can lead to success in your business as an entrepreneur. Because of that, we tend to obsess over that versus remaining focused on the mission that God has called us to, no matter the algorithm, no matter the follower count, no matter the engagement that you currently have. And I think God and the algorithm can almost be in a competition when they should never be. You are focused so heavily on what works for the algorithm. Rather than just focusing so heavily on being obedient in what God is calling you to do in the online space, on social media, making an impact, what he's calling you to do, to talk about, to say, to plant a seed, to show up as a light, despite the algorithm, despite living by. This tech rule book and instead leaning into God's guidance. I am telling you when it comes to God and business, he can be the center of everything he should be. Even when it comes to something as simple or normal as social media algorithm. We can challenge ourselves as entrepreneurs who do want to build an online brand, but as entrepreneurs who are also Christian, also wanting to follow God, also wanting to make him the center of everything that we do. We can go about both. But we need to be mindful of how we go about that so that we're not overly obsessing about the numbers. We're not overly obsessing about our status online and therefore trying to force the algorithm to work in our favor. Instead, we're trusting God, we're showing up in what God wants us to do and what he wants us to talk about and how he wants us to plant a seed and make an impact to people. And trusting him to work the algorithm for us based on who he sends our way. This is how I see it. It is a fact that God will give you what you can handle. It literally says in one Corinthians 10 13, God is faithful. He will not let you be tested beyond your strength. There's a lot of depths to that when it comes to temptation, when it comes to going against God's will and not being tempted to do that. But this also refers to the simple fact that God gives you what He knows you can handle. He will not test you beyond your current ability, beyond your current strength. So even though it feels like you can't handle something, God is entrusting you to be able to handle it because he's never going to go beyond your ability to not handle it. And even if you were to go beyond your ability to not handle something, that is where God steps in. Okay, now I want to take this. And attach it to something like the social media algorithm. God will give you what you can handle. I believe that that also refers to something as simple or as markety as your social media following. If you have 10 people following you. God is saying that's what you can handle. If you have a thousand people, God is saying that's what you can handle if you have 20,000, a million. God is trusting you to handle those people that are following you. Now let me be clear. I'm speaking in terms of you being a follower of Jesus, okay? When you are a follower of Jesus, you go his way. You obey God's calling for your life. God's hands can be on absolutely everything. He will show up everywhere. You will see him in it all. If you open your eyes and if you see things from his perspective. So yes, the algorithm can get you those 10 people, a hundred thousand people, a million people, however much it is, right, based on you putting out good content on social media, in relation to your business and trying to build your brand that way. However, when you follow Jesus. You should not see that follower count as a number, as a self-centered way of you being the spotlight. People are following you when now you are the leader and you are the influence. Your perspective should change where people are following you because you are intentionally making impacts that ultimately bring glory to God. And this could mean in the most bold way when it comes to you being extremely bold and blunt and to the point. Of spreading God's word, spreading the gospel through your industry and what you talk about. Or maybe it's more subtle and you're more so shining the light, shining the characteristics of Jesus in your industry, even though you may not be as bold or biblical in what you talk about or the content that you put out there. I have seen God work through different kinds of entrepreneurs in different ways that are both Christ-centered, their approaches, their callings, what they talk about, how they talk about it online is just different. My point is that. No matter what industry you are in, no matter how you show up in the online space, when God calls you to entrepreneurship, he's calling you to be a leader. Entrepreneurship is not about self. It can feel a lot like that, especially on social media when we're growing our following and building our own status. It's really easy to get caught up in that, and I found myself getting caught up in that many times. We have to remember that the focus in being called to entrepreneurship is to be a leader to people that need it, to make an impact to people that need it to shine Jesus's light through us in what he's calling us to do and how he's calling us to do it. So if Jesus is entrusting you with the skill. With the calling of entrepreneurship and a part of entrepreneurship is showing up on social media, then your goal isn't just about having the algorithm work for you so that you can grow your following. Your goal is yes, to understand how the algorithm works, understand these platforms, understand the content to put out, but ultimately what you are saying in that content, who is seeing that content? And how your brand grows over time from the similar pieces of content that you put up. You are trusting that to God and no matter the speed of growth, whether how small or how fast you view that as God trusting you to handle that specific number of people, whether it be 10 or a million. And when I say handle, I simply mean stewarding it. Well, you have the strength to show up for those people. You have the ability to be persistent in making a difference in their lives. I'm not saying you need to post every day and become overly obsessed with social media because God entrusted you with this following. That's not what I'm saying. You need to set boundaries, and you definitely should never, ever make social media an idol, which is easy to do when you're finding yourself scrolling all the time in your free time. I am simply saying that if God trusted you with 10 people. On your social media accounts, but you're embarrassed and you feel insecure that your account isn't growing, so then you just stop showing up for those 10 people. You have to ask yourself, am I really stewarding those 10 people? Well, am I really managing well? The people, even though it's just a number on a place like Instagram, those are actual people for the most part, rather than a few bots in there. Those are actual people. You need to ask yourself, is that good stewardship over those people? And let's say you have a million followers. Okay, well, maybe it gets to be too much and you just stop showing up for them. Or maybe you just find yourself in this unintentional, self-centered mindset where it's now all about you and you don't really care as much and you're not really engaging with people. Maybe you just care more about the status or the money that you're making from it versus the impact that your content can make despite the growth. From a monetary standpoint or a follower growth standpoint, if you get to that point, you then need to ask yourself, is that good stewardship? Am I stewarding those people well in the way that God would want me to? At the end of the day, God is trying to use you. He is trying to work not just in you and in your life, but through you and out to other people that need it. That can change from the seed that you planted. So that means. As entrepreneurs building an online brand, it's important to show up. However, what's even more important is the heart position behind why you are showing up change from, oh, well, I'm showing up because I just want to grow my social media. I wanna level up my status. I wanna become known. Switch from that to, you know, what I wanna change. More people's lives. I wanna make an impact to however many people God wants to trust me to make an impact to right now in the season of my life. He knows what you can handle. And if you are at 10 followers and you want a hundred thousand and you've been stuck and you don't know Yes, sure. Try to figure out how the algorithm works. Put out better content, get more consistent. Yes. Okay. Understanding that is essential as an entrepreneur. What's even more essential though? Is stewarding those people, those 10 people, so well taking care of them, so well, showing up for them. Now let me talk about what good content should look like, especially in today's social media space. As an entrepreneur who's trying to build their online brand. This could be a whole webinar, a whole workshop, an entire course, and maybe we will have that at another time. But right now I wanna talk about the approach and the mentality that I recommend that you have when it comes to putting out good content that ultimately makes good impact because of the way you put out that content. I always say marketing, even when it comes to social media, even when it comes to trying to keep the algorithm in mind. Marketing is all about the psychology of your target audience. You need to understand their emotions, their thoughts, their interests, the actions they would take, the actions they would not take. What compels them, what doesn't? What pulls them in, what pushes them away? You. As an entrepreneur can naturally become a better marketer, especially on social media when you're trying to build your online brand by simply prioritizing, understanding the psychology of the audience that you serve. Once you understand the psychology of your audience, you understand why they show up on social media. It's not just to binge and scroll through stuff. Even if your audience doesn't know it, you know it because you get the psychology, you understand their brain. Why are they not just showing up on Instagram, but why do they seem to like this type of content over this type of content? You start to understand that, and when you understand why your specific audience is showing up on Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, X, whatever it is, you. Understand how to better meet their need, how to better give them what they want. And when you do that, you can make more of an impact because your audience is more receptive to the content that you would put out. Why? Again, because you know that that type of content, what you're talking about in that Instagram reel, that ex post or TikTok video, whatever it is, you know that that is what your audience wants to see. That is what they're gonna be. Receptive to that is how they learn best. That is what they're most interested in knowing about in relation to your industry. So as you show up on social media to make an impact and to meet your audience's needs. You wanna make sure that you are doing one of the three ees. And those three E's are educate, encourage, entertain, educate. Encourage, entertain. These are what I call the three approaches to take with your social media content. Whatever you are posting, it should focus on one of the three. It should be educating your audience. It should be encouraging your audience, or it should be entertaining your audience, all relating to what God is calling you to make an impact under the industry that your entrepreneurial endeavors are in. So that's a simple but a very. Wise approach to take with your social media content? If you're wondering how, as an entrepreneur, can I make the algorithm work more for me? How can I create better content? How can I grow my online brand? When it comes from an algorithm perspective, understand the psychology of your target audience and show up with your content in a way that educates, encourages, or entertains them. In that way, you're making more of an impact because your audience is more receptive in seeing that content, engaging with that content because you took the time to understand their psychology while at the same time meeting their need through education, encouragement, or entertainment. Yes, you can shine your light in that way. Yes, you can still plant a seed in that way. Yes, you can make impact in that way. You can get so creative with it in how you're showing up in your content, through educating, encouraging, or entertaining. But it's not just about focusing on the algorithm. Like this whole podcast episode is about you want to focus on God working through you and showing up on social media and trusting that he will give you what you can handle in this season of your life. And it's up to you to steward those things well. So how do you do that? Right, because let's be real, sometimes it's hard. Sometimes we get insecure. We struggle with our confidence. Sometimes we feel confused. And all of these emotions as we're trying to pursue entrepreneurship and grow the business can lead us to falling off of showing up online, not wanting to produce any content, not wanting to put in the effort to build because we're so tired, we're so overwhelmed, we're bombarded with all of these feelings. So I wanna talk about three simple things that can help you lean more into the spirit of God rather than the rules of the algorithm and when you do. Naturally, your confidence will build, your boldness will build, and you can see the effects of that and how God can put his hands on. Yes. Even your social media account based on the influence that he might wanna give you in this season of your life. First thing that I'll say in regards to that, you have got to be obedient. If God is calling you to something. And it's going to take you putting in effort to show up in that thing, then my friend, you need to do it. You need to turn your heart's position into obedience. I truly believe that when you're so dedicated to obeying God, whatever is holding you back. No longer has a hold on you because you're so focused on obeying God that everything else just falls away. The second thing that I'll say that goes along with that is that you need to be consistent. Not only should you obey God by doing what he's calling you to do and showing up, but you wanna be consistent in that that is not a one and done thing. God wants to see your consistency. He wants to see your ability to keep going rest when needed. Absolutely. And if he's calling you to pivot or to change something up, absolutely. But you do want to be consistent. And the third thing that I'll say to add to that is you need to not care what people think about you. It's hard to let go of people's perspective of you and the best way to finally stop caring so much about what people think about you. Is falling in love with Jesus so much to the point where you want to please him and nobody else. And when you're focused on pleasing God, it brings you peace and joy to do that to the point where you don't care what other people think about you, even when it comes to the type of content that you put up. You don't care the comments that they might say, because at the end of the day, you know that God has called you to this. So those three things, being obedient, being consistent, and not caring what people think about you, those three things help you lean into God's spirit more when it comes to your social media content and trying to build your online brand as an entrepreneur. It helps you lean into a spirit so much more to the point where you find yourself making impact happily, joyfully, whether it be to 10 people or a million people willingly making an impact. And as you're persistent in it. You just might naturally see God bringing more people your way, AKA, them following you because they want to see your content. So many things are simply about changing our perspective. And I believe that when we lean into the spirit with our social media content, rather than being weighed down by the rules of the algorithm all the time, growth will divinely happen. I do believe that in your own way, in your own capacity, in what God entrust you to be able to handle growth will happen because of your heart's position. You're no longer obsessed with the algorithm trying to figure out how to constantly make it work for you so that you can have this big following and become well known and have this crazy status and look good. Know you're focused on. Being obedient and consistent in what God is calling you to do and not caring about what people think as you pursue it. And yes, that includes your social media content that includes what you say, how you say it, what you put up, how consistent you are in showing up, whether it's to 10 people or a million, whether you get one like on that post or a thousand this was exactly my story. I always struggled with my confidence on social media. It might not look like it, but at first I had a full on facade that made me look like I was confident, but really I wasn't, and I was really struggling with just clarity and confidence. It wasn't until I got obedient in what I knew God was calling me to do, I got consistent and I stopped caring about what other people thought of me. It wasn't until then that I finally got so persistent in my content, having fun with it, being bold in it, being authentic with it, and showing up. Through those three E's, whether it was educating, encouraging, or entertaining. It wasn't until that point that my business started to grow. I mean that from a financial standpoint and also from an impact standpoint. When you change your heart's position, even behind something like social media, you would be amazed at what God can do with that in that and through that. And as you do, it becomes more natural to show up. It becomes more fun to show up. You have more of a will and a drive to show up because it doesn't feel like a job. It doesn't feel like marketing. It doesn't feel like you're just trying to figure out the algorithm. No, it feels like you. Obeying God and showing up and making an impact to the people that follow you and or will follow you in the future. There is a determination behind that. There is passion in that, and when you're passionate about something, it can become fun. It can become something that you actually want to be consistent in. And from that, watching how God's hands could be all over that in growing your business on his timing. I hope you enjoyed today's episode, and my prayer is that it just helps shift your heart's position as you pursue your entrepreneurial journey and lean on social media to help you build your online brand presence. Feel free to share this episode with a friend who has been tired of social media or just having a hard time with their confidence when it comes to showing up online, feel free to share this episode their way. Now, if you're wanting to go deeper into social media strategy and doing it God's way, I do have an exclusive coaching and community space called the Burnout Free Biz. This is a space specifically for Christian women entrepreneurs who are wanting to launch a coaching or content-based business and wanting to lean on social media to help them do that in the community. We're all about keeping things Christ-centered and mental health focused, because burnout is not the goal, and taking God out of the picture is also not the goal. The coaching in the community space comes with weekly sessions with me. There is a signature course in there that you can take starting today that will start walking you through social media and other marketing strategies for your business and community chats to talk with other members and with me anytime. And as I mentioned, this community space is for women. However, if you are a man and you are enjoying these podcast episodes, I do also have one-on-one opportunities to help you gain clarity, gain confidence, and even systemize your current marketing strategies if you're looking for that. If so, there's an option to schedule a free discovery call with me to chat about your business goals, what it is that you're looking for, what God is calling you to and what you're hoping to achieve. Feel free to check that out down below. Two. Thanks so much for watching my friend, and we'll see you next week for another episode.