7/11/22 - Co-Host Catch Up

Intro: As a Christian working woman, you have many roles from your responsibility with family and friends to community and work. How do you connect all that you do with all that you are, and still have your faith shine through. It's a challenge, but you are up to it. The, sheWorks4Him, podcast it at the gathering place to empower Christian working women, to live out their calling at work.

By connecting them to God resources and each other through powerful faith stories from other working sisters in Christ. Welcome to sheWorks4Him.

Martha: You've tuned into, sheWorks4Him, where we connect Christian, working women to God resources and one another. And we are your host, Martha Brangenberg, Nadya Dickson and Catherine Gates.

And today is gonna be so much fun. I just feel like it's this co-host catch up is what I am calling it today. Just a time where we can sit together and you can pull up your, get your cup of coffee or whatever your drink of choice might be and sit with us and chat and. I am so looking forward to that, but just a reminder that you can stay connected with us all the time at sheworksforhim.com.

We have a place where you can sign up to get the weekly email, and also let us know if there are resources that are either of value to you that we have not talked about. Or an event that maybe, you know, that's coming up in the space that might be an encouragement or a help to the sheWorks4Him listening audience, and you can always keep finding us on YouTube and Instagram and all the social media platforms, LinkedIn.

I know that that is a great place to hang out, to meet other Christian working women as well. So there's just so many choices, but we are just grateful to connect with you. A couple of things in the resource area for events coming up. I just wanna remind everybody that the boldly conference is October 21st, at boldlyconference.com and then I'm wanna encourage everybody connect to women in the marketplace at womeninmarketplace.net.

And Nadya, is the best place priorityliving.org. Is that where people should connect with you?

Nadya: Master's program mastersprogramforwomen.org.

Martha: That's right. And that will take you right there and we'll have that in the show notes for everybody, but those are just great resources we don't get, take a lot of time to highlight and we want to, and we always wanna have those in the show notes and accessible to you. So thank you so much for telling us about those events and we'll keep them coming. You know, women - that's who we are and that's who we are here for. We come in all shapes and sizes.

There's no two of us that are alike, and some women love to be around others that are just like them. And some love to surround themselves with the unfamiliar. We may think about age, race, occupation, personality, location, whatever that might be when we're trying to describe a woman to someone else. The reality is we are all created in the image of God.

And we are daughters of the king and, you know, he made each one of us to be incredibly unique. And as I think about how unique we are, here are some of the things that I know for sure. Women love to celebrate our differences and our similarities. Women can feel alone in a crowd and feel surrounded by loved ones.

Women share great emotions and stress. Women can lift others up. And sometimes we tear them down. Women are ever changing. If we aren't growing, then we're fading away. We can love to be noisy or quiet. We have a desire to become better versions of ourselves as we help others to do the same. And just when someone thinks they've figured us out life changes, but what doesn't change? How God sees us. We are daughters of that most high King.

God created us on purpose for a purpose. Do we always understand what that is? No. Does it always stay the same? No, but what I do know is that he cares deeply about the intimate details of our lives at home, at work and in our communities. Today I get to be joined to dig into some of these truths with my co-host Nadya Dickson and Catherine Gates.

So I wanna invite you to pull up a chair and join us as we catch up on what God has been teaching each one of us and how we might help each other in the process, because that is what we are here for; to connect Christian, working women, to God resources and one another Nadya, and Catherine, thank you so much for just joining me in this little, you know, co-host chat as we are gonna call it today.

Catherine: It's so great to be together.

Nadya: Yeah, this is a favorite time because it's been a while since the three of us did this.

Martha: Yes, it has. And you know, that's, one of the things I love about you guys is that, you know and have met so many amazing women that we always keep saying, oh, let's have all these other guests.

And sometimes we just wanna get together for a cup of coffee. And one of the things that I was thinking about when we were getting together is the fact. Do you ever, you know, meet a friend somewhere and you're like, we only have this amount of time and you're like, I wanna make sure we cover all these things and do all these things?

And, and then not leave feeling like, oh man, I meant to ask her this question or that, and that's kind of how I feel about today. So I wanna dig, jump in right away and have a, a great conversation with you guys, which I know we will. But I believe that this first set of questions is really gonna help us better connect to God through what he's been teaching us.

So, Nadya, what is the scripture that God has just really been using in your life right now? And what are you learning from it?

Nadya: Okay. Well, there's so many scriptures that I love and hang onto and lean into, but I would say. One that really sums up the last while for us, me, even with my time with you guys.

And some of the women that we've interacted with is Psalm 138 verses seven and eight. And as though I walk in the midst of trouble, you will revive me. You will stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies and your right hand will save me. The Lord will perfect that which concerns me. That's the big, that's the big highlight of that scripture verse.

The Lord will perfect that which concerns me, your mercy Lord endures forever. And the reason why that really that really empowers me right now is that it seems like I am walking in the midst of chaos. You know, that things are shaking all around me, but the truth of the matter is I'm still in the Palm of his hand.

And even though I can't see all the things in the invisible realm, I feel them, I sense them. I see the results of them in the natural, but the truth of the matter is he perfects the things that concern me. I'm still in his hand. And so he has me. He's got this and we are co-laboring together, but he sees the things that I do not see. And so I feel covered and protected in that, and it becomes a refuge for other people around me because of that.

Catherine: Yeah.

Martha: That's so good.

Nadya: Yeah. What about you, Catherine? Is there a passage of scripture that God's been putting on your heart or that you've been leaning into?

Catherine: You know, Nadya there is, and it, so lines up with what you just said. The verse that's been standing out to me recently is Isaiah 26:3. You keep her in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because she trusts in you, right? It's that piece that we need right now. And I, I know that I'm not alone in like navigating a multitude of demands that are coming at me right now.

Right. Some personal challenges. And of course, you know, doing my best to stay focused when we've got this onslaught of disturbing and tragic news coming at us. I, you know what the thing is, it's just not gonna do me or anyone else, any good if I'm distracted by those things or, you know, overwhelmed by fear.

And the thing is it's times like these, that we actually have the greatest opportunity to point others to Jesus, isn't it? Yes. So when I'm able to stay centered in God's peace, it provides the people around me with hope and encouragement. And when I have God's peace, then I also have a lot better access to his wisdom.

Right. A lot better ability to hear his voice. And so you know, if I'm freaking out, I, I just know that the choices I make are not gonna be the best , but staying in a place of peace and trusting in God helps me stay tuned into the leading of the holy spirit. What about you, Martha? What's your go-to verse right now?

Martha: So I have really been focusing on Hebrews 4, the whole chapter. It's been given to Jim and I, my husband, and I've just, and I love the passion translation and the heading for it is the faith-rest life. And I don't have that figured out. I struggle with rest and I I'm learning that rest looks different for everyone.

I enjoy gardening and cooking and those things give me rest from the other things in my life. So for me, it's not necessarily sedentary. But God is just showing me the obedience that he requires of us and in that area and the promises that come as a result. So I don't have it figured out.

I read it every day. I, you know, that's just where I have been focusing, but I know that one of the things that when, when COVID and, and lockdown and everything first happened, I relished in the fact that the calendar was clear. And I also said, I have no doubt in my mind that as soon as this is over, everybody's gonna fill their calendars back up.

And I feel like it's been, become more chaotic. I love that you said that word, Catherine. It resonated with me. Life is - there's so much chaos. And so trying to just say, okay Lord, what is it that you're trying to show me? And so Hebrews 4 has been my go to verse. You know, I love being able to share verses because that is what we need to fix our mind on.

And that is a resource that is always there for us. And we talk about connecting each other to resources. And that's one of the things that, you know, as friends, as, as coworkers, as sisters saying, you know, this verse is really. Either I don't get it. I need to understand it. Help me. Or it's really convicting me or it's really giving me that refreshment, that reminder of peace, whatever it might be.

So it's so good to, you know, hear what God is speaking to each one of you right now. You are listening to sheWorks4Him. We're gonna take a quick break and be right back in just a moment.

Break: Did you know that God has a calling on your life? It's true. He's called you to bring Jesus to the world. For some that may look like a pulpit or a foreign mission field, but for most of us, it looks like a construction site, a cubicle, a hospital, or a classroom.

Wherever it is that you work, live, volunteer, and invest. That is your mission field. To learn more about integrating your faith into your work in retirement. Check out our books. iWork4Him. sheWorks4Him and iRetire4Him by going to iWork4Him.com/bookstore.

Martha: Welcome back to sheWorks4Him where today we're having the co-host catch up a time where the three of us just get to get together and talk about what God is doing in our lives, how he's impacting us, where he is growing us or convicting.

And sharing those Bible verses is just such a great way to jump right in. You know, I just wanna talk about the fact that, you know, this is episode 45 for, sheWorks4Him. So incredibly hard to believe that this little idea now we're at 45 episodes and we have shared some amazing life stories of how God is using Christian, working women in different ways.

So, Catherine, I would love to hear from you, what is an episode that's really impacted you heavily, that you've drawn from? That's helped you in some way.

Catherine: Gosh, Martha, that's such a tough question. Yes. Right. It's like asking, what's your favorite song? You know, I've loved learning from all of our amazing guests and it's been so amazing to learn and get to know these inspiring women that I may, some of whom I may not have otherwise had the opportunity to know.

So I would definitely encourage our listeners to go back and review all of the shows and listen to as many as you can, because they, the stories are truly amazing. But for me, I have to say one that stands out right now is Kelley Johnson explaining where we often fall short of, of our efforts to address diversity equity, inclusion, or DEI.

And I've thought a lot and talked a lot about her insight, that many of the DEI efforts stop short at the surface level. You know, like making sure that we have a diversity of people on a team. But it doesn't go to the place where we really need in our organizations and in our communities. we need cultural transformation and, you know, all of us have a responsibility and I think she really drove that home so well.

And especially as Christ followers, right? To be an example to others of what it looks like to truly create spaces in which everybody's respected for the new gifts that they bring and the talents they contribute. And where everyone can thrive, where everyone can thrive. We need to lead the way as Christ followers in breaking down those biases that obstruct the dignity for all.

So we can really operate more as the body of Christ in our workplaces. And I'm excited that Kelley and others will actually be sharing on this topic at the boldly conference, that faith and work conference for women by women happening on October 21st. Nadya. What about you thinking back over the past nine months of shows, what's one story that really touched you in a special way?

Nadya: Wow. You know, I was thinking through all of them and there's so, so many inspiring stories. I would say that probably the first one that I co-hosted with Martha and that was Jene Dunn.

And this was just coming off the year of the nurse. So Jene was leading the COVID unit at her hospital and not just dealing with, you know, the the tragedy of what was happening with her patients, but also her nurses and her practitioners that were on the front lines.

There was just a lot of there was just so many challenging things and yet in all of that The lesson that she learned, even as, you know, we're, we're taught to be resilient and strong as women, but it was in her vulnerability and her authenticity in her leadership with her team that helped them get through it all together, even amidst all of that trauma and just being that servant leader that she was with her practitioners and then, and then having them all be led and motivated by a personal mission statement that they carried with them every day to work on the front lines. I would say that was probably one of the most impactful ones. Just hearing what she was in the midst of, how she leaned into God, and just her vulnerability and her transparency with her, with her team.

I think sometimes as women. We feel pressure to just have a strong front and, you know, face forward. And not show areas of weakness because we think that that's going to impact the way our leadership is perceived. But the truth is we were designed uniquely by God, in our influence and in our leadership.

And it's through those times of just being vulnerable and transparent, it's counter cultural. If you're talking about the world culture, but in the kingdom of God, the first is last and the last is first. The least is the greatest. And so I think that really challenged me and inspired me to be bold about vulnerability.

Catherine: Mm that's so good.

Nadya: Martha, what about you? What's a way that God really surprised you over these last episodes?

Martha: Well, you know, a little behind the scenes to kind of help the listeners is the fact. Okay. Kind of put yourself in our shoes. We are trying to, we record our shows on one day for multiple shows.

So we're, we're taking a bunch of Christian working women trying to fix their calendars into one day, make it all happen. You know, and, and not have cuz there's just so much behind the scenes. It has to go with that, that it works great to do it that way. Sometimes there are things that come up, not very often.

We did have a guest that broke their leg and you know, we're like, oh, we're so, I mean, you know, yeah, no. In the moment that is not the thing you need to be doing is recording a podcast. But what God really surprised me with, I guess, is that in the midst of all those logistics, we had a time where someone could not be our guest and God showed up in an amazing way.

And he allowed one of our other guests that was already scheduled. Her calendar was clear to stay on and do that very famous dr. Dobson technique where you're like, can you stay on for another episode? Because I think there's a whole lot more here we need to talk about. And so we actually had played a part one and a part two with Angela Mitchell. I think the other part of this is that it's no surprise to us that life is hard. Life is full of challenges, but what do we see on social media?

We see the perfect. We see the polished. We see the, the fixed, you know, aspect of life and what we get to do on sheWorks4Him is share how God has worked through the adversity and through the hardships and the yes, a lot of them are on the other side of that adversity when we're talking about the story, but that doesn't mean that's the last adversity we're gonna have.

And so being able to be really real and very raw and share, you know, we've had guests that have had attempted suicide or had suicide in their family or have lost jobs or, you know, at so many things, lost a husband, had issues with their children, real life issues that hurt and are hard, but see, being able to share what God has redeemed because of the story that he is writing and how much more effective those women can be for the kingdom.

I think that's, what's really, you know, I shouldn't be surprised, but I I'm, I'm in awe when, when it happens and it's so much different than we had planned because this was our little structure, but we always pray that the holy spirit will guide our conversation.

And I truly believe he's done that in some amazing ways. So when we come back, I wanna dig a little bit deeper into just, you know, what more is going on in you guys' lives and how God is you know, just shaping each one of us. So we'll be right, right back with more sheWorks4Him with the co-host catch up. Catherine Gates, Nadya Dickson and Martha Brangenberg will be right back.

Break: Hey listeners. One of the huge projects Martha and I have been working on for years is making it easy for every workplace believer to find all the voices, speaking, encouragement, and equipping into the faith and work movement, presenting the Awaken Podcast Network online at awakenpodcastnetwork.com with over 130 different podcast voices speaking truth into you, the workplace believer. Including over 30 podcast, dedicated to Christian working women. Go online to AwakenPodcastNetwork.com that's awaken podcast network.com.

Martha: Welcome back to sheWorks4Him for the cohost catch up with Catherine Nadya and myself. And, you know, in this last segment, I really want to give the women a takeaway. So Catherine, God has given you a platform for a specific message around confidence. You've written a book on it and you just, God really has pierced that on your heart. So take some time right now to just share something with us that you believe the Christian working woman needs to hear today.

Catherine: Sure. Thanks so much, Martha. You know, I really want women, I want you listeners to know you're not alone. It doesn't all depend on you. And the key for, for each of us is that we're not the only ones that have been dismissed or have been treated unfairly. There are systemic issues that we need to acknowledge and address together.

And when we do, we're not only improving things for ourselves, but everyone around us, men and women. So we need to start by knowing, knowing who we are in Christ, shifting what we put our identity in, from our experience, accomplishments, our past, to putting our identity in Christ, really knowing who you are in Christ. Knowing that you are God's masterpiece, you are his handy work created in Christ Jesus to do good works that he prepared ahead of time that you would walk in in them.

And that he's not gonna leave you alone. Your part is to believe what God says about you, not what the enemy says, right? Not what other people say, but what God says about you - to seek him first and to walk with him continually so that you can take steps of faith as God leads you. And, and finally, I just wanna say we need community.

We were not created to do work or life, any part of life on our own. So I just wanna encourage you to find community with other Christian working women and keeping Christ at the center. You know, Hebrews 10:24 -25 says, let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works. Not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another all the more as you see the day drawing near. The enemy wants nothing more than for us to be isolated.

We need to make sure that we are reaching out to one another and encouraging one another. So, Nadya, what about you? What's a word that God is pressing you to share with Christian working women right now?

Nadya: Well, the word that I've been given for 2022 is empower. And I just want to reaffirm everything that you just said. You know, there's so much power to what you said about us being in community.

It's very, really, really important. And you've heard people, you've heard the state, the statement, you know, hurting people, hurt people. Well, that's right. Empowered women empower women. Oh. And so when I think about the word empower I know I, it's still a discovery process for me this year. Lord, what is all of that?

You know, unpack that for me. And it really, it is about being empowered in him first. That's where our confidence comes from, right. It's through our identity as his daughters and through the authority that he's given us. And first Corinthians 4:20 says that the kingdom of God is not a matter of word, but of power.

And so it's him in me, Christ in me, the hope of glory. And so as I meditate on him in the morning and I am empowered in him and who he made me to be, it's that, that stirs and informs the confidence, which is our confidence in Christ that helps us empower and release other women around us, where we don't have to shrink back.

Catherine: Amen.

We are in overjoy to see other women stepping up and stepping out in their God given identity and we cheer each other on. Like you said, we spur one another on to good works and to assemble with each other. So that word for me, has been empower.

Nadya: Martha, God has been showing you a lot of deep lessons right now that we don't always translate well in our natural world, our physical world, but what is it that he's been showing you and how can we learn more from that?

Martha: Mm-hmm . You know, it's funny. Sometimes you think, okay, well, well we could do a whole nother show or in our case, you know, sit around for a whole nother time at a, at a coffee shop or wherever we would wanna meet. But we know that we don't have that right now. So I would say the big thing for me is, has been, you know, letting go of some things that in the, in the flesh don't necessarily always make sense.

God has been in our personal life, letting go of, you know, some real estate and trusting God's timing and all of that, and not knowing necessarily what the future holds. And and I have always wanted to walk in obedience and our ministry. iWork4Him. That Jim and I, my husband and I run together has always been about that.

Just taking that next step of obedience, whatever that might be. So God's just really been honing in on that for me. And, but it was interesting because one of our recent, my recent guests, Heather Heuman was on, sheWorks4Him and she posted on social media, this quote. And I thought okay - this is, this is something I need to learn a little bit more.

She said when God says, and I know she was referring to something in her own life, and she actually talked about that on the podcast. But she said, when God says to let something go, but your pride says to keep going, there's really only is one right choice.

And then she put hashtag God'sWay. So not our own way. And, and so really that's been the, the steps that I've been walking through in life is saying, you know, God, what is it that you want from me? And what is it that I'm holding onto that I need to let go of? And one of those things is where we're gonna end the show today.

And that is that for the first time ever taking a season break from a podcast. So we started, sheWorks4Him officially launched labor day of 2021. And this is not the end, but it is the end of a season, much like we have TV shows and we have, you know, other things that have a season. I think about, I, you know, I have roots in Florida. So snowbirds, you know, they're there for a season, then they go back and then they come back again. So it's kind of like, we're being little snowbirds.

Like we, we're not gonna sit around and have this chat for a couple of months, but we will again, and we don't know what that date's gonna be yet. So we I'm just asking for prayer, for wisdom, for us to make good choices. Our time is a resource. Our hearts are a resource. The, the efforts that go into creating a podcast, all of those things you know, just lifting up, up to the Lord and saying, what do you want from us? And what is our next season supposed to look like?

So, so sheWorks4Him, is taking a season break. This is the last episode for a while. And, but if you, I just wanna remind everybody, if you go to, sheWorks4Him.com. You can sign up for our newsletter. And in that, you'll be the first to know when new episodes are coming out. And I'm guessing that people haven't absorbed all 45 that we've done, right?

So there is such great content. We'll still be posting that stuff on social media. All the, the YouTube channel is there to watch. All of that will still be accessible and available. Please, please listen to some of these women's stories. And hear. In the, in the right timing, I believe a lot of times God gives us a podcast.

It may have been recorded six months ago or six years ago, but it'll surface and it will have impact where it's needed to. Right. So, you know, that I have, this is such a joy to do this with both of you, Catherine and Nadya, and God has given us this opportunity to have a little cohost catch up and to kind of wrap up the season with some highlights.

And I'm grateful for you sharing your hearts about what God's doing in your lives. And, and we know that that continues through the summer through whatever season we're in that God, you know, the word of God is living and breathing. And that is the resource. Our relationship with him and the word that he gives us are our most important resources for that relationship.

So thank you so much for getting to have this catch up time together. I hope that our listeners have enjoyed getting to hear a little bit of from your heart and what the future holds. And, you know, there are other women podcasts out there too. And I wanna remind people, they can go to AwakenPodcastNetwork.com and find all kinds of podcasts that are speaking into this conversation of faith and work, whether it's co-ed or female or whatever it might be.

There's lots of resources there. Yeah, because that's what we wanna do is continue to learn how to integrate our faith in all that we do. So thank you ladies so very much for such a great season.

Catherine: Oh, it's been wonderful, Martha. Thank you.

Nadya: You bet, such a privilege, such an honor.

Martha: Thank you. You've been listening to, sheWorks4Him with your hosts, Martha Brangenberg, Nadya Dickson, and Catherine Gates. We're Christian working women, helping other Christian working women to live out their calling at work as sheWorks4Him!

Outro: As Christian women, we have many roles. From daughter, sister, friend, wife, and mother to analyst, accountant, executive or educator. Is it possible to balance our roles at work and home in a way that honors God? The answer is yes. And our new book, sheWorks4Him will help show you how. Written to celebrate, encourage and equip women in the workforce. sheWorks4Him. Discusses the diverse experiences of today's Christian working woman. Pick up a copy by going to iWork4Him.com/bookstore.

You've been listening to the, sheWorks4Him podcast with your host, Catherine Gates, Nadya Dickson, and Martha Brangenberg.

Please like us on Facebook and subscribe on YouTube under sheWorks4Him and to access any of the resources we mentioned on today's. See the show notes@sheworksforhim.com that's she works the number four, him.com. This podcast was created to empower you to live out your calling at works. So the world knows sheWorks4Him.

7/4/22 - Trusting God is a Great Adventure: Sheeba Philip, Akola

Intro: As a Christian working woman, you have many roles from your responsibility with family and friends to community and work. How do you connect all that you do with all that you are, and still have your faith shine through. It's a challenge, but you are up to it. The, sheWorks4Him, podcast it at the gathering place to empower Christian working women, to live out their calling at work.

By connecting them to God resources and each other through powerful faith stories from other working sisters in Christ. Welcome to sheWorks4Him.

Martha: You've tuned into, sheWorks4Him, where we connect Christian, working women to God resources and one another. We are your cohost today. Martha Brangenberg and Catherine Gates.

And I am so excited. Every time we get to share new resources that are out there for the Christian working women. And, you know, we have so many resources available to us that God is just pouring into people's lives each and every day, women that are writing books, women that are. Doing podcasts that are leading in some way, connecting their faith and work and putting a voice to that conversation.

And today I wanna just highlight the BOLDLY conference that is coming up in October, and you can go to BOLDLY conference.com. That is where you can find all the information to register. Catherine, what's the date of that again?

Catherine: It is Friday, october 21st.

Martha: Awesome. And on location in Dallas, Texas, and virtually all around the world, anywhere you happen to be. You can be a part of that gathering of Christian working women, having the conversation about faith and work. And just to remind you, we have a YouTube channel, sheWorks4Him. Great place to connect with us there and watch these interviews, cuz I know there's so much expression that doesn't necessarily always come across in our voices. But we are grateful for you being here today. Thank you for spending a little time with us having to chat with friends. Catherine?

Catherine: Thanks, Martha. Many of us have a vision for what we want our career to look like. When we first start out, we set goals. We create a plan. We work hard to achieve those goals.

Sometimes that vision is influenced by family or the culture in which we were raised. Other times we're driven by a passion for a particular type of work, or maybe to live a particular lifestyle. But God has a way of changing our heart and messing with our plans to achieve the purpose he has for each of us.

Sheeba. Philip is CEO of Akola, a globally inspired jewelry brand that was built to champion women around the world and empower them to get out of poverty so they can provide for themselves and their families. Sheeba started her career as a chemical engineer, working on construction sites for Merck. God moved in her heart on more than one occasion at times, leaving her in what felt like the wilderness Sheebas story demonstrates that God doesn't waste a thing. Sheeba, welcome to. sheWorks4Him.

Thank you, Catherine. I'm so excited

Sheeba Philip: to be here.

Catherine: It's so good to have you, and we definitely want to hear about how you connect your faith to your work. But first, can you tell us how you became a follower of Jesus?

Sheeba Philip: Gosh, I feel like I've been following Jesus for many, many years. I grew up in a Christian home. My parents were both born in India and my grandfathers on both sides of my parents. You know, they're, they're both my father. Well, my father and my mother, their parents were both pioneering pastors in India. So I come from a strong lineage of, you know, apostolic church leaders and, and church planners.

But really for me, my personal walk with the Lord didn't get solidified probably till I was in college. And after college started my professional life and, and then going on to business school. So I've always known Jesus since I was a child being raised in my home, accepted the Lord as that personal savior, probably on the, around the age of 14 or 15, but I can't really say Jesus had my entire life under his control until probably in my mid to late twenties.

Catherine: So how did your decision to follow Jesus influence your career choices at that point? And, and even the way maybe you approach your work?

Sheeba Philip: You know, it's been a journey and I think that probably up to the point of me being in business, My faith was a compartment. It was part of my life. It wasn't my entire life and it definitely was not influencing the way I showed up professionally in the workplace. As a leader. When I went to Harvard business school, I was invited to lead the inner varsity Christian fellowship on campus. And this was the first time ever in my life that I was asked to publicly profess my faith in Christ and talk about how my faith is influencing my life.

My, my work, my profession, my academics in grad school. And this was a big, challenging thing for me, because particularly at Harvard business school, noone's talking about Jesus. Everyone's talking about money and power and influence. And so I had to force myself to really think about it. Am I, am I willing to really get out there and talk about Jesus?

Am I willing to think through how this would influence the way I work and show up? So that began a real, began a real introspective journey of my faith and truly how I think about leadership and work. So coming out of business school, I worked in New York city for about 10 years. I joined Redeemer Presbyterian, the church founded by Tim Keller.

I led the faith and work ministry for them. I now currently serve on Tim's board for his organization called Redeemer city to city, which plants churches around the world. But when I was in my twenties, in New York, out of business school, I was really wrestling with this idea of faith and work.

So I, I got to the point where faith was now part of my full life. I had already gone through the experience of sharing my faith in business school, but now I'm in New York. I'm trying to figure out how to integrate my faith and my work. And that whole process really was cultivated when I was with a body of believers, all professionals, all wrestling with the same thing at Redeemer.

So for me, that was really the pivotal time. It was my time in New York, where I really came to this idea that my work is not a thing that can be compartmentalized for my faith. It's all integrated and has to come together through a daily walk with Jesus Christ.

Catherine: Beautiful.

Martha: You know, it's amazing that you can, you know, you watch that journey of how God has taught you things and brought different people or organizations into your life that help you to see how to live that out. One of the things that I know as a Christian working woman, I learned so much from other people's experiences. So can you share with me, like, what has been one of your biggest struggles as a Christian working woman and how have you dealt with it? So that maybe we can learn something.

Sheeba Philip: Well, I will say I'm still dealing with this particular challenge, but it was something I was reflecting on actually today, as I was preparing for this podcast interview and the, the, the idea that God was reminding me about was this idea of leading with love.

And I think as women, we are very relational people. But oftentimes when we're in a work situation, the loving side of us, the relational side of us kind of falls apart and it's just about business. And for me, that was very much the case. I was a wonderful friend, a wonderful daughter you know, sister-in-law, aunts.

But when I would come into work that empathetic, loving kind self would sometimes go away because I felt the pressure of being an excellent executive at work. And I've been reflecting a lot in the scriptures in first Corinthians 13 around what does it mean to love? It talks about love being patient love, being kind, love lacking, or lacking irritability, having self-control and gentleness.

And we think about that often is how we love our spouse or our children or our friends. But it is also how we lead. We have to lead with love and we have to express that patience and gentleness and that kindness with our staff and our employees, our teammates at work. So for me, the biggest challenge has been leading with love.

Leading with excellence has always been easy for me. I think. Leading with, you know, intelligence and work ethic and determination is things God has innately gifted me with mm-hmm , but leading with love with that idea of I'm serving and loving the people I'm leading is something that has been a challenge for me.

And I've grown very much so since when I first started leading teams and people, but I would say I'm, I haven't arrived. And I'm still working through that process. But it's something that I feel has been a beautiful process with the Lord.

Catherine: It's not something that's often modeled, right? And so we really do have to have to learn it and, and hopefully be examples to one another right. In, in the workplace. But when you're loving others, you really are creating that opportunity for them to shine as well. Well, we have to take a quick break. You're listening to, sheWorks4Him with your host, Martha Brangenberg and Catherine Gates. And we will be right back to hear more from Sheeba philip.

Break: Did you know that God has a calling on your life? It's true. He's called you to bring Jesus to the world. For some that may look like a pulpit or a foreign mission field, but for most of us, it looks like a construction site, a cubicle, a hospital, or a classroom, wherever it is that you work, live volunteering and invest.

That is your mission field. To learn more about integrating your faith into your work in retirement, check out our books. iWork4Him. sheWorks4Him and iRetire4Him by going to iWork4Him.com/bookstore.

Catherine: Welcome back to, sheWorks4Him with Martha Brangenberg and, and Catherine Gates. And we are talking to Sheeba Philip and I love where we left off about just loving, really learning to love people at work. and that's agape love, right? That, that, that is that unconditional love it's it's, which is very different from what we often think about in terms of love, but it's really expressing, like you said, Sheeba, that, that patience, that kindness, thatempathy, really taking time to get to know people and understand them.

Sheeba Philip: Right.

Catherine: And so you know, it's interesting Sheeba, I know that you started your career as a chemical engineer and now you're the CEO of a jewelry company with a social justice mission.

Sheeba Philip: Who would've thought?

Catherine: I mean, sure. What did that journey look like?

Sheeba Philip: That is a great question. And I will tell you, I am a perfect example of this idea of living an adventure with God that you're, you're never gonna ever plan or anticipate where you're gonna be 20 years from now. And I am a living testimony of that. You know, when I came out of college, I had a passion for science and math, and I tell people, you know, this is kind of a funny story, but when you grow up Indian, Indian American, as I, I am, or I did, the emphasis always is you either become a doctor or you become an engineer.

You work in science and math. So I was good at science and math. I felt the family pressure of living their dream and becoming an engineer. And so I became an engineer. I worked for Merck. And, you know, I would say even at my earliest age, at 22, starting my career, God put in my heart this very intentional desire to live with purpose and have a career of purpose and of significance.

Mm. It was always something that kind of just drove my decisions. And I remember being at Merck and thinking to myself, gosh, I love engineering. I like what I'm doing. I'm constructing these manufacturing facilities for, you know, the production of big scaled drugs, but why are we doing it? What, what's the reason why this drug is going to market?

You know, and, and, and why is this so important for the company? So I realized that what I loved was being at the table, making those critical business decisions. And for me, I realized then and there that being an engineer was gonna be very rewarding, but what would be so life giving for me would be being at the table as leader, driving companies at the, at the highest level, when they're making decisions.

And so that's what made me go to business school. So I, I went to Harvard business school and yet again, thought I was, I had a certain path. I thought I was gonna come out and do consulting which is what most people do, consulting or investment banking. I decided that I really wanted to not only be at the decision making table, but I wanted to really build a brand.

I love this idea of starting with an idea of a product and seeing it all the way, come to life on the shelf. And so I decided to go to Kraft foods and work in brand management, running large consumer brands for them. So brands, you probably have eaten at one point in your life, like Oreo cookies or Ritz crackers.

And so I ran those businesses and loved it. But if you remember what I said, said in the beginning, I was always driven by purpose and I felt after 10 years of being at Kraft, you know, I love what I'm doing, but I, I really want to be more impactful with my work and long story short, I made the decision, pretty radical decision at that time.

Cause I was on the trajectory on the peak of my career at Kraft. To leave Kraft and join international justice mission to lead the fight against modern day slavery to take all the brand experience that I had gotten at Kraft and bring it to IJM, to rebuild their brand and redesign their whole marketing and communication strategy.

So I worked for IJM for two years and loved what I did. I felt the Lord so much in my heart. But I felt that itch to get back into business and be at that table making big decisions. And so, you know, it is all a miracle, but the Lord led me to JC penny in retail. Where I stepped into the turnaround team for JC penny to help reinvent their brand.

So I went from consumer products, food and beverage Oreo cookies to fighting modern day human trafficking to now working for a hundred year old retailer in Dallas, trying to reinvent their brand and the, the arc of all of those experiences was I loved building brands. I loved brands with purpose, and I wanted to be really redemptive in the type of marketing work I was doing.

So whether I was making someone twist and dunk a cookie, which you might think: what's redemptive about that? But it's really connecting moms with their children and, and bringing child like delight to families. All the way to JC penny, which was helping the working middle class, mom stretch her dollar and buy things at value.

And to me, that's very redemptive, and that's something that I think that is very Christlike and I would think about retail. So all those experiences kind of led me to JC penny, but as everyone knows, JC Penny has had struggles. And after a very kind of tough run at trying to reinvent the brand I decided to take a package and leave the company because the company was going through yet another restructuring and transition.

And that marked you know, a time as you guys said in my intro a time of being in the wilderness and thinking through what I was gonna do next. And I said, I remember praying before the Lord and saying, God, how do you connect these experiences? I went from harvard business school, running Oreo cookies to fighting human trafficking across around the world to reinventing a hundred year old retailer to now what? These experiences feel so disconnected, how could they possibly come together?

And that began a journey of about two years of waiting on God. I was consulting. I was doing a lot of other things and that led me to Akola. And Akola is, as you mentioned, a fashion jewelry brand. It's in retail, it's global. It is working and fighting a social injustice, which is poverty. And so if you think about it, all these experiences that I had, Oreo IJM, you know, JC penny, all of these things were uniquely preparing me for a very, very special assignment, which was building this luxury jewelry brand that was changing the lives of women in Uganda.

So I joined the, that company after a 20 year journey of these different experiences, I never thought I would join a startup. Never thought I'd be doing a retail startup. Never thought I'd be a CEO. I never thought I would be really focused on poverty in Africa as kind of the real driver of my purpose in my work. So if you'd asked me when I was 22, what I'd be doing, I would not be saying being the CEO of an early stage retail startup, working in Africa.

Martha: You know, but the beautiful thing about that is that God does not waste any of that time, that, and that experience and the, whether they were hardships or victories, everything along your, a career, you just made it, you know, you showed us how he lined it up for you. He gave you those experiences for such a time as this. And I think that that's really the key for all of us to be really focusing on is the fact that. We could never have anticipated. We don't know what 10 years, five years, even tomorrow might hold.

But walking in that obedience gave you the experiences you had so that you're able to do now, what it is that God has you doing, I wanna really dig into that more, but we're gonna take a quick break, Sheeba. And when we come back, we can hear more of what God's doing through the work that he has you in right now. We'll be right back with more with sheWorks4Him.

Break: Hey listeners. One of the huge projects Martha and I have been working on for years is making it easy for every workplace believer to find all the voices speaking, encouragement, and equipping into the faith and work movement. Presenting the Awaken Podcast Network online at awakenpodcastnetwork.com with over 130 different podcast voices speaking truth into you, the workplace believer. Including over 30 podcasts, dedicated to Christian working women! Go online to AwakenPodcastNetwork.com. AwakenPodcastNetwork.com.

Catherine: Welcome back to, sheWorks4Him where we're talking to Sheeba, Philip and listeners. I want you to know that you can hear a lot more from Sheeba Philip, because I know this, this is going way too fast.

There's so much more to cover, but you can hear more for, from her on what it looks like to experience breakthrough at the BOLDLY conference, a faith and work conference by women for women, which is happening Friday, October 21st in Dallas, live and livestream anywhere in the world. And you can learn more about that at BOLDLYconference.com.

So Sheeba, what an amazing journey that really God has taken you on. I'd love to, for you to share with our listeners, what, what has God taught you through this process? What have you learned?

Sheeba Philip: Gosh, I think the, the thing I would say is the most important, less lesson is that God can be trusted. He is worthy of our trust.

And for me, that's been a journey with every kind of radical invitation to take a step of faith and move into a place where it relied completely on God. Whether it was okay, I'm gonna take a pay cut and take a job that is so different from the executive career that I had a Kraft. If it's coming off of a time of rest with JC penny and now stepping into an early stage startup, which I have never done before.

What I have found is that when you say yes to God, And when you embrace the fact and fully believe the fact that he is faithful, his character is faithfulness. He is worthy of your, of our trust is when you have this courage and this excitement to really have an adventurous career with the Lord. I don't think I would've ever made the steps I would've made had I not experienced his faithfulness day in and day out throughout my career.

And as I look into the future, I don't know where I'll be, you know, past Akola. Just like, I didn't know where I'd be five years ago, but what I do know is that he's faithful and that he's worthy of my trust. And so it's made me feel way more at peace and excited about the next assignment.

It's allowed me to let go of the criteria or the need for it to fit a certain box, because I know that if he's worthy of my trust, he's gonna do something far beyond what I could expect. He's gonna give me the skills and the resources to do something that is requiring more than I can give. And so it has allowed me to kind of keep an open hand out when it comes to my career. So to me, the biggest lesson is just understanding that he is worthy of our trust. He's he is faithful and that's given me the boldness to step out and to step out of my career.

Catherine: Mm. So, and he, he cares about our work. He is working in it and he is fulfilling purposes through it. So what I'm hearing is just yield to the Lord, right? Like surrender it to, to him. We don't need to control the whole thing.

Sheeba Philip: That's exactly right.

Martha: You know, so one of the things we talk about on sheWorks4Him is connecting each of, you know, our Christian working women to God resources and one another.

As we hear about what Akola stands for and the heart behind it, as you lead this company, we are women that wanna get behind organizations like that. How can we become a good customer of akola or so, you know, be engaged in some way? Is there a way? Tell me about the retail side of it.

Sheeba Philip: Yeah. And I, you know, I didn't get a chance to really share that. I'm glad you raised that, Martha. You know, Akola means she worked and it's, we're a fashion jewelry brand. You can find us on our website which is ww.akola.co or Instagram. You can follow us at Akola jewelry. But the power of the product is it's a beautiful jewelry, but it's all handKrafted by very marginalized women.

Martha: If you're on YouTube, you're watching Catherine show everybody her beautiful earrings that she has on today.

Sheeba Philip: Wow. And there's a beautiful bracelet we actually have on our website, which is our best seller, which is the unlock it bracelet. It's gorgeous. It represents the beauty inside every woman.

There's six keys which rep represents the beauty that God has given women, whether it's grace or glow or hope or joy or peace. Each of those words are represented by a woman in Uganda that represents that hope, that joy, that glow. When you wear the bracelet, you're connecting and honoring this woman, who's given her skills and her artistry to make this bracelet.

You're also honoring yourself and celebrating what you carry inside. And if you give it to somebody you're honoring that woman and letting her know she's got a hope and a joy that God's given her. So to me, yeah, wearing an unlocked bracelet would be a great way of honoring the women of, of, of, of Akola and Uganda.

And also just representing this idea that when women give their gifts and purposes to an one another, we can lift an entire community of women up and we can all realize our full potential in Christ.

Martha: Amen. Thank you for that. We'll put the, the website in the show notes for all the listeners that are driving and going I'm not gonna remember that. But Akola.co. And I just love that. I know that our dollars vote and our dollars have a, we have a choice what to do with them. And if we can do something that, that pays back and pays forward all at the same time, what a beautiful place to be. So thank you for sharing that. Catherine, why don't you just close us out?

Catherine: Yeah, it really is. Good conversation. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for joining us, Sheeba. We really appreciate your time and your wisdom and sharing your story. We thank you so much.

Sheeba Philip: Thank you. I wish we had two hours. I really enjoyed this conversation and if you decide to be at the conference in October, I hope everybody comes. I know it's gonna be an amazing time.

Catherine: Yes, absolutely. But you've been listening to, sheWorks4Him with your host, Martha Brangenberg and Catherine Gates. We are Christian working women, helping other Christian working women to live out their calling at work, as sheWorks4Him!

Outro: As Christian women, we have many roles. From daughter, sister, friend, wife, and mother to analyst, accountant, executive or educator. Is it possible to balance our roles at work and home in a way that honors God? The answer is yes. And our new book, sheWorks4Him will help show you how.

Written to celebrate, encourage and equip women in the workforce. sheWorks4Him. Discusses the diverse experiences of today's Christian working woman. Pick up a copy by going to iWork4Him.com/bookstore.

You've been listening to the, sheWorks4Him podcast with your host, Catherine Gates, Nadya Dickson, and Martha Brangenberg.

Please like us on Facebook and subscribe on YouTube under sheWorks4Him and to access any of the resources we mentioned on today's. See the show notes at sheworksforhim.com that's she works the number four, him.com. This podcast was created to empower you to live out your calling at works. So the world knows sheWorks4Him.

6/30/22 - Working to Give: Erica Stidham, Mary & Martha

As a Christian working woman, you have many roles from your responsibility with family and friends to community and work. How do you connect all that you do with all that you are, and still have your faith shine through. It's a challenge, but you are up to it. The, sheWorks4Him, podcast it at the gathering place to empower Christian working women, to live out their calling at work by connecting them to God resources and each other through powerful faith stories from other working sisters in Christ. Welcome to sheWorks4Him.

Martha: You've tuned into, sheWorks4Him, where we connect Christian, working women to God resources and one another. I am your host today, Martha Brangenberg.

And I just wanna encourage you to check out our website, sheWorks4Him.com. She works the number four, him.com. You can also use that same spelling for Facebook and Instagram and our YouTube channel. She works, the number four, him, you know, I'm just excited because there, one of the things that we know and believe to be our mission at sheWorks4Him is to connect women to resources that can help us in our walk, in our faith, in our growth in our Lord, Jesus Christ.

And I believe that that is gonna be very evident in today's conversation. So I'm so glad that you're here with. And I just pray that you will be challenged as I know that I will be today. We have a special midweek bonus episode that I'm gonna share with you. I'm on location at the DaySpring headquarters in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, having spent 10 years in Christian retail, DaySpring is like a long time friend that I haven't seen in a while, but I've kept up with that ,they're, of what they're doing and love to tell other people about them.

An as an aspect of DaySpring that I want all of my friends and listeners for sheWorks4Him to learn about is Mary & Martha. You might remember last fall hearing about some special spots that we did for them. And today we are gonna talk firsthand about this wonderful business and how God is using it around the world.

As young girls, our worldview is shaped by what we experience and by those that have influence over. What, if you are raised to value the role of a stay at home mom, and yet you find yourself in direct conflict with that role through a series of events that are truly God-given. My guest today has such a testimony.

She literally signed up as a consultant for Mary & Martha to get a discount, not imagining that she might have a career with that company. She struggled to really know what God wanted for her. Now a decade later, she knows that God has allowed this journey for more than income, but to bring about a season of generosity and giving Erica Stidham joined the Mary & Martha opportunity to get the discount on her purchases, but had since built a marketplace ministry that has funded missions, adoptions, medical clinics, and so much mor.

Here's a quote from Erica. As we get set up for today's conversation. She says, we know you can't outgive God. And over the last nine years, we have had a front row seat to his amazing provision for others through my work with Mary & Martha, our family has been enriched by the friendships we have formed the encouragement we have received and the prayers that have been prayed on our behalf. I have watched God do more than I could have ever dreamed. And I am a big dreamer. Erica Stidham, welcome to sheWorks4Him.

Erica Stidham: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Martha: Well, I am really excited to have you here today and to expose the listeners to the story that God has been writing in your life and how that lines up with the great resource of Mary & Martha and how it can be enriching to them and just a great resource to share. But before we talk anymore about your work, I want our listeners to get to know you a little better, and let's do that by you sharing with us, how you became a follower of Jesus.

Erica Stidham: I was blessed to grow up in a family where loving Jesus, following Jesus, serving Jesus was our every day. My parents took me to church and I remember sitting on the couch in my children's pastor's office and giving my life to Christ at the age of five years old.

So I have been following Christ for almost 40 years. Yikes. Wow. So that's how I came to know Christ. I saw that example in my parents and in their friends. I've known nothing other than to live my life, to serve him.

Martha: You know, that's such a precious thing to have in your childhood. And that, you know that from a very early age, God's been a part of your, your season of growth all along. You told me that you grew up really valuing the role of a stay at home mom. So tell me a little bit more about that journey that caused you to have some adjustments in what that your plans were for your life as a mom.

Erica Stidham: Sure. Well, I had a mom that stayed home and made life very exciting and fun. And I valued doing that for my own family. I worked as a teacher prior to having children, but I knew that once I had children, I would stay home with them and take care of them and take care of our home. And it was when I found Mary & Martha that the Lord shifted that for me. So I did discover this incredible company. I did not plan to make it a career.

However, my husband lost half of his income kind of overnight, and we really had to figure out what to do. So at the time we had two young daughters and I went on a prayer walk with the Lord and I just said, okay, Lord, I joined this business just for a discount, but if you wanna use this in our family's life to provide for our family in this season, I will make myself available, but I will not call anyone.

So you're gonna have to provide hostesses for me if this is something you want me to do. And within 24 hours, I had three unsolicited messages to me in Facebook. I had posted Mary & Martha products that I had received and loved on my Facebook. And people just asked, do you happen to have parties for these items?

And I said, well, as a matter of fact, I do. And so that was about nine years ago and the Lord just continued to provide party after party and hostess after hostess. And that completely changed and shifted from just me having a discount to me actually creating a business.

Martha: So with that business that God was creating through you was there. Did you know that God really cared about the work that you were doing and that your work really mattered to God?

Erica Stidham: Well, I I've always believed that whatever I do, I do it for God's glory. And so I did believe that what I was doing made a difference. I did not realize how much of a difference it made, because sometimes it can feel like, well, I'm just selling some things and I'm not really sure if it has an impact.

And so I did question that from time to time, is this really something that God's using? You know, through me into the lives of others, but what's been so incredible is when people send me a message or send me a card or, you know, post on my Facebook, you know, this particular product really blessed me for this reason.

Or we've been able to use some of these incredible pieces to be ministry opportunities for children, for seniors, for teen moms. That part has been really incredible to me. To see that it's not just about these pieces, but how they can be transformative in people's lives.

Martha: Mm. You know, that is an encouragement. When you actually hear back from somebody about how it has impacted them. I know that you recognize your work as a workplace, as a marketplace ministry. How has Mary & Martha as an organization helped you in that mission?

Erica Stidham: Well, I love that I have their support. So being part of the Mary & Martha family, I have that whole marketplace set up for me. So with Mary &, Martha, it is a direct sales company. So I have the support of our home office and it allows me to do the things that I'm gifted in. I'm not gifted at all of that part, but I'm really gifted at speaking to people and sharing these products and, and allowing the Lord to speak through me as I share them to others.

One of the things that I think about a lot is how can I leverage my reputation and my influence to plant seeds of truth that will grow the kingdom of God. And so these pieces that we have, they're really just tools to plant seeds of truth and hope and encouragement into people's lives. And so by having the Mary & Martha backing, they're creating these beautiful products. They're creating items that have value that are on trend that are beautiful. And then it's my job to go and put them out into the field and, and see how God grows that harvest as a result.

Martha: That's so great. And, and friends, if you are listening and you've just tuned in or whatever your situation might be, we're gonna be talking more about Mary & Martha. But there's so much more to all of our work than just the product that we sell. God is teaching us in every area of our lives. What our influence is, things that, how it affects us in our home. We have so much more that we're gonna talk about today, but we'll be right back. I'm talking with Erica Stidham. She is a consultant for Mary & Martha. And her website is Ericastidham.com. I'll have that in the show notes. So you know how to spell everything and you can just link on it. We'll be right back in just a moment.

Break: Did you know that God has a calling on your life? It's true. He's called you to bring Jesus to the world. For some that may look like a pulpit or a foreign mission field, but for most of us, it looks like a construction site, a cubicle, a hospital, or a classroom, wherever it is that you work, live, volunteer and invest. That is your mission field to learn more about integrating your faith into your work and retirement. Check out our books. iWork4Him. sheWorks4Him and iRetire4Him by going to iWork4Him.com/bookstore.

Martha: Welcome back to, sheWorks4Him with your host today. Martha Brangenberg, I am here with Erica Stidham, and she is a consultant for Mary & Martha and you know, Erica, one of the things that we love about, sheWorks4Him, what we talk about is we wanna connect Christian, working women to God resources and one another. And many of our listeners may not even know yet what Mary & Martha is. You know, we've kind of alluded to some things and, and how it's, how it works and everything. So take a moment here and tell us about Mary & Martha, for someone who's maybe never heard about it before.

Erica Stidham: Absolutely. I love that this company has this incredible mission, the mission of ministry, the method of business and the message of Jesus. So we are the direct sales division of DaySpring, and we know that DaySpring is the largest Christian card company in the world. So I kind of think of Mary & Martha as pottery barn or Magnolia market meets the Bible.

So we have these beautiful on trend treasures, I call them. So from pottery to giftware, to children's items, all with the message of Jesus. So the Bible has, we have scripture verses we have truths. We have hope and encouragement on every single piece that we have. So I, I love that. I get to be a part of Mary & Martha, which is just this combination of beautiful pieces with a business opportunity for women to go out and share their faith in a way that can produce.

Martha: And I'm kind of a nuts and bolts person. So I wanna know like what those next steps are. So if, if I just wanna go shopping and I wanna buy something from Mary & Martha, what website, like for you like to connect with you? What would that be?

Erica Stidham: So to, to shop with me, you would just go to EricaStidham.com. And then if you're like, I wanna know more about this business, you can go to the same place and click join, and you can learn more information. So you would click shop to shop and you would click join to, to just get more information about the opportunity.

Martha: Excellent. And, and truly, I mean, who, doesn't love a great place that you can shop, whether it's doing a home party or online, they are beautiful products. And for those that are watching our YouTube channel, right behind you, Erica, I'm guessing is a whole plethora of things that are Mary & Martha.

Erica Stidham: So it is, and I think what's really neat. Is that we do provide that Christian resource for our community. So unfortunately, many of our Christian stores, our Christian book stores have closed in recent years.

And so we have these christian bookstore, so to speak all over the United States. So you can go and get resources for graduations and birthdays and weddings and you know, Christmas and give a gift that's meaningful, significant, beautiful, high quality. You're not gonna find anything like it in the marketplace.

And so I love that. That's what Mary & Martha is. It's a Christian resource within communities all across the United States.

Martha: And very on trend and very much stuff that you would want to have sitting on your couch, whether it's a pillow or a blanket or something in your kitchen that you're serving, you know, your favorite food on. There's all kinds of gorgeous things. So I just really want people to understand that because it's not it's, you know, there's stuff that can be like more like tchotchkes, you know, or whatever. And it's not that at all. It's beautiful things that you'd wanna shop for every day. You have a special offer that you are willing to give a listener that will call in. Tell us about that.

Erica Stidham: Yes. So call in, I'm gonna be giving away a $50 gift certificate. You can go and shop and pick anything that you want. We have some sales going on, so that can really go a long way. And I would love to bless somebody with that today.

Martha: That's so great. So thank you for your generosity with that. You can call our listener line eight six six seven one three nine six seven five eight six six seven one three. Work is the phone number that will be in the show notes as well. And we'll have one person that will win that. I just wanted to camp on that just for a little bit, because I love Mary & Martha.

Of course, I have a sister, Mary. I'm, Martha, it kind of works. You know, we, we, it resonates with me anyway. But I love what you, the product that you're representing, but I wanna go deeper to the heart of the conversation at this point, Erica, because one of the things that you told me that was a surprise that has taken shape because of your work is your family's ability to increase its giving. You know, most people get a job like you, maybe at the beginning, when you went on your prayer walk and said, Lord, what am I supposed to do? My husband's income was cut. What should we do? And that might be, but you know, that was the launching into it and getting the income. How has your job though, your work with Mary & Martha made a difference in the generosity of your family?

Erica Stidham: That's probably my favorite thing to talk about because "no eye has seen, no ear has heard no mind has conceived what God has prepared in advance for those who love him." I could have never imagined what he would do through this opportunity.

We have had countless opportunities to share with others. So from the very beginning, the very first party I did was actually a fundraiser, cuz I had told my husband, I won't do any parties. Don't worry. And I had a friend that contacted me and said, would you do a fundraiser for a family that was going through some medical difficulties?

And so I did that. And then I, someone asked about doing one for an adoption. And then we did one of my favorite things we did was a thousand stuffed penguins for kids at Texas children's hospitals. So we raised support and we took all of these penguins over to Texas children's hospital. We've been able to help fund adoptions and we have just loved and loved and loved on some teen moms here in our local community.

We were sitting in church one day. It was a couple years into this journey. And the Lord had transitioned us from me having to work to me having the blessing of working. And there was a min, a missionary who came to our church and was talking about the need for a medical clinic in his home city of Liberia, his home country of Liberia.

And so he shared what the cost would be and we, as a family felt the Lord impress upon our heart that we were to do this. So I remember writing in my journal, can we do this? And I passed it over to my husband and he said, yes. And I thought it would take us a year or more to earn this amount of money. We thought we might have to get other friends and family members involved, but we presented that to the Lord.

And in three months we were able to earn the money to build this medical clinic in Liberia. And so we have just been able to see and show our daughters that our work is not just so that our family can live large and that we can go do fun, expensive things, which we've been able to do some fun things.

You know, we've gotten to go to Disney world or gotten to go to different, fun things as a family. But more than that, we are able to sponsor kids across the globe. We are able to provide for the needs of people here in our communities when needs arise. People know that our family is a family that can be counted on to step up and help.

And so that legacy of generosity is something that was passed on to me from my parents. And because of Mary & Martha, we are able to step in in those places. You know, my girls. No, that, that I work so that we can provide for other people. And so I love that that's become part of our family's story.

Martha: Hmm. That's such a great legacy. And who knows what the generational impact is gonna be on that for your kids. And, you know, I hope that the listeners right now are thinking in their own lives. You know, we all, we know we've been told by so many people that we are, we have so much more than so much of the world yet we take it for granted.

And are we really working for the day to day or where's that generosity that the Lord is calling us to give back. And, and I love that you are talking about that freely in your home. Because it's so important for your kids to understand why you do what you do. When we come back, I wanna touch on a few more things that God has just been showing up in your life.

Erica, I'm so grateful that we're having this conversation. I'll be right back after this message and you're listening to, sheWorks4Him. We'll be right back.

Break: Hey listeners. One of the huge projects Martha and I have been working on for years is making it easy for every workplace believer to find all the voices, speaking, encouragement, and equipping into the faith and work.

Presenting the Awaken Podcast Network online at awakenpodcastnetwork.com with over 130 different podcast voices speaking truth into you. The workplace believer, including over 30 podcast, dedicated to Christian working women. Go online to Awaken Podcast Network.com that's AwakenPodcastNetwork.com.

Martha: Welcome back to sheWorks4Him. Today we are having this amazing conversation with Erica Stidham, and you can find her website in the show notes, ericastidham.com. Learn more about Mary & Martha, whether you wanna just go shopping, you're looking for an opportunity. You've been asking the Lord, what are some next steps for you? You might have a, you might be coming from any one of those, just different positions, but I just wanna encourage you to check it out for yourself and to see what the Lord has for you.

Erica, one of the things that I love about talking to you is just how God has really worked on your heart over the years in your role at Mary & Martha in so many different ways. And the story of Lydia from the Bible is one of the ways that God has really spoken to you. Why don't you share with me what that, how that impacted you?

Erica Stidham: Sure. Well, growing up, like I mentioned, my mom stayed home and so that was kind of ingrained in me that that's what I would do as a mom. I would stay home with my girls and I wouldn't have a career outside of our home. And when the Maria Martha opportunity came across my path, I struggled to know, is it okay for me as a woman, as a mom, as a wife to have a career outside of our home.

And I really wrestled with us a lot, and it was actually at a Mary & Martha conference. That we heard the story of Lydia. And of course I had heard the story of Lydia, but she was a seller of purple cloth. And I love how the Lord works. I actually teach second grade Sunday school and we had this lesson yesterday.

So I just think how perfect this is timing mm-hmm , but she was a seller of this purple cloth and she had great influence in her community because of that reputation that she had for working with excellence and using her resources to provide for those who were in need. And the Lord really used her story to free me of any guilt or shame that I had in working outside of our home.

I really kind of work in our home because it's an at home business, but having something outside an outside ministry, of course, my first ministry, my first priority is here in our home with my girls and my husband taking care of their needs, but then looking outside and seeing, okay, how has God gifted me? What skills and abilities do I have and how can I use those to further his kingdom? And that's kind of how the story of Lydia just really pushed me to think beyond what I assumed would be my role as a mom for those 18 years that my kids were home.

Martha: So speak directly to like you're younger you, 10 year ago, you, when you were starting out on this journey and really wrestling with those things, and I imagine that there's some women listening today that might be in that same or similar position. What did you need to hear that you could speak into them right now?

Erica Stidham: Sure. Well, when I started 10 years ago, I had young children, so I had an eight year old and a six year old. And then very soon after that, I became pregnant with our bonus blessing as we call her. And so I knew that my first priority was in our home.

But I also knew that God might want me to be a helpmate for my husband, especially in that time when we needed financial resources. And so, as long as I kept the perspective and the priority of, of God first, then my family, and then I scheduled my work around what worked for our family and had my husband's blessing in doing that.

I feel like God has honored that. He has abundantly blessed us. And what's what I love about the Mary Martha opportunity is that I can schedule it around what works for us. And I think what's been really amazing to me. I have three daughters. And so they have walked this journey with me. They, I rarely did a party or do parties without one of them in tow.

And so they have learned entrepreneurial skills. They've learned how to speak to a group of people. It's really incredible to me. My, my oldest has watched me do this for 10 years. And just the other day, she had the opportunity to share her faith and her testimony and a word of encouragement to over a hundred teenagers.

And I think that it's the practice that she had speaking to women at gatherings that encouraged her to do so. I, you know, as long as we are seeking the Lord in all things and working as a family, I know that he will bless what we're doing.

Martha: There's just so many great nuggets of things that you've shared today. And I am sure that it has touched the heart of many women that are listening and the ministry that God has given you in your home, recognizing. That that is your first ministry. And then he's given you a marketplace ministry as well. And teaching us that God uses those things to create generosity as well.

There's just so many great takeaways from today's conversation. Erica, just real quick, do you have a Bible verse that is speaking to you in this time that you maybe could share with us?

Erica Stidham: Sure. I love what we talk about with Mary & martha is bringing eternal hope and encouragement to hearts and homes. And so Romans 15:13 says this: may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace. So that, so that is the important part so that you overflow with hope by the power of the holy spirit. And so I just, I find. I wanna be filled up with him more and more and more of him, so that I'm able to share that with other people. So may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the holy spirit.

I pray that that blesses someone today because I love that versus. Because it tells us what we're supposed to do and why we're supposed to do it. And so we are to be filled up so that we can spill out on other people.

Martha: Erica Stidham, thank you so much for being my guest today on sheWorks4Him. You can find out more about Mary & Martha goods at Erica's website. EricaStidham.com. Again, that will be in the show notes. She has that great offering gift for somebody to call in our listener line (866) 713-9675, Erica. Thank you so much.

Erica Stidham: Thank you so much.

Martha: You've been listening to, sheWorks4Him with your host, Martha Brangenberg, we're Christian working women, helping other Christian working women to live out their calling at work as sheWorks4Him!

As Christian women. We have many roles from daughter, sister, friend, wife, and mother to analyst, accountant, executive or educator. Is it possible to balance our roles at work and home in a way that honors God? The answer is yes. And our new book, sheWorks4Him will help show you how.

Written to celebrate, encourage and equip women in the workforce. sheWorks4Him. Discusses the diverse experiences of today's Christian working woman. Pick up a copy by going to iWork4Him.com/bookstore. You've been listening to the, sheWorks4Him podcast with your host, Catherine Gates, Nadya Dickson, and Martha Brangenberg.

Please like us on Facebook and subscribe on YouTube under sheWorks4Him and to access any of the resources we mentioned on today's. See the show notes at sheworksforhim.com that's she works the number four, him.com.

This podcast was created to empower you to live out your calling at work. So the world knows sheWorks4Him.

6/27/22 - Catalyst for an Equitable Workplace: Shalynne Jackson, City of Oklahoma City

Intro: As a Christian working woman, you have many roles from your responsibility with family and friends to community and work. How do you connect all that you do with all that you are, and still have your faith shine through? It's a challenge, but you are up to it. The, sheWorks4Him, podcast it at the gathering place to empower Christian working women, to live out their calling at work. By connecting them to God resources and each other through powerful faith stories from other working sisters in Christ. Welcome to sheWorks4Him.

Martha: You've tuned into, sheWorks4Him, where we connect Christian, working women to God resources, and one another. Welcome to our show today. And we are your host today. Martha Brangenberg and Catherine Gates. You can remember that we are always on YouTube. You can go there and subscribe. So you get notifications every time there's a new show, but we do release on Monday. So that is, that is kind of a, a good little thing to keep in your mind. But of course the beauty of technology is you can go back at any time and catch those shows that you might have missed.

And also share them with a friend because one of the things, you know, when I said we connect each other to God resources and one another. The resources part, you know, that's where God gives us the ability. We may see something. We, you know, it's one thing to see something on sale somewhere and tell a friend how much more value is there in sharing a God story with a friend and how that may be an impact to them. So stay connected with us and sheWorks4Him.com sign up for our weekly email. So you know when the next show is releasing and we are so glad, glad you're here with us for today.

Catherine: Thanks Martha, Hey, diversity, equity and inclusion or DEI as it's called, is a very frequent topic of discussion these days. It's such a big deal, actually, that there's been a significant increase in the number of senior exec executive positions created to oversee this focus for many companies, but are they focused on the right strategies? How do we create workplace cultures that are not only diverse but also value all employees, regardless of ethnicity, skin, color, gender, or diverse abilities?

Even for those doing it well, there is no easy all encompassing solution. All the more reason to press into it, deeply. Shalynne Jackson, didn't set out to have a career in diversity and inclusion. You could say it found her after years of working in the corporate world, Shalynne recognized the need and fell in love with DEI work.

Today, Shalynne is the chief diversity and inclusion officer for Oklahoma city. Her passion is to help organizations understand how to create truly equitable cultures in which everyone can thrive and do their jobs to the best of their abilities. Shalynne. Welcome to sheWorks4Him.

Shalynne Jackson: Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

Catherine: I'm so glad that this worked out and I'm so grateful that God brought our paths together. Yeah, thank you. You know, we want, definitely want to talk about how you connect your faith to your work, but first Shalynnee, can you tell us, how did you become a follower of Jesus?

Shalynne Jackson: Absolutely. So like many, I, I grew up in a home where, you know, Jesus, God Christian, a Christian home. And so I say like many many people, you know, your faith comes from your upbringing most times. That said I really became a follower of Christ on my, my own and really built my own relationship with God when I was going through a really tough time in college. So tough that I remember calling my grandparents and I was like, I don't know what to do.

And I was like, can you help? I don't know why I did this. So I was like, can you help me find a, a cross necklace? Because I just wanna know he's always with me and they went searching and we found the perfect one in J at JC Penney. And to be honest with you, I'm surprised I don't have it on today.

Cause most days I do. This one just goes with my outfit. Huh. But I say that because that was all the way in college, but that necklace has just always been a part of my story and I really do feel he carried, he carried me through that really hard time. I, I really had to pray my way through that time.

Hmm. And that's when I really, really felt the love of him. Jesus or the love of God just wrapped me, wrapped me through a really tough situation. And so that's when my own relationship developed outside of, you know, my, my grandparents and my, my mom.

Catherine: Mm. And that's so important that we do have our own relationship. Right. And he does use the hard circumstances to, to really, you know, cuz we. We just - we're so crazy. We don't go over there on our own do we? We, we need that push .

Shalynne Jackson: Yeah. And what fortunate for me, especially at that time was I always knew who he was, like I said, I grew up. But I do find myself that wasn't the only hard time I've ever been in.

And I often get upset with myself cause I'm like, That is when I see him the most is when I'm going through hard times and I'm like, you need to be consistent. Obviously I'm always a consistent follower, but you know, this like praying my way through it, like breakfast, lunch, and dinner all the time. It's like talk to him when you're good too.

Martha: Yeah.

Catherine: Yes. Yes. That's so good. That's so good. And during our Workday, right? Mm-hmm so, so Shalynne, when did you realize your work matters to God? How did God get your attention at work?

Shalynne Jackson: I will tell you. So I was already in the space and someone came to me and I'll just say, this was around June. So it's pride month.

And someone came to me and said, I know that you are a believer and you are a lover of Christ. And I need to know how can you be a Christian and also support the LGBTQ community. And I looked at that person and I said, God gave me one responsibility just to love. And that was it. , you know but later on she and I had more conversations over lunch and you know, but really I know that's me. It feels like I'm oversimplifying it. But to me, that is the answer. No matter the community, no matter what, He gave me one responsibility and I get to do that through my work.

Catherine: I love that so much because we are not called to judge other people. Right. We are called to love other people. How else are they going to know Jesus? I love that.

Shalynne Jackson: Yeah. I wanna want them to see his love and life through me.

 And

Martha: you get that opportunity in so many different ways, but we have 24 7 every day, every week to be the light of Christ everywhere that we go. And that includes our work. And we just keep, we just keep trying to verbalize that because so many of us, for whatever reason, segment that and keep it separate.

And that is not the way God intended. So Shalynne, as a Christian working woman, tell me what has been your biggest struggle? And you can emphasize whichever of those words, you know, is it because of being a Christian or working, working, or a woman but all together.

Shalynne Jackson: For you, I'll tell you that really none of my identity for me, I wanna be really clear that this is for me, but I think it's just how I view things and view what's supposed to be a challenge.

None of my identity is what holds me back now. I say now, because you can see, I have alopecia. Well you can say I'm bald and I'll tell you I'm bald because I have alopecia. And with alopecia, I guess you can say maybe it's the part about being a woman because growing up it was, society says your crown is your glory, right?

Your hair is your glory. You have to have hair to be pretty. You have to have hair to be successful. And so for the longest that's, what's helped me back. I wore wig. I kid, I covered again, wearing wigs is not a problem. It's whenever I didn't wanna wear wigs anymore, but I feel felt confined by them.

Because I felt that was the only way I was gonna succeed. And so I guess you can say that at that time as a, as a woman, it was hard because it was like, I wanna be able to walk in my truth. But the day that I did. Oh my goodness. It was so freeing. I remember that Thursday, like it was just yesterday and could go into that story another time.

But it was so freeing and, and now I look back and I truly, I used to feel like, you know, the devil gave me alopecia and I... this was supposed to be a part of my journey. I wouldn't have it any other way. Would it be nice to wear a ponytail one day? Maybe? I don't know, but I really wouldn't have it any other way because of really I'm a walking testimony.

People can look at me and not even talk to me and see strength. And I say that because people have told me that, like, I don't know why you're bald, but, you know, look to be so strong. And I, I hope to be able to do that one day - don't even know my story. Right. So really what people are able to see in me really I get to, to really be a walking testimony for him without ever talking to people.

Martha: Shalynne, do you also see that then as your biggest victory?

Shalynne Jackson: I would say that. And I also say when it comes to being Christian, especially in Oklahoma, I think that that is one of my biggest victories, because I'm able to leverage my privilege. A lot of times in the DEI space privilege is a trigger word for people and, and we use it to like beat people up with, and that is not how privilege should be seen, but you know, being in Oklahoma, many people, most people are Christian.

And so really I get to leverage my privilege of instantly connecting with other Christians to talk about my life. And to talk about the love of Christ and how I'm able to do that through my work, and then try to compel them to do the same because you don't have to be a DEI officer to make sure that everyone feels included, love, valued, respected. And so for me, my biggest victory is being Christian in my work.

Catherine: Wow. That amen to that. That's that's awesome. You just said a mouthful there. Well, we have to take a quick break, but you're listening to, sheWorks4Him with your host, Martha Brangenberg and Catherine Gates. And we will be right back to hear more from Shalynne Jackson.

Break: Did you know that God has a calling on your life? It's true. He's called you to bring Jesus to the world. For some that may look like a pulpit or a foreign mission field, but for most of us, it looks like a construction site, a cubicle, a hospital, or a classroom, wherever it is that you work, live, volunteer, and invest.

That is your mission field. To learn more about integrating your faith into your work in retirement. Check out our books. I work for him. sheWorks4Him and iRetire4Him by going to iWork4Him.com/bookstore.

Catherine: Welcome back to, sheWorks4Him with your host, Martha Brangenberg and Catherine Gates. We are talking to Shalynne Jackson and oh my gosh. Shalynne, I, I just can't wait to dive deeper into what you've been sharing. So, Martha, you had a question for Shalynne.

Martha: I do. So I'm really curious what you see as one of the biggest challenges of really making that equitable and inclusive culture inside organizations.

Shalynne Jackson: I am, it's gonna feel like I'm oversimplifying this work again, and it's not simple work. I wanna be really clear, but it's the lack of empathy. We really don't have empathy for people nowadays. If we were really sit and try to empathize and connect with people, the lack of the lack of connectedness we're not really wanting to connect with people to really understand each other to then when you care about someone it's really hard to exclude them. And in order to care, we have to, we have to try to develop that empathy for other people.

Catherine: That's so good. And it's one thing to say that, and I totally agree with you. But gosh, how can we help people understand that? What do we need to include in our DEI strategies so that they can be more successful and people can see, you know, more people can see their part in, in making that happen?

Shalynne Jackson: Well, one of the things is we need to start with the basics. We really, nowadays the world just wants to take people to tough stuff really quickly. And unfortunately it would be nice if we could do this fast, but you can take people too fast on this journey and you can go too slow for some. And so you gotta find the sweet spot.

And so you know, what is it that we can do? Start with the basics. Tell people in our organization, what are we trying to achieve with DEI? Mm. Because if you don't, they're gonna create their own narrative and their own story. And oftentimes that story is coming from the media or the news or whatever that is about how you should feel about inclusion.

I could go on and on even about how, when I got my role, people saying, you know, sending emails and you need to fire her because DEI is all about X, Y, Z, and it's like one, remember here goes the empathy. I'm a human on the other side of that. First of all , it's like, they're saying fire her and you don't even know me.

And, and it wasn't, I did also have to remember it wasn't me that they had a problem with. But it was the work. And so to your point, it's really connecting people to the basics of what are you trying to do here. Many people will get on board, which you can't just jump into the hard stuff.

Catherine: So that's a really good point. I mean, I do think everybody needs to take responsibility, right. And especially especially those of us who, who recognize like, you know, and, and the Christians in the workplace who recognize the importance of loving everyone. And so how can each person, what can each person do to participate? You know, aside from waiting for a certain, you know, policies to be passed or, you know, training to be implemented, what can, what can each of us do to participate in creating a more equitable culture?

Shalynne Jackson: I'm really glad that you said that. Cuz first of all, a lot of people do wait on what's the next thing that DEI, and or HR, depending on, you know, how it's structured in your organization, what are they gonna roll out? No, no, no, no, no. There are free trainings, podcasts like this, right? Go to YouTube. I see, go see what it is that people you know, are saying, go educate yourself so people can be educated themselves.

And then on top of that, when you talk about policies, be an advocate. Because a lot of times our leadership team, either isn't thinking about it because they're thinking about other things or they need to know that it's important to a lot of people. And so when we can be allies and advocates for, so I'll give you a quick example, men. Even though men sometimes feel they're not affected by parental leaves, even though they are, cuz parental leaves should say, the men can be home too for just as, as much as the mom, they feel they're not impacted by that.

Don't wait until you are impacted for it to matter to you. Be an advocate for it now. Because even if you never decide to have children or you don't wanna take a leave or whatever, if you're a people leader you're gonna be leading women, see what's important to your people. See what's important to other people, empathize and really lean into leading that chain and driving that policy. Like don't wait for someone else to be the reason the policy changes. You go talk to your leadership team.

Martha: Mm. So good. You know, there's so many things I'm sitting here going, oh, I wanna ask this, I wanna ask this. And you know, one of the things I have learned over the years, just in my own life is when I meet someone and I build a relationship with them and they have something that I've never experienced before, whether it is a, a brace on their leg because something doesn't work right.

Or whatever their thing, you know, is that they have to deal with it. I've never dealt with before. I always try to just think, man, what does their day look like? How does that affect you know, their every day. And I just think those little things in our head that we don't even think about, we just think, well, I don't understand why this person is walking slow in front of me.

Well, okay. Let's take a look at the situation, you know, and then go from there. And it could be those little things in life that help us with the bigger issues. I want you to imagine one of your toughest days at work, Shalynne and how, what does it look like for you to lean into God as you do your work on that toughest day?

Shalynne Jackson: Tell you on a really tough day from calling my favorite prayer warrior and it's my grandma. Just to be completely transparent. I will never be too old to call grandma .

Catherine: Yes, it's awesome.

Shalynne Jackson: But beyond that, I will say, first of all, when you go back to my privilege, I have the privilege of being able to have crosses in my office and just really have that visual reminder of like who I am who I am and why I'm here.

Right. I, so I just can always have the, you know, my necklace, my necklace and things like that. But beyond that, for me to be completely transparent with you, I remember my children. When I really need to dig down deep to be like, why am I doing this? Cause there's hard days. Okay. This work is not easy. People are mean people are nasty. I remember my children who I'm doing this for, and I really, really hope that when they're older, some of us we're talking about, we're not talking about it anymore.

Catherine: Amen.

Martha: Mm-hmm . That is a great dream. And you know, it's similar in the sense that that's why we do this podcast. We hope that there's a day where people it's, it, there's not a separation of our work and our faith, and we're not even needing to have that conversation because it's, we're living integrated lives. So Shalynne, where do you go to get encouragement for living out your faith at work? Whether it's an organization or a person, you know, I, I love that your grandma is such a big part of your foundation. Everybody needs a praying grandma like that. But where else do you go?

Shalynne Jackson: I'll, I'll tell you this one is, is kind of a little - the answer is not straightforward because what I like to say is I really feel that Jesus was the first DEI practitioner. He would go to places that other people wouldn't go. Oh, he would talk to people that other people wouldn't talk to.

I am not comparing myself to Jesus. I wanna be really clear. So I am human and all flesh. Right. But what I'm saying is I'm reminded oftentimes that, like you're doing the tough stuff. You're going to places that people wouldn't go and that, so some on the hard days when people misunderstand your work or whatever, you gotta give 'em grace.

You gotta really, now what I try to do y'all is in a situation like that, I'm like, we're gonna be best friends. We're gonna be best friends. Like, I really will say that to those that are close to me, I've even told my boss that like, it's no problem. We're gonna be best friends. And that really is my goal to be like, you're gonna love me.

And I already love you. and then don't try to force myself on people, but. I really try to, again, not oversimplify it or add too much humor, cuz it's not, you know, sometimes it's not, not a time to play, but really to just say there's something there, there's a reason why this person isn't connecting with this work.

There's a reason why this person is afraid or doesn't understand. And instead of discrediting this person, at some point, we're gonna connect. I make it my goal to connect with someone.

Catherine: Yes, yes. God's gonna honor that too. Right. I, I just love the image of Jesus. Really? He's the example to follow right?

To just keep thinking of him as the first DEI, the first true DEI, you know, leader. And I, I just, that that picture really resonates. Shalynne, thank you so much. We're gonna take a quick break. You're listening to, sheWorks4Him with your host, Martha Brangenberg and Catherine Gates, and our guest Shalynne Jackson will be right back.

Break: Hey listeners. One of the huge projects Martha and I have been working on for years is making it easy for every workplace believer to find all the voices speaking, encouragement, and equipping into the faith and work move. Presenting the Awaken Podcast Network online@AwakenPodcastNetwork.com with over 130 different podcast voices speaking truth into you. The workplace believer, including over 30 podcast, dedicated to Christian working women. Go online to Awaken Podcast Network.com that's awakened network.com.

Catherine: Welcome back to sheWorks4Him with your host, Martha Brangenberg and Catherine Gates. We're talking to Shalynne Jackson about what it really means to create a, an inclusive culture where everyone can feel valued and everyone can do their best and, and Shalynne just, I just, Ugh, I love again, that picture that you left us with of Jesus being the example and the encouragement, so, so good.

Martha: It really is. And You know what I am hearing from you, Shalynne, number one, I just wanna say, God, has you in the position he has you in on purpose for a purpose. My goodness. I love your heart. One of the, you know, several times you have said it's not easy, but it's simple. I'm gonna, you know, this may sound over simple, but isn't that the gospel, the gospel, it doesn't make all of life easy, but it's a simple mission. It is a simple gospel to to accept and to allow into your life. And so I love that approach because my goodness, I can't imagine on a daily basis, the kinds of things that you deal with, but the filter that your, of your heart for Jesus helps you. I'm guessing to do that each and every.

So let's talk about, so I just wanted to put that out there for you, but what does it look like in your work to love our neighbor?

Shalynne Jackson: Well, so I've said a lot of these words already, but grace respect, kindness, gentleness, empathy. Really while I don't like to say the golden rule because the golden rule is treat others how you wanna be treated.

And to me, it's the platinum rule, treat others how they wanna be treated. In order to treat others how they wanna be treated, I have to get to know them. I have to build relationships. And so what does it look like to love my neighbors? It's looks like relationships. And you know, you think about an actual neighbor in your neighborhood.

For me to best take care of my neighbor, I have to get out and talk to them. Mm-hmm right. Like I get out and speak to my neighbor. And so I challenge people to do that at work, especially people, especially people, leaders talk to your people, connect with your people, see what it is that your people need to succeed. Cuz we don't all need the same thing to succeed, to create that sense of belonging for them.

And watch how loyal they are to you. After that, watch the loyalty, watch the hard work, the productivity, the bottom line, the innovation, all of that. Be driven out of your willingness and desire to love them.

Martha: You know, you really just kind of listed what we call the, iWork4Him nation, which is about, you know, living that out, getting to know your coworkers, loving them where they're at, and, and then when they're having a tough day, who are they gonna go to?

They're gonna go where they've been loved and accepted and appreciated, and then you get the opportunity to be Jesus to them. So I just wanna put that out there because you can go to sheWorks4Him.com and learn more about that. It's not a club to join that you, you know, or anything like that, but it's just making that commitment in your work to do that and to pray for those coworkers each and every. Catherine. Why don't you wrap it up there?

Catherine: Yeah. You know Shalynne, what I hear in what you're sharing too is make it about them, make it about the other person, really get to know them and listen, listen. Right. So that's really key. Yep. So this has been so amazing and we do need to wrap up, which it is, gosh, this has gone so fast, but Shalynne, I'd love for you to leave our listeners with what verse from scripture that you, you think really sums up the purpose of your work?

Shalynne Jackson: Well, I keep saying this so I know they're probably like, you're gonna say this again, but Mark 12:31, love thy neighbor. Love thy neighbor. Full stop. Period. Not love thy neighbor if. Not love thy neighbor, but. Love thy neighbor.

Catherine: Yes. And your neighbor is whoever is in front of you, right? Whoever's in the next cubicle. Whoever's in the next, at the next desk. Whoever's yeah. Whoever you comes across your path. Yeah. Beautiful, beautiful Shalynne. Thank you so much. This has been so helpful and I, I really hope our listeners find it encouraging and, and, and empowering.

Right to, to have a sense of what they can do, what they can do to bring greater inclusiveness and equity into their, their cultures at work. So thank you so much. Shalynne you've been listening to, sheWorks4Him with your host, Martha Brangenberg and Catherine Gates. We're Christian working women, helping other Christian working women to live out their calling at work as sheWorks4Him.

Outro:As Christian women, we have many roles from daughter, sister, friend, wife, and mother to analyst, accountant, executive or educator. Is it possible to balance our roles at work and home in a way that honors God? The answer is yes. And our new book, sheWorks4Him will help show you how. Written to celebrate, encourage and equip women in the workforce. sheWorks4Him discusses the diverse experiences of today's Christian working woman. Pick up a copy by going to iWork4Him.com/bookstore.

You've been listening to the, sheWorks4Him podcast with your host, Catherine Gates, Nadya Dickson, and Martha Brangenberg. Please like us on Facebook and subscribe on YouTube under sheWorks4Him and to access any of the resources we mentioned on today's.

See the show notes at sheWorks4Him. Dot com that's she works the number four, him.com. This podcast was created to empower you to live out your calling at works. The world knows sheWorks4Him.

6/20/22 - ReThink You: Kim Levings, ReThink You Coaching and Consulting

Intro: As a Christian working woman, you have many roles from your responsibility with family and friends to community and work. How do you connect all that you do with all that you are, and still have your faith shine through. It's a challenge, but you are up to it. The, sheWorks4Him podcast at the gathering place to empower Christian working women, to live out their calling at work.

By connecting them to God resources and each other through powerful faith stories from other working sisters in Christ. Welcome to sheWorks4Him.

Martha: You've tuned into, sheWorks4Him, where we connect Christian, working women to God resources and one another. We are your host today. Martha Brangenberg, and Nadya Dickson.

And I am so excited about the show ahead, but before we get started, I just wanna remind everybody you can connect with us on. sheWorks4Him.com that's she works the number four him.com and on Facebook, we also have a YouTube channel. So if you're like me, I love to watch because there's just so much expression, especially, you know, as, as women we get excited and we're talking about things, there just might be things that are added when you're, when you're watching the conversation. And we want you to feel like you're sitting with us, that you are pulling up a chair and just joining in on the conversation. And you know, having a cup of coffee, Nadya just held up her coffee, cup of coffee.

So, whatever that might be for you thank you for spending this time with us. And we just love being able to connect with you, the Christian working women out there in the trenches, doing the work that God has designed you to do. So thank you for joining us and take it away. Nadya.

Nadya: Thank you, Martha. What a privilege it is to be with you ladies today. Well, I wanna ask our listeners out there, especially as Christian working women. Do you feel challenged and pressured sometimes to adapt to your environment? I know I have. Do you feel challenged or pressured to settle for mediocrity simply to appease others or to pursue goals maybe that are not truly aligned with what you want or what you are?

This can cause us to feel adrift. Even - especially after living through a transition or an unexpected life event, I'm just wondering if you can relate or maybe you're a Christian working woman who is on the other side experiencing great success in the past and you're trying to figure out what's next.

What does the next chapter look like for you? Well, today we're going to Colorado Springs to talk with my dear sister Kim Levings. You know, after going from a suicide attempt, she is now living a thriving, successful life functioning in her passion. And she believes that with the right mixture of thinking belief and then action, anyone can set themselves free to live a life they were created to live. Kim, welcome to sheWorks4Him.

Kim Levings: Thank you so much, Nadya. It's so wonderful to be here.

Nadya: I'm thrilled to have you share your story with our listeners today, but first I want I want to ask you to share what it looks like for you to connect your faith to work, but how did you even become a believer?

Kim Levings: Well, you know, Nadya, I was one of those sort of typical kids growing up with Christian parents, you know, specifically in the Anglican church, my mom had grown up Catholic and, but we were raised in the Anglican church. You know confirmed and baptized and, you know, went through confirmation classes. But as I say, I never really found Jesus until much later in my life.

So I grew up in religion, but I never had the relationship until I was in my teens. When I went at the local coffee club at a Baptist church, gave my life to Christ when I was about 14. And even then I wasn't discipled. I was typically one of those seeds on the pathway. Life came along and I went in a completely different direction and it took a long time, which I'll come back to later, but I ultimately rededicated my life and then became an active Christian in my mid twenties.

And then, you know, I've gone through several kind of rededications, saying, okay, I'm coming back. You know, I've gone out and run around a bit. Now I'm coming. But my last coming back to Jesus was in 1994 when I've never looked back. So...

Nadya: So glorious and yes. And in your work life, your professional life, when did you realize that your work mattered to God?

Kim Levings: Well, it's also part of my story, which I'll come back to, but I've been blessed that for a long time, I've recognized how he has gifted me and how he's called me to do what I do. The locations have changed the relationships and the actual nature of my work has changed, but he is a constant. And I like to say that he's the constant central axle to my wheel.

You know, it's like, no matter what spokes are coming out of it, it's still my central axle. So I've been blessed that way. I know many people are not, and I think sometimes it's a realization. About discovering your purpose through the window of who he created you to be and connecting those dots. And, you know, it's just a fabulous process when you see that happen.

Martha: You know, I am imagining that there are a lot of women even listening right now that can relate with you even from the, from the very moment that you said, you know, I was raised up with religion, but not relationship. And, and you know, now seeing your eyes wide open, basically. As you walk out your purpose in life.

So Kim, in your work, you have worked for a lot of in different organizational settings. Somewhat we would call traditional ministry based and others that are more corporate. I would love to hear you talk about how that has impacted the way you've integrated your faith in work, cuz for some people that may look very differently depending on the organizational structure that they're working in. So what wa how did that look for you?

Kim Levings: Absolutely. And it is a difficult question. So I think there's three different parts to the answer. So the first situation is that if you are in an organization that is sort of definitely anti-religion especially large organizations that I've worked in, that you know is, and it's now sort of legal issue that, you know, you're not allowed to talk about your religion at the workplace and you can't hold prayer meetings, et cetera, et cetera.

I've navigated that because ultimately, as I said, if your axle is anchored in Christ, You live life and you shine your light so bright that you can't help, but be who you are. Daughter of the king, no matter what situation you're in and people are attracted to that light without you having to be overt, you don't, you know, I don't have to proselytize from, you know, and I was always a trainer that, you know, did a lot of training workshops.

And I always used to say, I'm not going to evangelize from the front of a training room, but what I will do is teach the principles of leadership that are rooted in scripture. And I don't have to bring the Bible out. And in fact, it just happened to me recently. I'm working with a company right now and I, I never say I'm not a Christian.

I don't even bring it up. If it comes up. I say, yes, I am a Christian, but this doesn't change what I teach or what I do, but. I was teaching something and I heard the one person say, sounds distinctly biblical. And I laughed because he is a Christian, but there's only some of the team that are Christian and they immediately catch when I teach something that's biblical, but that's how I've navigated.

Cuz I believe as Christian woman, it's a danger to think that you must only ever work within the Christian realm because I've been in the Christian bubble. And I can tell you it's just as dysfunctional as the non-Christian bubbles, right, of organizations, and I think that we're called to do his work in whatever field or situation that he calls us to.

Martha: Mm amen. You know, you mentioned, you said that, you know, teaching biblical principles. And even more than that, you are already applying them in your life. And so it's, yes. You know, you can't separate the two when it is a part of who you are. And I think just continuing to have this conversation is gonna help empower more women, especially in this conversation about, about actually doing that. That if it's, if it's true in your, if it's real in your life, it's just going to be lived out and then it, that is coming from scripture.

So I wanna just, before we break real quick, Kim, just tell us. You've written some books and your most recent one is called Practically Imperfect in Every Way. And I would love for you to share just a little bit about what led you to write this book and, and what's the main takeaway that you're hoping your listeners or your readers will get, right?

Kim Levings: Yeah. It's Practically Imperfect in Every Way. Cuz of course it's a bit of a spoof on the Mary Poppins. And the subtitle is walking in God's armor.

And I know there are plenty of books written about God's armor, cuz it's such a perfect construct for any Christian book. But let me say this, the, the purpose behind it was because of my company being ReThink You, I help people rethink themselves, but there's still this concept where many Christians and unfortunately are often Christian woman -

I mean, I'm a woman. So I focus on that audience, but there's a veneer of perfect. Where we feel we have to show up on a Sunday with everything put together and in the realm of mental illness, relationship, stress, depression, all of those issues. Those are messy issues. And traditionally the church and the church community has not done - and I say, traditionally - their exceptions it's changing, but there's this perception that you have to show up or put together because there's something wrong with you if you're not. And that's why the Practically Imperfect in Every Way, the principle is embrace, embracing your imperfection and recognizing the work of Christ in you and how absolutely gloriously perfect you are when you do that.

So it's walking people through a journey of kind of rethinking themselves, but through the principle of the armor of God, of understanding, you know, like the belt of truth, mm-hmm is the truth of who you are. And going through the, the sections of the armor as a way of understanding to come to grips with your imperfection.

Martha: That's so incredibly awesome. And I just hope that our, our listeners will take the opportunity to get a copy of the book Practically Imperfect in Every Way. And I didn't catch the play on the word until I heard it with your lovely accent, because it, it makes it makes it sound more like Mary Poppins even then.

So I'm glad that you said that. Thank you for sharing that. We're gonna take a quick break and we'll be back with more with Kim Levings, as we are talking here on, sheWorks4Him. We'll be right back.

Break: Did you know that God has a calling on your life? It's true. He's called you to bring Jesus to the world. For some that may look like a pulpit or a foreign mission field, but for most of us, it looks like a construction site, a cubicle, a hospital, or a classroom, wherever it is that you work, live, volunteer and invest. That is your mission field to learn more about integrating your faith into your work in retirement. Check out our books. iWork4Him. sheWorks4Him and iRetire4Him by going to iWork4Him.com/bookstore.

Martha: Welcome back to, sheWorks4Him with Nadya Dickson and Martha Brangenberg. We're here with Kim, Kim Levings and we are, kim, we're just tip getting the tip of the iceberg, but thank you for sharing about the book that you've are recently written.

And I just, I know that there are so many women that really need to embrace the imperfection because we focus so much on wrong thinking and God has so much more in store for us. So thank you for telling us about your new book.

Nadya: Yes. Thank you so much, Kim, and Kim, I've known you for a little bit now. I, I love our times together, you know. I know you wrote practically imperfect, but you've really, you've really got it going on, Kim. Like I would recommend you to any company, anybody for coaching and consulting. But the truth is you experienced a huge challenge earlier on in your life. You overcame a near death experience after attempting suicide. Can you share a little bit more about this event?

Kim Levings: Absolutely. You know, as I alluded to earlier, this is really at the core of my story because when I was in my mid twenties or in fact when I was 18, my parents divorced after 25 years of marriage. And I had anchored a lot of my sense of identity and self worth in that happy home foundation.

And I was the youngest of three girls. And when the, the, my older sisters were not at home, when the marriage fell apart, it was like all on me. And in hindsight, I realized the tremendous amount of grief and trauma that I experienced that was never dealt with. I simply buried it and it turned toxic because I didn't get the help that I needed. At the time I was doing very well in my career.

So, okay. I failed university because of all of that. I went off and lived for the next seven or eight years, a very wild life. As I said, I didn't jump off the altar. I skated off the altar, just flew off, went off into the doldrums of life. But interestingly at the same time built an incredibly successful career.

So I poured my identity into my work and I found my self-worth in my job, which in some ways is good. But over time you pay a price. Not once, but twice I attempted suicide because of just the depths of depression and the sense of hopelessness and lack of self worth.

And, you know, you throw yourself into the gutter, it only is a matter of time before you hit that rock bottom. And there's nowhere to go from there. And I didn't think I was worthy even of God's love, but the second time was when I was 26 and I was actually living with my father and my stepmother. He had remarried by then, and I tried to take my own life. I took an overdose, but I woke up 24, 36 hours later in the hospital and they had saved my life and I was off work for a few days.

But when I woke up in the hospital, I had a huge wake up call, literally. And God said to me, I'm not done with you. Like, are you, are you ready now to listen to me? I'm gonna show you how to put your life back together and you're gonna show other people how to do the same. I have a mission for you. That was the beginning of the story.

So, you know, it's been the foundation of my life in that. I then took all the tools and the gifting he had given me, cuz by the, at that point I was, you know, an HR manager for a large clothing store. I mean I had great job and, and I was the trainer for the region and but I took all the tools that I was using in training and human resources and applied it to my own life.

And I came up with tools that I use to this day in all my program. To help people literally reset themselves, rethink themselves and figure out who am I and what am I here to do and how do I get on with it? So it's really just an intricate part of my story, but it also goes to the fact that there's still so much shame and, and guilt attached to mental illness.

And when people are not treated properly and they don't handle it properly. The results are never pretty, and I think that's why I have a passion for this topic.

Martha: You know, I wanna interject something here, Kim, because we are in a time, like no other where we are hearing more about people wanting to take their own lives. For different reasons, we just feel so much despair. You know, God has given you time as a, as a beautiful space between that time in your life, to where you are in such an, a beautiful place to be able to speak into other people. So right now, could you just, what would you say to the listeners that maybe they have people in their life that they either see them in despair or there has maybe even been an attempt or actually a success, you know, for someone that's taken their life. What can you, what are you speaking into that right now? That can be a help for anybody that's listening.

Kim Levings: Well, I thank you for asking that, Martha, I think there's two, there's two ways to look. There's two people involved. There's the loved ones around the person, and then there's the person.

So if you are a person that is feeling hopeless and in the depths of despair, ask for help. There is no shame. You know, if you break a leg and you need crutches and you need to go to the hospital, nobody thinks you're a bit, a worse person. Then if something is broken in your spirit, you are not sinful. You are not, you haven't done anything wrong. You are in a state of illness and you need help. Get the help.

And for those around somebody who is depressed, who is suffering. You cannot possibly understand what they're feeling. So don't say I understand, everything's gonna be okay. Reminds me of the proverb, you know, don't pour vinegar on a wound. It's like, you know, singing songs to somebody with a broken heart. Cry with them, put your arm around them and encourage them to get the help they need.

Martha: Mm-hmm that's beautiful. Thank you for sharing that.

Kim Levings: In fact, I'll add to that. So I'll tailgate myself. I'll say many times the reason I went into such a terrible situation in my personal life was because I was trying to heal a wound internally by filling it up with all the wrong things and had I gotten the help that I needed, I would've learned how to fill it up with the right things.

Nadya: Wow. Wow. And from that experience in your own journey now, As the Lord told you in that, in that room, I'm going to use you now to help others journey through this space. How does this impact your coaching and equipping and consulting? Because you do a variety of organizational health, personal health. So yes. What does that look like?

Kim Levings: Yes. Well, I have two things, so I said, I'm, you know, I'm a certified master Christian life coach. And so I help people do reset. I also am an executive coach and a workforce strategist.

So, but at the hub of it all, as I said again, I come back to the hub and the spokes at the hub of my work is helping people rethink themselves, which is why my company is called ReThink You because you are the common denominator and whether you are an executive or a stay at home, mom.

Everyone is a human being with a mind, and your mind is where things happen. And helping you ReThink Yourself is really at the core. So even when I do corporate work, it starts with helping people think better and the core principles of thinking. And that's because of my background in manpower development, but I'll also have a neuroscientific technology that I use for performance diagnostics and performance coaching.

And then of course my believing, you know, I'll say to people, I'm a Christian coach. I don't - so I say to people, you're going to encounter God and biblical principles if you coach with me. If that's gonna be a problem, then I'm not the right coach for you. So I may not coach people from biblical life perspective if it's an executive program, but they just need to understand that that's my worldview. That's where I come from. And if that's gonna be offensive, then they shouldn't work with me. It's never been an issue. So that's how, you know, it influences what I do.

Martha: You know, I love that way of thinking and presenting it because you think about the fact that, you know, some people may say, well, I am a student of this way of, you know, organizing things. Well, we, we listen to that and we go, okay, that's gonna be their background. That's where they're coming from. And to just present it that way, how simple to say, you know, that's just where I'm coming from. And if that, if you're you wanna align with that, then I'm the coach for you.

So, Kim, I love that you've shared so much with us about ReThink You, your coaching and consulting firm. And you said so many things that You know, kind of descriptors and, and where you're coming from and the knowledge that you have and everything. And they made us, made us sounded very long, like lots of syllables in there, but it gives, I know that you have a great background in all of that.

So I love that. So, and we will have in the show notes, a link to your website so people can check you out if that's something that they wanna pursue a little bit further. Yes. So we're gonna take another quick break and then we're gonna come back with Kim Levings and learn some more from her and how God is, he has used her over the years and what he's doing in her now.

And just as a Christian working woman, all that we have in store for us, if we just would, you know, rethink ourselves and, and think, use our minds and align it with what God has in store for us. We'll be right back with more wish sheWorks4Him.

Break: Hey listeners. One of the huge projects Martha and I have been working on for years. Is making it easy for every workplace believer to find all the voices speaking, encouragement and equipping into the faith and work movement. Presenting the Awaken Podcast Network online at awakenpodcastnetwork.com with over 130 different podcast voices speaking truth into you, the workplace believer, including over 30 podcasts, dedicated to Christian working women. Go online to Awaken Podcast Network.com that's awaken podcast, network.com.

Martha: Welcome back to sheWorks4Him where we are here today with Kim Levings and her organization that we were just talking about, her coaching is ReThink You.

And I just love that, that name. Kim, you have something that you are generously offering to our listeners. And I want you to just share briefly about that and we will have the details in the show notes if you don't get this all written down, but tell us what it.

Kim Levings: Yes, I have an online training program that's called life reset. It's a 40 day journey of transformation. It's a hybrid journey of eLearning, a group accountability, and some coaching, and I'm offering it at 50% off to your listeners. And the, the information will be in the show notes, but you'll have a coupon code "workforhim." And that will take 50% off the price.

Martha: Awesome. Thank you so much for that. I, I hope that there will be some listeners that will take advantage of that because I just hearing yes, you talk and all that. There is in the opportunity to have that connection with you to take it a little deep, a lot deeper in a 40 day journey. What an exciting thing.

So right now I would love for you to share with us some practical tip that you wanna give to the listeners about, you know, just rewarding the Lord with all of our mind. What, what would that practical tip be?

Kim Levings: Right. The practical tip would be to remember every day that you have a choice, and living life with a godly mindset and choosing to put your focus on him takes intentionality. It's not our default. Our default is to go to a sin pattern and to buy into the lies and the lies that we believe about ourselves. And the incorrect perspective that we have of the world around us is what drives stress and dysfunction. So every day you have a choice.

So my practical tip is to pause, even if it's for two seconds in the morning and say where am I choosing to focus my mind today? You know, and as Paul says in Philippians 4:8, you know, look at what is true and noble and pure and whatever is lovely and admirable, you can choose to do that. God gave us just the most incredible tools that already exist within us. And all we have to do is surface that from within us, but it takes a choice that doesn't happen automatically.

Nadya: That's so good. So Kim, is that your life verse or do you have something different that you use?

Kim Levings: Yeah, it's so funny ask because I have so many verses, but the one that's sort of really speaking to me right now is the Ephesians 3:20, you know, that God will do immeasurably more than we could ever ask or imagine because of who he is in us. But I particularly like the, the definite the, the. Translation the passion translation by broad street publishers. My new favorite Bible.

Martha: Mine as well, mine as well.

Kim Levings: Yes. You know, the way it's worded, there is never doubt God's mighty power to work in you and accomplish all this. He will achieve infinitely more than your greatest requests, your most unbelieving dream and exceed your wildest imagination.

He will outdo them all for his miraculous power cons constantly energizes you. Wow. I mean, if you read that, it's just the fuel in the engine. It's like, I have God with in me. If he is for me, nothing can stop me. So, yeah.

Nadya: Oh, true. That is being a real overcomer.

Kim Levings: Yes. I can't do it in my own strength. That's what I keep reminding myself. What, and the last thing I'd say is what you put your focus on is what you get more of. Yes. So choose what you're focusing on.

Nadya: Yes, because it will grow. God made it that way inherently. Yes. If it's, if it's in him and it's our faith, it will continue to grow putting our faith in him rather than in bad news or misinformation or whatever. I love it so much. Thank you so much for encouraging us today. Thank you. And the emminence from you, Kim it's who you are, it's what you bring and how you show up. And I know there are so many others out there that have felt oxygenated this morning, just from listening to you. So thank you for being with us.

Kim Levings: Yes. Thank you both very much. This has been a delight.

Martha: Awesome. And you know, the last thing I just wanna say to our listeners is Kim, you were saying about it. It's how we choose what we choose to put in our mind, you know, in our mind and scripture. If that is the choice of how you are, especially launching each day, filling your life with scriptures, like what you were just reading you know, then God's gonna be at the center of all we do and all that we say.

And I just think that's a great encouragement for all of our listeners today. You've been listening to, sheWorks4Him with your host, Martha Brangenberg and Nadya Dickson. And we are Christian working women, helping other Christian working women to live out their calling network. As sheWorks4Him!

Outro: As Christian women, we have many roles from daughter, sister, friend, wife, and mother to analyst, accountant, executive or educator. Is it possible to balance our roles at work and home in a way that honors God? The answer is yes. And our new book, sheWorks4Him will help show you how. Written to celebrate, encourage and equip women in the workforce. sheWorks4Him. Discusses the diverse experiences of today's Christian working woman. Pick up a copy by going to iWork4Him.com/bookstore.

You've been listening to the, sheWorks4Him podcast with your host, Catherine Gates, Nadya Dickson, and Martha Brangenberg. Please like us on Facebook and subscribe on YouTube under sheWorks4Him and to access any of the resources we mentioned on today's.

See the show notes at sheworksforhim.com that's she works the number four, him.com. This podcast was created to empower you to live out your calling at work. So the world knows sheWorks4Him.

6/13/22 - You Belong: D. Michelle Thompson, YOU BELONG Podcast & Courageous Love at Work

Intro: As a Christian working woman, you have many roles from your responsibility with family and friends to community and work. How do you connect all that you do with all that you are, and still have your faith shine through? It's a challenge, but you are up to it. The, sheWorks4Him, podcast it at the gathering place to empower Christian working women, to live out their calling at work.

By connecting them to God resources and each other through powerful faith stories from other working sisters in Christ. Welcome to sheWorks4Him.

Martha: You've tuned into, sheWorks4Him, where we connect Christian, working women to God resources and one another. And before I go any further, I just wanna remind people, we've talked a little bit about the boldly conference that's coming up this October.

Remember boldly conference.com is a website you can go to, to learn. Register for that event get involved with other Christian working women connecting their faith and their work. We always want to tell you about the resources that we learn about and drive people towards that because together you never know what event, what book, what podcast, what other resource might be the one that you really needed to hear at any given time or that God had a message for you. So the boldly conference is just one of those resources. And I think today we're gonna end up with a whole lot more resources in the show notes. So remember you can stay connected to us at, sheWorks4Him.com today.

Your co-hosts are Martha Brangenberg and Catherine Gates. Catherine, take it away.

Catherine: Thanks, Martha. And that is boldly conference.com, by the way, if you wanna learn more. So how do you create a culture that is truly diverse and inclusive? One in which people treat one another as equally valuable? How do we ensure that every team member has the opportunity to contribute her best efforts?

To grow and advance? These are questions business leaders have to wrestle with every day, but it's not just up to those who are at the executive level of the organization, creating a truly inclusive and equitable workplace culture in which everyone has a sense of belonging is up to every one of us and Christians should be leading the way.z They should be the shining example.

This is a topic that is near and dear to the heart of D Michelle Thompson. D Michelle has worked for many years for top advertising agencies and consumer package, good companies, negotiating budgets of hundreds of millions and even billions of dollars. It was her work, facilitating sales and marketing training for middle Eastern executives in Dubai that made her realize everyone has their own belong story.

Since that time, D Michelle launched the You Belong podcast and Courageous Love at Work conversations that are designed to equip the work world for racial equity and create cultures in which everyone knows they belong. D Michelle, welcome to sheWorks4Him.

D. Michelle Thompson: Oh, thank you for that introduction. And thank you guys for having me. I'm so excited to be here and just share with you what the Lord has placed in my heart to your audience.

Catherine: I'm really excited for them to hear your heart for this topic, D Michelle. But before we go into that and, and also how you live out your faith at work, can you share with our listeners, how did you become a Jesus follower?

D. Michelle Thompson: Oh, wow. That's a very, very long story, but Short answer is my father was the pastor . And so I really didn't have a choice in the matter and what, which was great about my father. He did give me a choice while I was raised in a Christian household. And my parents met at a Bible college in Nashville, Tennessee.

When I arrived at the age around 11 and 12, my dad asked me and he did the same thing with my older brother to explore other faiths and other religions. And he would even take us to some services. And then at the end of our experience of exploring for summer, he asked us, what do you believe? What do you choose?

And outta everything I explored, I still chose Jesus. I was baptized at an early age at the age of six. And it's funny. It's all around my earthly dad led me to my spiritual father because when I was 21, my father died and before he died, I became what many be call a born again, believer. And that's when I really wanted to live this out every day of my life.

And I remember going to my dad's hospital bed before a few months before he died. And I said, dad, I'm saved, I'm saved. And he said, I always knew you would be . And I thought that was so great because here it was, my words have been confessing. I was a Christian all along, but he still knew that heart commitment of salvation wasn't there.

And so I'm just glad I got to do that before he passed on. I hate to do my Darth Vader voice, but I remember the Lord speaking to me in that hospital and said, I'm your father. Cause as I was saying goodbye to my father, the Lord told me, I'm your father. I've always been there and I'll always be there for you. So that's my salvation story.

Catherine: Wow. Wow. That is so powerful. And what a gift your dad gave you to like explore and, and, and probably it gives you some level of empathy and understanding for people of other religions and other spiritual backgrounds.

D. Michelle Thompson: Yes, absolutely.

Catherine: That's amazing. And, and I so, so what about your work? What did it take for you to realize that your work mattered to God and, and even to, and, and have you surrendered your work to God?

D. Michelle Thompson: Yes. That happened later on in my twenties. I hate to say all my stories are plagued around death, but I believe that's when God gets our attention is when we lose loved ones.

So my very first prayer partner was in Chicago when I was working for a large ad agency and I felt a calling on my life to do, I didn't know the word with marketplace ministry. I just knew the Lord told me to start a prayer group at my job. And 9/11 happened and one of my best friends had passed away.

And I felt like I said, what else do you need to happen? And I wrote a letter to the CEO and said, I believe I'm supposed to have a boardroom for prayer. . Wow. And he believed me too. and. I held my first prayer session at an ad agency boardroom. And the first week only the people who reported to me showed up and I was like, oh my God, they feel they have to come.

But I remember that day, if I left the boardroom. All these people whispered in my ear. Could you pray for me? And it opened up like wildfire. And the next week we lost one of our big accounts and everyone was in danger of losing their job. And that boardroom was filled the next week for prayer, but that's when God began to activate my faith at work in a more overt way and not just quietly.

Martha: You know, it's amazing how God has created that in us, that desire to draw near to him, especially in times of crisis. And just think if you had not started that the week before, you know, people would not know where to go. I mean, though you, that God opened the door wide for that border boardroom to be filled.

What a great encouragement to all of us to, to take that step of faith. I mean, that seemed very bold to send that letter, but look what, what God did through that. So when you think of your community, whether that is your neighbors, your coworkers, whatever that is, When you see whatever that biggest problem is, and you know that Jesus can bring healing to it. As you live out your faith in your work, what is, what does that look like? What is that biggest problem that, you know, Jesus can bring the healing for?

D. Michelle Thompson: Man. There's so many problems these days that I can look at and see, but the greatest for me right now, Really around this aspect of racial reconciliation.

And a lot of people say you can't even reconcile until first is repentance. So I really see, especially how God just used me throughout my career, where I'm often the only woman or the only person of color or both in the room. And I can't keep saying that's just the favor of the Lord. No, this is the position and a placement divinely orchestrated because he knew I could create these safe places to have real conversation with people who normally wouldn't have felt safe enough to bring it up to me. And so as I watch God do it over and over again, I finally have stopped running from it and embraced that. And I do that through the courageous love at work platform, as well as just everyday conversations with my colleagues.

Martha: And I do wanna hear more about what that means the Courageous Love at Work conversations, but just real quickly. What do you believe? How do you see your spiritual gifts being played out in what you're doing in your work?

D. Michelle Thompson: Wow. It's so amazing. When I was 22, I read a book by Laura Beth Jones. You may have heard of it called how to develop, you know, a mission statement for work and life.

And at the end of reading that book here it is, I'm 22, 23 working in advertising. And my mission statement said to heal the broken hearted through writing, teaching and speaking. And I though - God, what in the world? So wow. Being this risk taker, faith Walker, I quit my job and went on vacation to The Bahamas with my mentor from college and thank God for mentors.

And she said what are you gonna do now? And I'm like, oh, I still have to pay bills. Like, you know, and somehow you get this - you're like, oh, I got this calling. And let me go follow. And you're like, oh, I still have bills. And so I went on and received that promotion when I came back from vacation, and got a job again.

But over time, the Lord just had me writing in journals. And so through my books, I lived that out and what he evolved me is that healing the broken hearted does not always look like what we think. We think it's gonna be someone crying, but for me it could be a successful businessman who's empty. He has no family to go home to.

Or like this week I was in a training, and I saw this person hurting and looking around the room and finding their worth in their job that that's some brokenness too. Yeah. When people are finding their worth in a title or, or calling people on the bottom because they arrive to this quote unquote top level, they're they, they need healing too.

And so, I I thank God for widening my lens of what healing the broken hearted look like. It won't always be someone on the street. It won't always be an orphan. It won't always be someone who needs healing physically. There are many emotional wounds, especially in the marketplace that need to be healed.

Catherine: For sure. There are a lot of brokenhearted people in the marketplace that you would never even guess, right? What a beautiful, beautiful calling. And it doesn't have to have at the title to match. We can do those things right withou the title. Well D Michelle, this is great. We're gonna take a quick break. You're listening to, sheWorks4Him with your host, Martha Brangenberg and Catherine Gates. And we will be right back to hear more from D Michelle Thompson.

Break: Did you know that God has a calling on your life? It's true. He's called you to bring Jesus to the world. For some that may look like a pulpit or a foreign mission field, but for most of us, it looks like a construction site, a cubicle, a hospital, or a classroom, wherever it is that you work, live volunteer and invest.

That is your mission field. To learn more about integrating your faith into your work in retirement. Check out our books: iWork4Him. sheWorks4Him and iRetire4Him by going to iWork4Him.com/bookstore.

Catherine: Welcome back to sheWorks4Him. We're talking to D Michelle Thompson about really healing the brokenhearted, even when that's not necessarily your job title, like we can find brokenhearted people everywhere. And certainly there's no shortage of them, unfortunately, in our workplaces. So D Michelle, what inspired you? You started the, the You Belong podcast and these courageous love work conversations. What inspired you to, to invest that time and get those, those things started? What did that journey look like?

D. Michelle Thompson: Yeah. For the You Belong podcast, that was something that it just felt like it had to happen. There has been. I wanna say again, I hate to use the word, keep repeating calling, but just a whisper behind my ear about You Belong from the Lord for at least eight years now. And so I've been working on a book called You Belong for on and off three to five years, and it's a devotional.

And as I began to write it, I love how God does he began to release You Belong. It's not just for the marketplace. It's for specifically women. There's also one specifically for people of color. And so he just started showing me the whole series about everyone is going through this issue of trying to figure out how they belong.

But we have to transcend what culture says about what belong means and belong to him first, because heaven is our home, right? Ooh. And that's where we should be focused on is the kingdom and belonging to Jesus Christ. And so he's just bubbled that up into me. So I'm like, I can't wait for all these books.

Let me just start the podcast now. And I wanted to have a collection of stories because everyone has a belong story is what I realized everybody has that moment where they figured out I don't belong to this job, or I don't belong just to my spouse. I, I belong to God. And so I wanted to get those stories and that would inspire me to keep writing.

So I started interviewing CEOs first, mostly C-suite leaders. And getting their stories because I felt like that encouraged that middle level manager, someone else out there to know everybody goes through of a long struggle or identity as I call it Christ us instead of identity, crisis . And so just trying to figure that out.

And so it has been a great journey. I've been able to meet and share with a lot of people. And again, as God often does, He says don't just interview the C-suite interview, anyone who is doing something that would challenge people to rethink how they view what it means to belong. And I've started doing that.

So it's been a great journey and it's year two, I've taken a break now, since I've relocated from Ohio to North Carolina. And, but it's been a great journey and I look forward to publishing the book this fall, if the Lord says the same.

Catherine: Oh, praise God. Yeah.

Martha: That is so exciting. And, you know, knowing that there are other voices with that, you're sharing a story of what God's done, what in someone's life and you can't refute that story and how that can help us all to know how to belong.

So, Michelle, you also had this Courageous Love at Work conversations. Tell me about that. And what is the goal of those?

D. Michelle Thompson: Yeah, Courageous Love at Work. This is a fun story. This not fun. It was funny how it came to me, but it was birthed after George Floyd was murdered. Mm. And I had this huge burden, like, Ugh, this is hurtful.

It was kind of the, I don't know why it was his murder. Cuz there had been a lot of things happening in the community of African Americans that I've seen and witnessed or, you know, just watched on the news. But this one. Maybe cuz it was the pandemic. It was just something different. Mm-hmm . And I went into one of my usual board meetings that's 99.9% white men.

And it was like a day or two after George Floyd was murdered and everybody said, how was your week? And they just chit-chatted. And it was like nothing in the world had happened and a tear just kinda got like, I can't sit here and be silent anymore. I can't sit here and act like - and these are Christian business leaders.

I can't sit here and say the week was okay. It's not okay. It's very wrong. And here we are Christian leaders and we're not talking about. And I'm, I'm grateful for the ministry that I'm a part of and serve because they were able to say what's wrong. They were able to listen. And then they invited me, what do you want us to do?

And so there was birth was Courageous Love at Work. And so I began to start what we call a conversation where I did an outline and partnered white male Christian leaders with African American male leaders on an eight week journey where the dominant culture, male, white men could do nothing, but listen to the viewpoint of the other culture for eight weeks. And they went on this journey together and it was just great and built relationships. But out of that, I started doing a monthly live chat where I bring in guest speakers of all different nationalities to come in and challenge the group to think a different way about what Courageous Love at Work looks like.

And I'm very grateful for the guests. We have the love and unity project in Cincinnati because they challenged us not just - cuz I think sometimes we think love is just, let's just hug people and move on. But they challenge us to think about the empathy piece and to really think about what would we do to really have the kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven and reset balance to think about racial equity, to think about diversity in a way that people all have the same power.

Everyone has the same equality. It, it just amazed me that a lot of times, as believers, we graze over diversity issues with the fact, oh, I love them. Oh, I, but I love this group or that group, but we don't really take time to really get to know each other struggles and journey and really walk in each other's shoes and really say, wow, is that what it's like?

What could I do to make that, like that for me, or to really walk with you in that? And it, it challenged myself. it challenged myself after that, it challenged me on a lot of levels.

Catherine: I was part of that conversation and, oh my gosh, it was powerful. I gained so many insights from that conversation. That really rocked me, but in a good way, you know, even thinking like, you know, We're not white.

Right? We, we have ethnicity as well. And that it was just, you know, I know there's the, it's hard with not the, not having the context, but it was so, so good to recognize. Like there are a lot of different shades of black people, right? They're not all the same. We're not all the same color. Everybody's got a different skin tone and, and we need to honor our ethnic backgrounds.

And then to your point, really, really get to know one another. It, it was so powerful to be part of that conversation.

Martha: So I really want, let, just ask if the listeners are curious about those courageous, well, the, the yes. Thing you're doing monthly, is that something that we can participate in online?

D. Michelle Thompson: Absolutely. Yep.

Martha: How do we find that?

D. Michelle Thompson: Thecourageouslove.com, go to that website and you can sign up there for it. That it it's been great for me as a leader, cuz again, as Catherine described, I'm not an expert in this stuff. I just have a heart for it and I wanna see things, you know, change in our society. And so if I can be an advocate or conduit for that, I wanna do that.

Martha: Yeah. We'll make sure that that's in the show notes so people can connect with you and maybe participate in the next.

Catherine: Absolutely. And, and I also wanna let listeners know that D Michelle will be on a panel talking about belonging at the boldly conference, which is Friday, October 21st, live in Dallas and live streamed all over the country.

You can find out more if you wanna join us at boldlyconference.com. So D Michelle, I'd love to end this segment with just where can you share, where do you go for encouragement to live out your faith at work?

D. Michelle Thompson: Wow. So many different places - at work on purpose is a ministry that I've been a part of and served for years out of Cincinnati, Ohio, and love that ministry there to really encourage. I'm looking forward to a conference I'm coming, going to in a few weeks for more encouragement that, but in addition to that during the pandemic, I started an accountability group and you, you guys have those sayings. So I meet with a group of women every day, Monday through Friday at 7:00 AM for a quick inspirational nugget in prayer time, before we go to work.

Catherine: That's wonderful. That's wonderful. Well, we are gonna take a short break. You're listening to sheWorks4Him, with your host, Martha Brangenberg and Catherine Gates. And we are talking with our guest D Michelle Thompson. We'll be back in just a few minutes.

Break: Hey listeners. One of the huge projects Martha and I have been working on for years is making it easy for every workplace believer to find all the voices speaking, encouragement, and equipping into the faith and work movement, presenting the awaken podcast network. online at Awaken Podcast Network.com.com with over 130 different podcast. Voices speaking truth into you. The workplace believer, including over 30 podcasts, dedicated to Christian working women. Go online to awaken podcast network.com that's AwakenPodcastNetwork.com.

Catherine: Welcome back to sheWorks4Him where we're talking to D Michelle Thompson about Courageous Love at Work and really, really creating environments and cultures and places where people feel a sense of belonging.

Martha: You know, D Michelle, this is kind of a fun thing to find out about you because it, hopefully we are all listening to Jesus, but who is somebody here on earth right now that you listen to the most, that has an influence in your life?

D. Michelle Thompson: I don't know if she'll believe it or not, but my mother Mary Anne Thompson. She is one of the great thought leaders that only me and my brother have had a chance to really hear over the years. She's a person who doesn't speak a lot publicly, but privately just has such great wisdom and encouragement and such a real walk with the Lord. My brother always says, if there's one person getting into heaven, it's mom . And so she is someone that over the years, even when I'm not with her, I can hear holy fear, but I can hear what she would say about a situation. And so I really do listen to her whether she believes that or not, and really take to heart the different guidance and wisdom she's given and continues to give.

Catherine: Well, you're gonna have to share this podcast with her. So she knows that and knows that now it's public, right? The whole world knows.

D. Michelle Thompson: Right, right.

Martha: Talk about accountability, right?

Catherine: Right.

D. Michelle Thompson: That's right. Exactly.

Catherine: And I just wanna remind our listeners too, that you can hear more from D Michelle at the boldly conference, a faith and work conference by women for women on Friday, October 21st, you can get your tickets or learn more at boldlyconference.com.

And D Michelle, this time has gone so fast and, and it it's been so good. Thank you so much for, for all the insights and wisdom that you're sharing. I'd love for you to have an opportunity to just share one last piece of encouragement. What is the most important piece of encouragement based on, you know, this, this topic of conversation that you would love to leave our listeners with today?

D. Michelle Thompson: Yeah, my mission scripture, which is John 17:21. I leave that with everywhere I go, that I pray, you know, when Jesus prayed for disciples and all future believers: I pray that you all be one just as you and I are one. So I encourage the listener and for all of us to focus on being one with him first and then with one another.

Catherine: Amen. Amen. That is a, that is a favorite one of mine as well. D Michelle, thank you so much. This has been a rich conversation and I really do pray that it equips a lot of people to think differently about their part in helping others belong and really feel valued and included. Thank you so much.

D. Michelle Thompson: Thank you both.

Catherine: You've been listening to, sheWorks4Him with your host, Martha Brangenberg and Catherine Gates. We're Christian working women, helping other Christian working. To live out their calling at work as sheWorks4Him!

Outro: As Christian women. We have many roles from daughter, sister, friend, wife, and mother to analyst, accountant, executive or educator. Is it possible to balance our roles at work and home in a way that honors God? The answer is yes. And our new book, sheWorks4Him will help show you how written to celebrate, encourage and equip women in the workforce. sheWorks4Him, discusses the diverse experiences of today's Christian working woman. Pick up a copy by going to iWork4him.com/bookstore.

You've been listening to the, sheWorks4Him podcast with your host, Catherine Gates, Nadya Dickson, and Martha Brangenberg. Please like us on Facebook and subscribe on YouTube under sheWorks4Him and to access any of the resources we mentioned on today's.

See the show notes at sheworksforhim.com that's she works the number four, him.com. This podcast was created to empower you to live out your calling at works. So the world knows sheWorks4Him.

6/6/22 - Tuning In To God's Direction: Tracy Mathews, Attune

Intro: As a Christian working woman, you have many roles from your responsibility with family and friends to community and work. How do you connect all that you do with all that you are, and still have your faith shine through?. It's a challenge, but you are up to it. The, sheWorks4Him, podcast it at the gathering place to empower Christian working women, to live out their calling at work.

By connecting them to God resources and each other through powerful faith stories from other working sisters in Christ. Welcome to sheWorks4Him.

Martha: Welcome to sheWorks4Him, where we connect Christian, working women to God resources and one another. And yes, there are some resources in today's show that you're not gonna wanna miss.

And I wanna encourage you to listen to them or check the show notes later and make sure that you get. One thing I do wanna highlight that is not on the topic of today's show, other than Christian working women getting together in Orlando in June for an event that is called Boss Woman Getaway. And I just want to encourage you to check out the link on that.

Dr. Perdita Meek's ministry is in charge of that. And really there, the thing I really wanna communicate is that it's for women in every role. That it can come together in a collaborative platform to have conversations around excellence and all that God desires them to be in their role in this season, whatever season they may be in.

So check out that link, see if it's a good fit for you. And I just invite you to join in on that if you are at all possible to do that this summer in June. So just another resource we wanna bring your way, but you can always find out more details about things by going to, sheWorks4Him.com Catherine?

Catherine: Thanks, Martha. We are all bound to face uncertainty in our work lately. It seems uncertainty abounds for everyone. The truth is we don't know what tomorrow holds, but we do know the one who holds tomorrow. James four, 13 and 15 tells us now, listen, you who say today or tomorrow, we will go to the city where that city its been the city or that city and spend a year there, carry on business and make money.

Instead you ought to say, if it is the Lord's will we will live and do this or that. And Matthew six, Jesus admonishes the people not to worry about what they will wear or what they will eat, but rather in verse 33, seek first God's kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.

I believe Jesus was also referring to all resources we need for our work. God wants us to turn to him and inquire of him for our. Tracy Mathews and her organization, Attune is all about helping teams do just that. Tracy Mathews spent nine years with a biotech startup and has also worked as a consultant and as an engineer. She's is the spark behind Attune, a ministry that helps leaders and teams grow in their capacity to Attune to what God has in store for them in their work. Tracy, welcome to sheWorks4Him.

Tracy Mathews: Oh, thanks so much for having me. It's such a pleasure to be here and thank you for the work that you guys do.

Catherine: Thanks. Oh, thanks. I'm so excited to have you, Tracy, you know, as, as you know, I've had a personal experience of your work. And so I, I can't wait for listeners to get a taste of what it is you do, but first, can you share with our listeners how you became a follower of Jesus?

Tracy Mathews: Yes, of course, of course. So in middle school is when my family and I started to go to church regularly.

But my true coming to faith experience actually didn't happen until college. So what was happening is I had come back from college was talking with my mom in the kitchen. And I remember I was over by the window and I was watching a cut heal on my finger. And I was in like science and engineering.

And I was thinking like, you know, science tells us that things tend towards disorder. And yet here we have these human bodies that, that know how to heal themselves. And so it was this kind of amazement of like, oh, that doesn't happen on its own. And it was like, there must be some kind of intelligent designer to this.

And as I was talking to my mom about it, it just came out of my mouth and I knew it to be true. It, it must be the God of the Bible. So it started out as this very rational, logical conclusion. Like there must be a designer, but then all I can say is the holy spirit spoken to the depths of my heart. And I just knew it to be true that it was the God of the Bible.

And I, I really haven't looked back sense.

Catherine: That's amazing. God uses all kinds of ways, right. To point himself out to us. So, so Tracy, when did you realize that your work matters to God? How did God get your attention there?

Tracy Mathews: Yeah, that's a good way to say it too. Cause he got my attention. You know, it started well in a lot of ways. It started way back when, but I'll say this back in like 2014, I had this conversation with a friend who was telling me about this growing financial trend of impact investing and it was totally new to me at the time. And it just got the wheels turning and it's this basic idea that financial investors want more than a financial return.

They want some kind of social or environmental good to happen along with the financial return. And it just made so much sense and it kind of got the wheels turning. And then really a few months later in what I'll call kind of like an epiphany moment. I just had this thought, what if business is for more than just making money?

And it was a, it sounds, it sounds funny now, but it was a brand new thought and I was like all about my work, all about the private sector. And I also thought I was all about Jesus. So it was like a highly distressing moment of like, oh, I've never even asked God something as basic as like the fundamental purpose of business.

So that kinda kicked off just a I'll call it an adventure. But conversations here got led to some really great books. And well now I have this fuller understanding that God cares about all of our daily work paid and unpaid every situation we are in, he is with us and he has good purpose and guidance. And that changes everything.

Martha: Yes. I love talking to you, Tracy. Cause you just draw me and I'm sitting here thinking and, and just absorbing all of this and I'm like, oh, I need to, I need to keep the conversation going. You know, here I am a listener and a host at the same time. So. You have so authentically articulated what God has shown you and opened your eyes to you, and you were willing to have your eyes open.

I think that that's one of the, the keys to your story in that sense of, of what God was showing you. Can you in the next minute or so, just tell us as a Christian working woman, having your eyes open to how God cares so much about your work, What has been maybe a big challenge for you and a big victory?

Tracy Mathews: Yeah. And I'll, I'll put 'em together and try and do it in a minute here. But what I would say my continuous struggle even today is that I can tend to make work my idol. I can get my identity sense of worth sense of purpose in the world from my work. And when it doesn't go well, you know, I don't sleep at night.

And I, I struggle. It's, it's my, my worth that becomes on the line. And what I'll say is the biggest victory is that God has been freeing me from this and I can now show up so much more confidently and secure that I am loved, that I am his, and out of his love he gives me my work in the world. I don't have anything to prove anything to earn. I just get to be a part of his story.

Martha: How many of us listeners right now could use that fresh perspective? Thank you so much for sharing that with us, because I think I know that there are other women listening right now that, that struggle with that same thing of of making work, our idol, whether we want to or not.

So listeners, there's so much more ahead. You're listening to. For him where we're talking today with Tracy Mathews and we'll be right back.

Break: Did you know that God has a calling on your life? It's true. He's called you to bring Jesus to the world. For some that may look like a pulpit or a foreign mission field, but for most of us, it looks like a construction site, a cubicle, a hospital, or a classroom, wherever it is that you work, live, volunteer and invest.

That is your mission field. To learn more about integrating your faith into your work in retirement, check out our books. iWork4Him. sheWorks4Him and iRetire4Him by going to iWork4him.com/bookstore.

Catherine: Welcome back to sheWorks4Him. We're talking and I just, gosh, we were just saying how we could just listen to you all day, Tracy.

I love the way you, you share your heart and articulate. And I have had the privilege of being led through an Attunement session that you facilitated for Women in the Marketplace and Polished as we were seeking God's direction for our collaborative partnership. And certainly very similar experience, just, it felt so safe and so gentle.

And and so spirit led certainly very spirit led. Can you share a little bit about how Attune was birthed? How did that come into being?

Tracy Mathews: Sure. Yes. And let me just say it, it's been such a joy to get, to see how God does at work in and through you and Women in the Marketplace and everything. So thanks.

Let me just say that. But I'll say it has been an adventure and what we call spiritually Attuned leader. and we focus a lot of our effort on serving those that are kind of pioneering into two new territory. And in that space, what we're finding is that God doesn't typically kind of download everything all at once, but rather he says like, okay, go to the land I will show you. And we go to that next step. And then he shows us the next step and we go there and then he shows us the next.

So I say that I'll to say it has been an adventure and it started with this basic idea around a faith and work curriculum. And what we kind of were able to discern was like, oh, there's a lot of excellent curriculum out there, but where we feel called in that life application, like how do we help people apply their faith?

What they know to be true to their everyday work situations and decision. And so then we moved in that direction and then it became clear that it's, it's not just applying biblical wisdom, but it's actually about helping people hear God's guidance like their, the real time voice of the spirit, the spiritual Attunement that we're talking about.

So, you know, there there's been many other kind of add-on dimensions that we didn't know to look for at the beginning, but it's been this journey of becoming, and here we are now as Attune and a wonderful ride.

Catherine: And it's a wonderful resource. What I loved about it is just the unfolding of not only the vision and ideas, but also the brokenness that can get in the way.

And what I found was even though not everybody knew each other, it was amazing how, how transparent and authentic everybody was in that session. That was really impressive to me. So when do leaders typically, when, when is an appropriate time for leaders to, to bring you in, to do an Attunement session, what are they typically looking to accomplish?

Tracy Mathews: Sure, sure. And I'll say it varies widely, but there's a number of what we call kind of one off reasons. Leaders will bring us in a lot of times it is, Hey, we're embarking on this new thing. It's a new partnership. It's a new ministry, a new business arm, or we wanna start heading in this direction. We've done some racial reconciliation work, so moving towards racial equity and flourishing.

Sometimes it's, Hey, we're just going through a challenging season, right? We lost a key leader or the things that used to work, guess what? They don't work anymore. Cuz the world has changed. We, we need God's help. So a variety of different kind of one off things that we come into help for.

And then sometimes and where we like things to head is that people realize that spiritual atunement is a capacity that they can develop. Single early and as a team and it will help them in like a whole bunch of different areas. So they bring us in really for leadership development and for healthy culture.

Catherine: That's awesome. And you have a - sorry, Martha. I just wanna make sure that our listeners, so that you're offering a free resource it's Wisdom from Above it's a five day devotional on spiritual Attunement that you developed in partnership with Fuller's Dupree Center for leadership, theology of work project and Attuned, and our listeners can find it at Attunetogrow.org/taste-C. Taste-C.

Tracy Mathews: Absolutely.

Martha: I love that you've given us a resource and that it's, it's not this fact sheet, but it's a devotion because it sounds like that's just one more way that you're helping to develop it internally that it's not just here do these things. But how can God work on our heart? So let's break this down a little bit more.

So if I'm gonna attend an Attunement session. Like what does that actually look like? Because it sounds a little mysterious.

Tracy Mathews: Yes. Yes, yes. And some of it, you just have to kind of try it out to see, so that Wisdom from Above devotional actually includes a 10 minute audio guided exercise, so you can kind of get a taste for it and it hopefully will help you real time with your work challenges.

But all of our work, all of our Attunement exercises, our sessions, whether it be a 10 minute exercise off the website or a session that we will facilitate for you and your team, they all follow this kind of listen, discern go framework. And so we'll usually help you get clear on the specific situation or area you're bringing before God for more of his.

And then we'll walk you through some steps that will help you listen, meaning gain a better sense of some of the deeper and wider dynamics at play. You're just kind of naming some of the patterns or themes that you're seeing within yourself within the work product, within the team, whatever the case might be, so that listen, step naming the deeper, wider themes at play.

And then we go into what we call a discern. And here what we're doing is we're looking to gain an awareness of the one or two key themes or guideposts that we most sense guide inviting us to live further into in our response. So we'll walk you through some exercises to help you get to the one or two guideposts.

And then we say, go, and sometimes it's a, Hey, what are one or two next steps you might take? Sometimes it's a full to our workshop to kind of brainstorm where we might. And sometimes it's Hey, this is, these are the guideposts for you to keep in front of you over the season ahead to help you with the myriad of decisions and challenges and pivots that'll come.

But Hey, keep these guideposts in front of you. So listen, discern go. And all of our workshops will help people move through those three steps.

Martha: Mm. So how important is it that everyone involved in the Attuned session is strong in their faith? You know, have you seen how it's impacted people's faith when they've participated, especially as it relates to bringing their faith into work, but just give us a little peek behind that.

Tracy Mathews: Sure, sure. Somebody I'll take 'em separately. I mean, first it, it always helps if people are of strong faith and if they understand the voice of the spirit, you know, they know which, which voice is theirs and which voice is gods and what might be the enemies. But what I'll say is, you know, God typically honors our efforts to genuinely seek and follow his will. So we're happy to work with anybody who's hungry for God's guidance. And we typically find again that God will honor their efforts reward their efforts.

And that second question, you know, in terms of what differences it can make, you know, when did you've experienced God with you in your work and you've sensed his guidance for you, you, you, you hear how much he cares about the work. How much he cares about you in the work. And so it's incredibly strengthening in the faith and just that understanding of like, oh God is in this. And he cares about not only the work itself and what it can do for his creation, but he cares about how it might form me, how it might form us. That's a beautiful thing.

Catherine: That is beautiful. And I can attest to you know, since we've done that Attune session it's just been amazing how the team has been aligned and on purpose and really, really seeking God at each moment. So you're listening to sheWorks4HIm with your hosts, Martha Brangenberg and Catherine Gates. And our guest is Tracy Mathews. We'll be right back after this short break.

Break: Hey listeners. One of the huge projects Martha and I have been working on for years is making it easy for every workplace believer to find all the voices speaking, encouragement, and equipping into the faith and work movement, presenting the Awaken Podcast Network.

online at awakenpodcastnetwork.com with over 130 different podcast. Voices speaking truth into you, the workplace believer. Including over 30 podcast, dedicated to Christian working women. Go online to AwakenPodcastNetwork.com that's AwakenPodcastNetwork.com.

Catherine: Welcome back to sheWorks4Him. We're your hosts, Martha Brangenberg and Catherine.

And I just, I just love this topic, Tracy, you know, God does care about our work. He wants to speak to us in our work. And I think, you know, even those of us who live out our faith at work and know that that's important. It's not, it's not necessarily. And I, I talk to a lot of people. It's not necessarily a habit to, to seek God and ask him for the, the, you know, the challenges and the, and on a daily basis right. Throughout the day. And I feel like, you know, our experience we saw not only did God care about this collaboration, but as you know, you know, we went into it, even praying which project should we be praying about? And, and then, you know, the, then as we went through the different questions, you could see.

Because we took time to be quiet. Right. And then you said, all right, share what you feel is appropriate. And that's the thing it's always so safe share what you feel is appropriate. And as people were sharing, we were like saying the same things. Mm. You know, and that's the holy spirit. And so I feel like it's such a powerful experience to see why wouldn't we want to have this experience every day.

The holy spirit is speaking. And he wants to speak and he wants to give us that direction. And and you know, in fact, the, you know, we ended up with those three guideposts and they became the theme for our project, which is, you know, I mean, again, just, you can see God just leading the whole way. So what Tracy, what do you wanna be sure and leave our listeners with, because clearly this is, this is a key aspect of living their faith at work. What do you want to leave listeners with regarding really seeking God first, every day in their work?

Tracy Mathews: Yes. What, what I would say is that spiritual Attunement is a capacity that we build through intentional practice and repetition, right? The fruit of it is so beautiful. You've just spoken so beautifully to it, but we don't just naturally understand how to hear all the ways the spirit is speaking to.

So practice and repetition, try different stuff out, find what works for you and create those habits and rhythms that will allow you to become a more Attuned person in just the way you naturally move in the world.

Martha: Mm Tracy, you have given us so many great things, nuggets of information and people can find out more about you at what website?

Tracy Mathews: Attunetogrow.org Attune to grow.org.

Martha: And if you go to taste dash C, then you can find that five day devotional that we were talking about. So final word, what is a life verse for you or a verse in this season that is helping you walk out your relationship with the Lord and, and where you're going?

Tracy Mathews: Absolutely. So as I have talked to before, Attune feels called to come alongside pioneers. We, I am an entrepreneur pioneer. So a verse that means a lot to me is Isaiah 42 16. And I have it written here, which I always keep here, but the message version says, I'll take the hand of those who don't know the way who can't see where they're going. I'll be a personal guide to them, directing them through unknown country. I'll be right there to show them what roads to take, make sure they don't fall into the ditch. These are the things I'll be doing for them, sticking with them, not leaving them for a minute. And it's been so true.

Catherine: That is so beautiful and God wants to do that for every single one of us. We just need to Attune to his voice, right? So, Tracy, this has been amazing. I know there's so much more you could share with our listeners. So I do hope they'll go to Attune to grow.org and, and check out that devotional taste and sea. So much Tracy for sharing this time with us.

Tracy Mathews: Thanks. You've so much for having me.

Catherine: Absolutely. You've been listening to, sheWorks4Him with your host, Martha Brangenberg and Catherine Gates. We're Christian working women, helping other Christian working women to live out their calling at work as sheWorks4Him.

Outro: As Christian women, we have many roles from daughter, sister, friend, wife, and mother to analyst, accountant, executive or educator. Is it possible to balance our roles at work and home in a way that honors God? The answer is yes. And our new book, sheWorks4Him will help show you how. Written to celebrate, encourage and equip women in the workforce. sheWorks4Him discusses the diverse experiences of today's Christian working woman. Pick up a copy by going to iWork for him.com/bookstore.

You've been listening to the, sheWorks4Him podcast with your host, Catherine Gates, Nadya Dickson, and Martha Brangenberg. Please like us on Facebook and subscribe on YouTube under sheWorks4Him and to access any of the resources we mentioned on today's show.

See the show notes at sheworksforhim.com that's she works the number four, him.com. This podcast was created to empower you to live out your calling at works. So the world knows sheWorks4Him.

5/30/22 - Nothing Wasted, Part 2: Angela Mitchell

Intro: As a Christian working woman, you have many roles from your responsibility with family and friends to community and work. How do you connect all that you do with all that you are, and still have your face shine through. It's a challenge, but you are up to it. The, sheWorks4Him, podcast it at the gathering place to empower Christian working women, to live out their calling at work.

By connecting them to God resources and each other through powerful faith stories from other working sisters in Christ. Welcome to sheWorks4Him.

Martha: You've tuned into, sheWorks4Him, where we connect Christian, working women to God resources and one another. And I know today that is gonna be a very special conversation that we're gonna have.

It's actually part two with our guest Angela Mitchell. So if you are tuning in and you're. Up to speed on everything we've been talking about. You can go back and listen to part one. And you can just hear how God has been working in Angela's life. But friends right now, I just wanna remind you and connect you to an opportunity that Christian working women have from all over the country to come together in Orlando, June 23rd, through 26th for an event called Boss Woman Getaway.

So you can look at the show notes to get the details and the links to check it out for yourself. But it's for every woman, Christian woman, whether they're an executive, a manager, a supervisor, entrepreneur, team leader, stay at home, mom, whatever your role might be, it's gonna be a collaborative platform where you can come together and exchange dialogue and topics and issues that are pertinent to empowering you, the Christian working woman.

So I hope that you will check out that link and see for yourself if that's something that God has in store for you for this summer. Little time in Orlando never hurt anybody . You can get some extra sunshine in those June months, which is a, is a warm and beautiful time of year to be here.

So thank you for joining us. Check out that in the show links. And remember, you can just follow us on any of the social media platforms that you love to hang out on. We are there with you and I just look forward to the conversation today, Nadya.

Nadya: I do too. And you just mentioned about how Boss Woman is there to empower women. That was my word for 2022 empower, and God has been revealing that more and more. I really believe that our conversation with Angela today will really help bring empowerment by infusing courage and hope, especially now, you know. The last two years have been really just unbelievable and have had so many consequences and implications with so many.

It, it really feels like we've been facing so much adversity. Mm-hmm and we wonder, how is this all going to fall into place? Are we ever going to see victory? Well, as Christian working women, the answer is yes. We are more than overcomers and we're victors, not victims. And so today we're going to hear the second part of Angela Mitchell's story, her life story about how nothing is wasted and maybe you are in the hallway after a door has closed for you, and you're waiting for God to open another door.

Regardless of your past, regardless of experiences or tragedies, you know, God is redemptive and he can take any mess and make it a message. Mm-hmm . Today we're gonna talk to Angela for the second part of our conversation. She owns and operates a number of Chick-fil-A franchises in the Charlotte area with their husband and together, they walked through family tragedy.

And this - it's it's really it's hard to hear it, but what I know about her and about her story is that she is galvanized by the holy spirit. And she is now a messenger of healing, of redemption, of hope. And Through her story. She's gonna share more of that today, but even their marketplace position here in the Charlotte area.

They're very excited about what God's doing in their lives right now as leaders in the kingdom as marketplace leaders. So we're gonna go to Concord, North Carolina to have a conversation with Angela Mitchell today. Angela, welcome to sheWorks4Him.

Angela Mitchell: Thanks so much for having me.

Martha: You know, I wanna just have you quickly recap where we're at in our conversation with you, right. And we know that your story's not done. Right? You know, God, God weaves a tapestry of our life. That, that hopefully goes all the way to the end. And you very early on, you talked about, you know, a lot wanting God to write a, a legacy story in your life. So why don't you just catch us up in maybe 30 seconds? I know that's quick - as to where we're at in our conversation with you.

Angela Mitchell: Well, you know, I think it comes down to this. Martha, when tragedy comes, we have an opportunity for how we're going to respond. We can choose that it can define us, or we can choose that it can destroy us.

And that was the option. When our son Coleman went to heaven, we knew we were faced with an option. Our kids were watching the trajectory we would take. And so were many others that were around us. So we declared at that moment that we would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. And we were gonna hang on. If that was all it felt like we were doing was just hanging on. We were gonna trust him as faithful.

Martha: Mm. You know. So when I think about the fact that at the time that Coleman went to heaven, you already owned your Chick-fil-A's, right?

Angela Mitchell: We did.

Martha: Mm-hmm I was thinking about that. And the fact that not only your customers, but your employees were watching, to see how you responded. Can you just talk about that ministry for a moment? Because one of the things that I know is that when we hear stories on the news, we often don't get to put ourselves in the shoes of the people after the fact. You know, how did they respond? How do they live out life every day?

And so just take a moment there and talk about how God used your workplace ministry, right, with your employees as you walked through that grief, right?

Angela Mitchell: Yeah. It really was a challenge. And, and even for a season, we all stepped away from the business because being around people - while that is healthy - being around people who don't know how to respond and can often respond in ways that, they mean no ill regard, but they often just aren't received that way.

You know, for example, oftentimes people like to encourage you with, he'll make beauty for ashes. You know, joy will come in the morning. Well, you know what, they are all his truth. They are all his promise. But even as they would quote the scripture beauty for ashes over me, I really wanted to holler at the top of my lungs: do you realize though, that for this season, I'm unrecognizable? I have been reduced to ashes that the Lord now has to rebuild me. Do you realize what you're saying to me? So, you know, there was a season that we had to pull away so that the Lord could refresh us, not heal us in a short period of time.

Yeah, because that's a journey of many years, but, but that he could just begin to allow us to begin just like Jacob to walk with the limp. But knowing that we've met with the Lord and that he was guiding us through this, and sometimes let's face it, whether it's your journey or mine, Often knowing that people are watching our journey.

I'm just gonna be really honest for a little bit. That made me a little angry. I didn't care if people were watching, watching what I was doing, I was mad that everybody would kind of put that type of pressure on me and, or they would see me out in public and maybe I'm dressed and I have my makeup on and my hair done and they would respond with, oh, you seem to be doing so great.

They just had no idea. And You know, grief is at the end of the day, it's you in a pillow, you know, it is you, your tears and the Lord, that's all. And it's good and it's bad and it's ugly and it's painful, but it is just that it's a journey. And yes, people were watching and particularly our two living sons were watching, you know?

Martha: And Angela, one of the things that and I, before we go to break, I wanna talk about the - real quick - the fact that you were still in that season when God brought something else your way, and it may have been very confusing in the flesh to say, why Lord, why now are you opening another door for another opportunity? So when we come back, we're gonna talk about this approach of, you know, them wanting to use your home, to film the movie War Room.

And how God used that, you know, what seems maybe to some people to be surreal to help you in this process. So we'll be right back with more with Angela Mitchell after this short break. You're listening to us, sheWorks4Him.

Break: Did you know that God has a calling on your life? It's true. He's called you to bring Jesus to the world. For some that may look like a pulpit or a foreign mission field, but for most of us, it looks like a cons. Site a cubicle, a hospital or a classroom, wherever it is that you work, live, volunteer, and invest. That is your mission field. To learn more about integrating your faith into your work in retirement.

Check out our books. iWork4Him. sheWorks4Him and iRetire4Him by going to iWork4Him.com/bookstore.

Martha: Welcome back to sheWorks4Him with your cohost Nadya Dickson and Martha Bragenberg. We're talking today with Angela Mitchell and Angela, thank you so much for being real, for being honest, for allowing others to hear your story. Because it's, it is, it can be life changing for someone to hear what someone else has gone through. So Nadya, where, where should we go with this conversation?

Nadya: Yeah. Well, we just talked about how something extraordinary came, something unexpected came, and it was an invitation that probably didn't make sense at the time. And Angela, you alluded earlier in the show, maybe it was the last one that you were asked to open your home, which was a sacred space for you. And so tell us what happened.

Angela Mitchell: Yeah. So often people ask when they know that we have a connection with the War Room, did we know the Kendrick brothers? How did all of that happen? But the, the story is we actually shared a common friend, who felt a nudge from the Lord that he was to bring them to our home. And this was to be part of our story of redemption. So, you know, as Steven and Alex came, they stood around our kitchen table and we began to pray.

Their words were this: perhaps your wounds are too fresh for what an opportunity like this might look like - a hundred-ish people in your home, you need to be displaced for several weeks. And oh, by the way, your home, that's only about 15 months old, we're gonna reduce some of it. . And so, you know, maybe, maybe this is too big of an opportunity or maybe this is just what we need to serve the enemy notice he doesn't win.

Well, that was all they had to declare and there were tears around the whole table. As we prayed, we prayed over this opportunity. We asked for God to be present. I look at Roland. Roland looks at me. And we knew only God himself could have ordained this moment. And we immediately said, yes. You know, when God gave us this home, it was simply ours to steward and we prayed it would be used for ministry. That wasn't exactly what we had in mind, but it was the opportunity that we knew God was extending.

Nadya: Wow. And I do. I do remember you talking about praying through your house. That was real. You guys did that before the movie about prayer, the power of prayer. And even some of the connections I'm seeing about how you're serving the enemy notice he's not gonna win this war. And here is a movie about the War Room .

Angela Mitchell: Yeah, exactly. I mean, it, we really stood in disbelief that the Lord would extend this opportunity to us, for our home to be used for the power to be brought, to have people praying for six weeks, walking our property line, praying over this film, praying over our family, praying into our story.

And that again, that God would give us, you know, this opportunity. And I think the most beautiful part of this was when Steven and Alex brought us into Roland's office. And they said, we'd like to ask you a question. We can't imagine what your journey has looked like. We can't imagine the pain that you are walking, but with your permission, Alex would like for his character name in the movie War Room to be Coleman.

And so to the heart of a grieving parent, the hardest thing is the silence of their name. And so that was one of the things that we were struggling with. But again, I serve a God who writes a better story. And while the enemy thought that it would be the silence of his name, the Lord said, oh, no, I will only catapult this. To over 80 nations his name will go out.

So the Lord, no matter what our grief... you know, my grief is specific to our son going to heaven. You know, grief looks like miscarriage. It looks like divorce. It looks like infertility. It looks like the loss of a business. It can be so multifaceted. It's something we all walk, but trusting in God that he will write a, a better narrative and a greater story to all this, it's the hope that we all have.

Nadya: Amen. Amen.

Martha: So not many of us are gonna have a home that becomes a movie set. But what, what can you... transfer? What can you, what you learned in that time that maybe, you know, that other Christian working women need to hear what was it about laying all that down and allowing God to use even those fresh hurts and pains that, that God really brought to some healing? And like you said, redemption, I hear this theme of redemption that God brought through the, the movie. How did that all fit together?

Angela Mitchell: Yeah. You know, the Lord is so good in all that. And I think it even ties back to some of our earlier conversations, that it just begins for our willingness in our personal life and in our professional life, just our yes of surrender that indicates to the Lord: I release all of my control to, to you, Lord. I'm trusting that when we said yes to hosting, you know, that was just a fun thing, but that yes, led to a plan. It led to our work in Africa.

Our yes to Steven and Alex Kendrick led to our hearts being surrounded by a, by an entire summer, because I think the other piece of when you're going through grief or challenges of any sort, isolation becomes the enemy's playground. And the Lord made sure in that season and in our summer that we were completely surrounded by the likes of Dr. Tony Evans and Lois who were here on set. As he does devotions at the pool out back. And literally I would look out and have to have someone pinch me that this truly was happening, or to be able to spend the summer with Priscilla Shire and her family. And to have them here. No, the Lord was intentional in connecting, like he promises to do to all of us. No, it may not look like the War Room, but the Lord is equally intentional in all, all of our journeys.

Martha: Mm, it's so good. Such, such powerful words for us to be hearing today, no matter what our journey looks like. And, you know when sometimes I think it, it's a good reminder that sometimes when we look at people's lives and we know that they've had something hard, but they look fine or they look like they're... you know, there's so much that God has done in their individual lives. And Angela, you've let us get a little taste of that from your life that - no, it's not been easy. No, it has been stretching beyond your wildest imagination.

Angela Mitchell: Yes.

Martha: But the redemption that comes through it and the way that God is using that for his glory in your workplace today, in your neighborhood. I can't even imagine, you know. That's a whole other show as far as the impact that that has had on the people just watching and observing how many people watched the movie that it would've never gone, just because they're like, huh, this is, this is my neighbor's house or whatever? I don't even know those stories, but I'm just imagining.

So when we come back, I wanna talk about where you guys are at now, what God has you doing and what that looks like in your own family, with you and your husband and your work. So we'll be right back with more from Angela Mitchell after a short break. Thanks for listening to sheWorks4Him. Talk to you in a minute.

Break: Hey listeners. One of the huge projects Martha and I have been working on for years is making it easy for every workplace believer to find all the voices speaking, encouragement, and equipping into the faith and work movement, presenting the Awaken Podcast Network. online at awakenpodcastnetwork.com with over 130 different podcast voices speaking truth into you, the workplace believer. Including over 30 podcasts, dedicated to Christian working women. Go online to AwakenPodcastNetwork.com that's AwakenPodcastNetwork.com.

Nadya: Welcome back to sheWorks4Him with your host, Martha Brangenberg and Nadya Dickson. And we are finishing our incredible conversation today with Angela Mitchell.

So Angela, you and Roland are at a brand new chapter of your life, a new journey. You've been in business for a number of years now, successfully, but you both are journeying into ministry school together. Tell me more about that.

Angela Mitchell: Well in January of this year, we felt like God extended an invitation for us to join and partner with The Altar School of Ministry with our pastor and prophet, Jeremiah Johnson. Jeremiah moved his ministry from Florida here to the Concord area last year.

But again, the surrender of yes, we said yes to again, an invitation we knew was from him. We didn't know what school required. We didn't know what the schedule looked like. We literally knew nothing about it, but we felt the prompting of the Lord that he was drawing our hearts into a deeper place, into sweeter intimacy with him.

And the school's whole focus is on preparing marketplace ministers, as we prepare for the wedding day of Christ's return. So that our influence is all about that. And so it's pulled us into this sweet spot. And one of the statements that Jeremiah talks about with our school is this: our call is temporary. Our storyline is eternal.

And so although we've lived out faith in our Chick-fil-A: treating people well, praying over people, all the things that were expected, I always looked at the eternal lens, knowing there's an eternity, knowing that the Lord's returning, but there's been a shift within all of that to now look at everything that we do through an eternal lens, for everything that he's, you know, equipping us to do. And that small shift has begun to change everything.

Martha: Mm. So tell me what some of those things are, because this is the practical, this is - christian working women, ears wide open listening and saying, okay, if I'm to shift from, you know, my calling is temporary meaning here and in the flesh on earth, but our, but our, our story is eternal. How is that playing out in your work?

Angela Mitchell: Yeah. I, I think for me, even going back to this, the Lord was calling us to a deeper intimacy and a deeper place of understanding. We can't focus on the things that are eternal in our personal life, or in our spiritual life, if that time of being marinated by his presence doesn't exist.

So how then do we transfer that to our work environment, to our family, to our neighbors, to all of those people in, in a practical way, showing that he is marking us for eternity? Well, it comes from spending our time in the sweet spot of him because what's prepared in prayer and not spent time there can't multiply into the, the blessings and the benefit he wants to show us in our marketplace to, to walk him out.

Well, if we're first not being marinated in the richness of that. So the process is our time with him begins to change everything.

Nadya: Hmm. That's so good, Angela. You know, what's interesting to me is that I've always seen you as a marketplace minister and you went to the school at Evangel. And so you've been through this journey and now it's like a deeper place where you're taking what you've heard in private. Yes. And now it's transferring to the public platform in your, in your workspace as a trainer, as an owner. As a mentor, you're still educating these young people that end up working at Chick-fil-A most of the time. It's these young people, and so you're transferring something eternal to them because of the time you spent in the chamber.

I love that. I love that. Thank you for sharing this incredible story with us. Yeah. Do you wanna share with us your life verse or a scripture that's been most meaningful to you?

Angela Mitchell: Yeah, and I, and I will try to, to do that quickly. You know, I think as we walk out our faith in our life and in the marketplace, I'm reminded of the powerful women in the Bible. You know, we need the boldness of Deborah to fight a battle. We need the faith of a Hannah to believe for those things. We need the courage of a Ruth to say, if it costs me everything, I'm still in. And finally we need the, the ability of a Miriam to plan in advance of what she was gonna see to prepare for the other side of the sea.

So we need the boldness of those things. And I could say, you know, my favorite verse and, and my driving verse is absolutely John 6:12, "for God says: gather the pieces, nothing - let nothing be wasted." That's the story of our lives. God uses every valley, every mountaintop, the good, the bad, the ugly, the sad, every piece of it to form our journey.

Or I could tell you my favorite verse is Micah 7:8 that says, "don't vote over me my enemy. Though, I have fallen, I will rise." And enemy, you will realize you overplayed your hand. Or lastly, I could tell you that the life verse where our entire family has kept camped is in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.

And it talks about not focusing on what is seen, but focusing on the things that are eternal, because those are the things that will last, you know. And the message Bible, if you have a chance to read, it is so powerful because it talks about "how could we give up? Even though on the outside, it's wasting away. He's unfolding new grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times. The lavish celebration, he has prepared. There's more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow, but the things we can't will last forever." And finally, the last sentence that carries over on into chapter five is this.

In the message Bible: "the spirit of God, wets our "appetite for giving us a taste of what's ahead. He puts a little heaven in our hearts that we'll never settle for anything less." And friends, that's what God wants us to do - to execute everything that we do through the lens of eternity.

Nadya: Amen.

Martha: Angela Mitchell. It has been an amazing two part conversation, but I know that God's not done. There's so much more that he's writing in each one of our lives. Yes. If we make sure that we hold open handedly his plan. So thank you so much for being our guest today. You've been listening to, sheWorks4Him with your host, Martha Brangenberg and Nadya Dickson. We're Christian working helping other Christian working women to live out their calling at work, as sheWorks4Him!

Outro: As Christian women, we have many roles from daughter, sister, friend, wife, and mother to analyst, accountant, executive or educator. Is it possible to balance our roles at work and home in a way that honors God?

The answer is yes. And our new book, sheWorks4Him will help show you. Written to celebrate, encourage and equip women in the workforce. sheWorks4Him. Discusses the diverse experiences of today's Christian working woman. Pick up a copy by going to iWork4Him.com/bookstore. You've been listening to the, sheWorks4Him podcast with your host, Catherine Gates, Nadya Dickson, and Martha Brangenberg.

Please like us on Facebook and subscribe on YouTube under sheWorks4Him and to access any of the resources we mentioned on today's. See the show notes@sheworksforhim.com that's she works the number four, him.com. This podcast was created to empower you to live out your calling at works. So the world knows sheWorks4Him.

5/23/22 - Nothing Wasted, Part 1: Angela Mitchell

Intro: As a Christian working woman, you have many roles from your responsibility with family and friends to community and work. How do you connect all that you do with all that you are, and still have your faith shine through. It's a challenge, but you are up to it. The, sheWorks4Him. Podcast is the gathering place to empower Christian working women, to live out their calling at work. By connecting them to God resources and each other through powerful faith stories from other working sisters in Christ. Welcome to sheWorks4Him.

Martha: You've tuned into, sheWorks4Him, where we connect Christian, working women to God resources and one another. We are your hosts, Martha Brangenberg and Nadya Dickson.

And, you know, I was thinking about this whole idea about connecting Christian working women to your resources. And I'm very excited about an event that's coming. That, um, we have agreed to share the news with other people. So I want to share with you that there is an event that you are invited to in Orlando, Florida, June 23rd, through 26.

And it's by Dr. Perdita Meeks and it's called Boss Woman Getaway. And I just want to share this one little thing. They say the conference getaway will showcase, showcase women leaders, whether you're an executive manager, supervisor, entrepreneur, team leader, or stay at home. Mom, we've created a collaborative platform that will promote the exchange of dialogue on topics and issues pertinent to empowering.

And it goes on to share more about that. We'll have the, that the link for this event in our show notes today. But I want to make sure that I share it because this is what we're all about is lifting up what God's doing across the world. And maybe even in your. Backyard in Orlando, Florida, but you could fly in whatever.

We'll have the links there. You can check it out for Christian working women in all stages of life to just really dig in and, um, get some encouragement and some equipping. So I wanted to highlight that you can find. More about, sheWorks4Him by going to, sheWorks4Him.com and remember find our YouTube channel and subscribe because there's a fun aspect of being able to watch each other as we're having a conversation and feel a little bit more like we're sitting across the table. Nadya.

Nadya: Thank you, Martha. That sounds exciting. And who doesn't want to go to Orlando? Um, I'm excited if you talked about the backyard of Orlando, I'm here in Charlotte, North Carolina, and I get to visit with someone today from my backyard, but, um, let me give you a little bit of an introduction first and, um, just encourage you.

So maybe you're facing adversity. Um, you're wondering, how is everything going to fall into place in your personal and work life? Maybe you feel like you're in the hallway. Maybe a door has just closed and you're waiting for God to open another door. Well, today we're going to hear how God can take a myriad of experiences, resumes, workplace, victories, and even tragedy and turn it around for his glory.

Our guest today owns and operates a number of Chick-fil-A franchise locations in the Charlotte area with her husband and together they've journeyed, um, not just in the workplace, but through tragedy and in 2013, um, they overcame a family event.

She's going to share it with that, uh, share about that today, but her heart's desire has been to heal. And to guide others in their healing. So we know that you're going to be encouraged today, and I love her resolve. She is serving the enemy notice that his plan to destroy her and others through this type of pain, it's only given her purpose to make him pay.

Well, uh, Angela and her husband, Roland, a daily practice, the integration of their faith with their work. And now they're even more excited about their marketplace position for the kingdom than they've ever been. So today we're actually going to Concord. That's the backyard of Charlotte, North Carolina, Angela. Welcome to sheWorks4Him.

Angela Mitchell: Thanks so much for the invitation. Thank you so much. I am truly honored that you all would select to, to hear our story and just let us pour into and encourage others.

Nadya: I'm excited. I'm excited about. Before we get there. And, and what it even looks like to connect your faith with your work. Tell us first how you became a follower of Jesus.

Angela Mitchell: You know, I am very fortunate and very blessed to have come from a family of faith. My parents, my grandparents, my extended family, but I was seven when I asked the Lord into my heart, but I, I actually love how my mom tells the story because she says I came out of my playroom.

I told her that I felt like the Lord had touched. And that I wanted to ask him into my heart. It was sweet. She was ironing outside my little toy room and she just knelt down and led me to salvation. You know, I, I wish that my life had taken that perfect course, but kind of like the Israelites, there were moments where I chose my own way, but I'm so grateful for the Lord's continued call back to his heart.

Martha: You know, it, it is amazing when we hear authentic stories like that, where you just, I mean, as a child, you know, you didn't ha we don't think three-dimensionally yet. And yet we know without a shadow of a doubt that you were prompted in that. Yeah to make a decision. I hope that that's an encouragement, even just in that conversation.

As moms, as aunts, as friends and grandmas, that we continue to pray for the children around us, because we never know, um, what, when their heart is in it, get that soft point where the Lord really touches their lives. So thanks for sharing that. So one of the things Angela, that I, um, have heard about you is that you were an educator before you were in business as a business owner. So where along that journey, did you understand that your work actually mattered to God?

Angela Mitchell: Yes, you're right. I began in the field of education, which was my major, um, fulfilment for about 10 years. And then the Lord opened the opportunity for my husband and I to open our first Chick-fil-A. And I knew my education always mattered to him.

He deposited that desire when I was a young girl to be a teacher. And so I always felt like I tried to carry his heart into the classroom because I always believed that he handpicked those students that were to be in my room, that, that wasn't by a chance or by a lottery, or it was because the Lord selected them, that what they had, I needed.

And prayerfully what I had they needed in return. So whether it was education or our Chick-fil-A opportunity, where I knew beyond shadow of a doubt, there are so many miracles to our, even having the opportunity to have been selected that our Chick-fil-A was the Lord's when we started. And it remains his today.

Martha: So let's camp on that just for a second, because, um, God gave you a desire to be a, I'm assuming a teacher, like what level did you teach? What was

Angela Mitchell: your level?

Well, I, when I had gone to college, I had majored in early childhood elementary and special ed in, at different points was involved in all of that. The beautiful thing, even going from education to Chick-fil-A. ,I knew that those roads intersected. Um, when, when we came into Chick-fil-A I still realize I had opportunities with high schools where I spoke to marketing classes. I still had fundraising opportunities and we still had teams at Chick-fil-A that needed trained and coached. So I do feel like all of those roads shared a lot of commonality.

Martha: Yeah, it is amazing how, you know, our experience. God doesn't waste that he may shift it and it may look different and you may not have a as a classroom, you know, four walls that you are in. But yet I imagine every day that you are using those teaching skills in one way or another. When we come back, we're going to hear more of your story.

Angela Mitchell. Thank you for being with us here. We'll be right back with more on, sheWorks4Him.

Break: Did you know that God has a calling on your life? It's true. He's called you to bring Jesus to the world. For some that may look like a pulpit or a foreign mission field, but for most of us, it looks like a construction site, a cubicle, a hospital, or a.

Wherever it is that you work, live, volunteer and invest. That is your mission field. To learn more about integrating your faith into your work and retirement. Check out our books. iWork4Him. sheWorks4Him and iRetire4Him by going to, iWork4Him.com/bookstore.

Martha: Welcome back to, sheWorks4Him with your cohost Nadya Dickson and Martha Brangenberg. We are here with Angela Mitchell today, and we're just getting started in your story, Angela. But one of the things I already see as help God has just woven, um, uh, a script in your life that you, you would have probably never written for yourself, but if God has, is using every aspect of your life for his glory, and I can't wait to get into that a little bit more.

So what I want to know right now is you, um, we kind of jumped forward, but you and your husband, you, you left education technically and have how many Chick-fil-As do you guys have?

Angela Mitchell: Well, we have two freestanding Chick-fil-A restaurants and a location that's inside of a bank.

Martha: Okay. Wow. Inside of a bank. So you can eat Jesus chicken and make a deposit.

Angela Mitchell: Absolutely.

Martha: How about that? I have not heard of that one. That's awesome.

So while you guys have been growing your business in your ministry, really your family was introduced to a, what you would consider a life changing ministry. Why don't you tell us about that?

Angela Mitchell: Yeah. In January of 2013, the Watoto children's choir from Uganda, Africa was going to be performing at our church. And so kind of one of those things on a whim, a simple, yes, we signed up to host five little boys and two uncles for what we thought was just going to be a really fun experience. We just had no idea how the Lord was about to transform a simple yes into what we couldn't then imagine.

Martha: So what, what was that thing that you couldn't imagine? Maybe tell us a little bit more about Watoto so that we understand that. Yeah, I have a feeling I've seen them, but, um, tell us, tell us about it and then how that, what did actually the impact it was on you guys?

Angela Mitchell: Sure. Watoto ministries is about 40 years old, a little over, it was founded by Gary and Marilyn Skinner. Um, they moved their family. They transferred to Uganda where they did life. Initially, starting out rescuing orphans, um, abandoned children, they were brought to them and that's how it began. Currently, the ministry does not just receive orphans, but they also bring in the widows. And, um, the beautiful part of that ministry is maybe they, they bring them in. They teach them a skill. They begin to teach them about the Lord. And for two years they're discipled into healing and then they are released having learned a trade. Maybe they become a tailor. Maybe they do hair. Maybe they make soap. But then we equip them with the tools necessary, the knowledge necessary to then be able to care for their children.

And so it started out multifaceted, but the choir that came that's a lot of how Watoto does some of their fundraising opportunities is the choir travels around around the world, not just to the state. And they probably have performed that many of your local churches and you may have seen them before. So that's a little back history of that.

Martha: So you inserted the pronoun we, um, into there. So obviously you've become involved in that, um, that ministry. So what does that look like for you and your family?

Angela Mitchell: Yeah, so, um, after hosting the Watoto children's choir, when they were about to leave, we were blessed because oftentimes families only get them for an evening. We were blessed because we got to host from a Sunday and didn't have to take the kids back to the church until the Tuesday. And so the Lord used that time to deposit deep seed in a very short period of time. And so when they left were all in tears, the kids didn't want to go to school. Our three sons were on the computer trying to figure out how we're going to get to Uganda.

Our son Coleman began to realize they have a school of ministry, a gap year that he began to talk to his youth pastor about. I think I'm going to look into Watoto 360 and maybe you could help me get to Uganda. So he thought mom and dad said, no, maybe youth pastor could help. So it became this joy of our family in, in ways that we couldn't understand, but it really showed us the significance of what seemed like a simple, yes, turned into something very different. So as we, um, you know, began to move into that, that was in January of 2013. It wasn't until April of 23rd, 2013 that our family was faced with our tragedy.

And that was the sudden Homegoing of our son Coleman. And he was dealing with some side effects from a medication that he was being given. He was weaned off incorrectly and in doing so, took his life. A decision that he would have never made otherwise, except for the adverse effects of a medication on his young brain.

So we, um, you know, knowing his heart for Uganda and everything we knew at that moment, we really had a choice. We had a choice that we could pursue legacy in those things that would have eternal consequences, or we could pursue malpractice, which we felt justified in having done. But we knew in choosing malpractice, the wounds of our heart would lay raw for a very long period of time because a court case would be seven to 10 years, um, and much involved with that. And so I can't tell you that decision was easy. It was fought. It was full of anger and tears and counsel, as we saught for people to pour into us. But in the end to wrap that part up, we allowed the Lord to be our vindicator.

We laid down our right to justice. That the Lord would fight for us. And we began to pursue what would be legacy and what would bring honor to our son's name and more importantly to the Lord and how we were about to walk this out.

Nadya: Wow. Wow. And so tell me a little bit more about the power of the yes. You know, you said yes. Um, I know Coleman was really excited about pursuing more and getting involved with Watoto. Where did all that lead?

Angela Mitchell: Yeah. You know, I think the significance of our yes is rarely immediately realized. It may be immediately realized. It may be months later that re we realize why we said yes to certain things, but I know in our healing journey and the end of this month will be nine years.

It grieves me that I even say nine years, but how the Lord has been so tender in revealing to our hearts as if kind of peeling back the layers of an onion ministering to our brokenness when he knew our hearts were then indeed ready. And so the benefit of our yes, you know, as we can now reflect the beautiful thing and showing God's goodness, we see that the Lord allowed Coleman from January until April, when he took new residents in heaven, that he left Coleman here for four months to begin to walk us into what would become our healing.

And those things wouldn't have easily been received. And, you know, for example, again, that yes, in year five, as I was having a conversation with a girlfriend about our trips to Africa and our journey there and what this looked like, the Lord very clearly spoke to my heart and said, I didn't give Watoto to Coleman, I gave it to you. You know, see the Lord in his goodness knew the number of Coleman's days and what would and will not be fulfilled. But he knew that we would pick up that Baton and run with legacy and the Lord entrusted us to that.

Martha: You know, what, what a, what a powerful conversation around choosing yes. To lean into legacy rather than, you know, vindication. And I am just enamored by this conversation because I think a lot of our listeners may be in different places where we have choices to make.

We have to say, Lord, what it, how do you want me to respond to hurt or loss or grief that they're in right now? And, um, I think that this is something that we don't talk about a lot, you know, laying aside our, our fleshly desires. Um, of, of revenge or whatever that might look like for somebody and saying, Lord, I want to do what you want me to do.

And, um, so Angela, we're going to talk more about that. When we come back after break and listeners, there's so much to this conversation, I just want to let you know it is going to end up being a two part conversation. So we are, we are just really going to take the time to, uh, to learn some things from the story that God's been writing in Angela and her family's life.

We'll be right back with more from, sheWorks4Him right after this break.

Break: Hey listeners. One of the huge projects Martha and I have been working on for years is making it easy for every workplace believer, defined all the voices, speaking, encouragement, and equipping into the faith and work movement.

Presenting the Awaken Podcast Network. Online and Awaken Podcast Network.com with over 130 different podcast. Voices speaking truth into you. The workplace believer, including over 30 podcasts, dedicated to Christian working women go online to AwakenPodcastNetwork.com that's AwakenPodcastNetwork.com.com.

Martha: Welcome back to, sheWorks4Him where today Nadya and I are having the opportunity to talk with Angela Mitchell and Angela, you have experienced some hard experiences in life that I would not wish on anyone, but God's written a story through it that is so much bigger and you acknowledge that.

And the fact that you just shared with us, how you as a family, decided to allow God to write a legacy story rather than a revengeful story. And, um, I, I want to take a minute here to kind of bring this home a little bit to the listener as we continue to hear your story and how God is, is writing more and more chapters and using it in different ways.

So let's pick it up here. You know, you were introduced to Watoto. Coleman, really opened your eyes and kind of opened the door to that through his little journey with being so interested in them. Tell me more, tell us more about, um, how God used that in your lives and what, what continued to happen as it unfolded.

Angela Mitchell: Yeah. You know, You'd never understand the value of your yes. You never know those places where even in the midst of your greatest tragedy, you are going to find peace because you're trusting in him to guide the ship. You know, I, I know that peace in the midst of such tragedy, doesn't make sense, but isn't that God's economy: peace in the midst of our storm, all of those things that he does promise. You know, I've often heard it said the greatest revenge we pay on hell is our endurance. And you know, that, that became my, uh, the passion for me really through all of this. And it was that: enemy, you think you're going to take me out. Well you may knock me down, but I'm coming back because I was so angered that he thought he would get this on me. He didn't win. He wasn't gonna win.

And we were trusting in what we knew that the Lord was already doing. And because we settled before we got into these places, that God was good. No, I didn't understand his ways and there's much to that, but I settled before we got into this place that he's a good God. So I could pull on that character. Although at that time, his word and my reality seemed to be on two different roads at that moment, but I knew I could still trust him as good. And because his character had already been settled.

Martha: You know, I just was listening this morning to the worship station 24 7, which is what I listened to on my phone when I'm in the shower in the morning.

And the song this morning was the, the song Scars. And I'm thankful for the scars. And you know, when the wound is healing, it's really sore. It hurts. We're not grateful for it, but that scar reminds us of what God has done and how, and I mean, there's just so many pictures that go with that, that song.

But, um, I just thought of that as you were sharing, You know, we don't want the wound. We don't, you know, we don't invite that, but we're thankful for what God does in the process and where he's brought you to today. So give us just a little peek into what God did next, and then we'll unpack that more in our next episode with you.

Angela Mitchell: Yeah. So in 2014 we knew we experienced another absolutely God appointment moment that could have never happened. Except for the connection of a great friend to an opportunity for our home to be used in a movie and which was never on the radar, but when we were still so fresh in grief, the fact that the Lord would even sidetrack us just for a little bit, to give us an opportunity to explore this, whether it happened or not, that was all up to him.

But to have had just a little bright spot in our grief journey. Again, we were willing to say yes for whatever the Lord might have in store.

Martha: So tell the listeners what movie that is, so that there'll be intrigued and, and wanna hear more about it.

Angela Mitchell: Well, in 2014, we had the divine appointment moment of coming to meet Alex and Stephen Kendrick, who at that time were producers of Flywheel, um, facing the giants, fireproof and courageous, and a common friend knew they were looking for a location to host their new movie. And so he felt the nudge of the holy spirit that he was to bring them to our home. And this was supposed to be about redemption. And that movie that they did choose to film in our home was the war room.

Martha: We'll share more of that story in our next episode. Nadya, why don't you just take a moment here to just to thank Angela and, and our listeners.

Nadya: Yeah. Well, Angela, thank you so much for sharing such a, um, real and vulnerable story. And, you know, I can't help, but get emotional because I watched Angela, you know, process that, um, authentically. I saw you, um, just be strong for people around you even. And I just remember some of the, um, some of the moments that we shared as we, you know, would connect at church. And so to hear you, um, on this side of it, Angela, and, and what God has woven together and how you're telling this story, it's a miracle.

And so I just thank you for being here. I'm excited about the next episode. I know that God is going to be glorified even more, and our listeners are going to be so encouraged for such a time as this. So thank you again for being with us today.

Martha: Thank you, Angela. And we'll be back with part two, but you've been listening to, sheWorks4Him with your cohosts, Martha Brangenberg and Nadya Dickson. We're Christian working women, helping other Christian working to live out their calling at work, as sheWorks4Him!

Outro: As Christian women, we have many roles from daughter, sister, friend, wife, and mother to analyst, accountant, executive or educator. Is it possible to balance our roles at work and home in a way that honors God? The answer is. And our new book, sheWorks4Him will help show you how written to celebrate, encourage and equip women in the workforce.

sheWorks4Him, discusses the diverse experiences of today's Christian working woman. Pick up a copy by going to, iWork4Him.com/bookstore. You've been listening to the, sheWorks4Him podcast with your host, Catherine Gates, Nadya Dickson, and Martha Brangenberg. Please like us on Facebook and subscribe on YouTube under sheWorks4Him and to access any of the resources we mentioned on today's.

See the show notes at sheWorks4Him. Dot com that's she works the number four kim.com. This podcast was created to empower you to live out your calling. It works. The world knows sheWorks4Him.

5/16/22 - Taking Kingdom Territory: Joyce Avedisian & Cissy Watson

Intro: As a Christian working woman, you have many roles from your responsibility with family and friends to community and work. How do you connect all that you do with all that you are, and still have your face shine through. It's a challenge, but you are up to it. The, sheWorks4Him podcast at the gathering place to empower Christian working women, to live out their calling at work.

By connecting them to God resources and each other through powerful face stories from other working sisters in Christ. Welcome to sheWorks4Him.

Martha: You've tuned into, sheWorks4Him, where we connect Christian, working women to God resources and one another. I am your host today, Martha Brangenberg, and you can find us online at, sheWorks4Him.com and all of her social media, linked in. We have a YouTube channel. I hope that you will check us out and get engaged there as well. I'd love to hear from. Feel free to comment on the shows as you see about them and listen to them. We'd love to hear from you. You know, one of the things that we love to do at sheWorks4Him is connect you to resources.

And right now I'm going to share with you about an event for Christian working women called Boss Woman Getaway. This is being put on by Dr. Perdita Meeks. And you can find more by going to the link that will be in the show notes, but just real quick, this is an event for women in every area of work that you might be in.

And we include the home in that, in the categories, and they are going to be talking about topics to empower you as a Christian working woman around your management, around your professional development, your financial stability, and your walk with the Lord. So please check out Dr. Perdita Meeks.org/Boss Woman Getaway.

So that is your resource that we're bringing to you today. And if you have other events or resources that you want us to share on, sheWorks4Him. Just email me, martha@iworkforhim.com and I would love to share that with everyone.

As women, we admire leaders that show vulnerability and honesty, true leaders, never stop learning and growing, even when they're the ones teaching the material. Today's conversation will unfold the beautiful example of just this type of leadership, Joyce Avedisian-Riedinger is an author, coach and leader. Her executive round table called Faith in Action is designed to apply Matthew 6:33 seeking first, the kingdom of God.

Joyce teaches servant leadership, taking territory for the kingdom and personal mission vision. However, if you ask Joyce, she will tell you her discovery around the concept of territory was enhanced by our other guests today and her round table member, Cissy Watson. Joyce, and Cissy. I want to welcome you to, sheWorks4Him.

Joyce Avedisian: Thank you. It's a terrific honor to be here. Thank you so much.

Cissy Watson: It is Martha.

Martha: Well, thank you for taking the time to share with me and the sheWorks4Him audience. And I want to start by asking Joyce a few questions. Joyce, just tell me quickly, why did you become a follower of Jesus?

Joyce Avedisian: Well, I was feeling very lonely and very empty and there was a void in me and I wasn't quite sure what that void was all about. And at the time I was living in working in New York city. So I started wandering around kind of looking for something to fill that void. And strangely enough, I ended up in the most unusual places. I ended up in the training grounds of Jehovah witnesses and that didn't feel right. Then I met a moonie, but I wasn't sure it was a moonie because he was on the streets of Greenwich village, looking like a Paris painter with an easel.

And I got attracted, which was his whole game. And he invited me to dinner with his wife and I, when I went to the place he gave me as the address, I knew it was the moonie center. So, and then I went to a church and the church spoke about God, but never mentioned Jesus Christ is the son of God. So by the grace of God and the power of the holy spirit, I moved on.

And finally a friend referred me to a Christ centered Bible believing church, and I received Christ. Matthew 7:7 "ask, and you shall receive, seek, and you shall find: worked for me.

Martha: You know, I love that because you were seeking and you didn't settle until God actually got ahold of your heart and made that difference. So once you understood and had a relationship with Jesus Christ, did you understand that God cared about the work that you were doing?

Joyce Avedisian: It well, once I, yes, once I received Jesus Christ, then everything came into place because. I just want to give you a little of my backstory. My father was an Armenian child in Turkey during the Turkish massacres of the Armenians.

And he always told me that evil overcame good, and big business and big government trample the good little guy. And so I had in my heart, I'm going to change companies and institutions so I, I majored in organization behavior and I started working for these fortune 500 companies. And I try to bring about, you know, respecting people and giving people dignity.

But I realize these companies had a major fault line, which was God was money for them. And people were just a means to an end. So when I received Christ, I realized this dream could come true. If the company's built on kingdom principles and spirit-filled leadership, this could happen. And so it all came together for me at that time.

Martha: It did and so much so that you actually, co-authored a book called Reflecting God's Character in Your Business. And I just want to draw attention to it. We're not really going to interview on that so much today, but listeners, you can find this book, we'll put it in the show notes for you, but it's a very comprehensive manual, really.

Joyce, can you just real quickly bottom line the book for our listeners so that they know if it's one that they need to grab a hold of?

Joyce Avedisian: Well, it really demonstrates how kingdom principles and spirit filled leadership, transform industries and companies. And there are several case studies that highlight this, that they, if you want to 6:33, if, if you want to seek the Lord with all your heart that this is the way to do it.

This is the only way to bring God's kingdom on earth. And these case studies in the book mirror that, and it's beautiful to see that kingdom principles provide the best value for customers, employees, vendors the community and owners and everyone wins. And that's a beautiful thing. And because of that, you know, profits are, are righteous profits and it all comes together.

Martha: It does and say, well, we'll have that in the show notes, but Joyce, you know, we found out over the years that our lives have intersected in other events that Jim and I have been a part of and we knew about your book. And so I love just being able to share that with people today. Cissy, before we go to break, I just want to ask you the same question in less than a minute.

Just tell me why you became a follower of Jesus.

Cissy Watson: I was raised in the church. Martha, my dad was a pastor until I was about 10. And so I just grew up loving Jesus. But in 2000 I had a little bit of a an intersection with the holy spirit and. Just really took it to the next level of just wanting God to be a part of every bet of my life and including work.

But I really just really wanted everything that he had. So that was a little bit of a turning point.

Martha: Excellent. And we will hear more about that after. You're listening to, sheWorks4Him where we're talking with Joyce and Cissy, and I really want, I'm excited to talk about their connection to each other and how the Lord is using that. We'll be right back with more from, sheWorks4Him.

Break: Did you know that God has a calling on your life? It's true. He's called you to bring Jesus to the world. For some that may look like a pulpit or a foreign mission field, but for most of us, it looks like a construction site, a cubicle, a hospital, or a classroom, wherever it is that you.

With volunteering and best that is your mission field. To learn more about integrating your faith into your work and retirement. Check out our books: iWork4Him, sheWorks4Him and iRetire4Him by going to iWork4Him.com/bookstore.

Martha: Welcome back to, sheWorks4Him where I'm talking today with Joyce and Cissy as they have.... I'm just, I'm going to let them share a little bit about their relationship with each other, but I just am so excited to have them both here to share how God has used them. You know what I said at the beginning of the show about Joyce as a leader, being willing to learn from someone that she is leading in her round table.

But before we do that, Cissy, I just want to hear from you and your career, you've had plenty of opportunities to join leadership groups. So why have you joined Joyce's round table that's called Faith in Action?

You know, Martha,

Cissy Watson: it's an unusual group. And primarily because we are on zoom calls with people that are leaders and their organization, and, you know, it can be lonely at the top.

I mean, who are you going to confide in if you're struggling or even if having difficulties at home? This group gets together. We have a chance to be very vulnerable and a very safe place, and it is women really loving each other. And of course, wanting to serve the Lord in all areas of our life. So it is, it is a unique organization.

We are together. We present challenges at different times. We pray for each. So it's really a joy to get, to spend two hours a month to gather on a zoom. And then of course, emails in between. We're praying for one another and it's just a place to get godly wisdom or from other women that are, I'm just thrilled to be a part of your wall.

Martha: Give me a little bit of context. What is, what does God have you doing in the day to day? What is your work?

Cissy Watson: Oh sure. I'm a developer of affordable housing. I've focused for 30 years on new construction and the last 10 years I've been focusing more on preservations. There's not a lot of funding available for very low income and we specialize in housing for seniors. I am developing deals and they're not easy. And especially making them work with the affordable rents and especially for our seniors. So we have a lot of challenges. I need God every single day, just to get through.

Martha: Give me a practical way that you not only need him every day, but you get to incorporate your faith in your day to day. What does that look like? Besides the principle, cause just the principle of what you're doing every day is very biblical.

Cissy Watson: Well, it brings joy to our hearts to be able to do it certainly. But from a practical perspective, Martha, we hire all of the people that work with us, for instance, because I'm the developer.

I hire my general contractor. I hire my architect, our engineers, our different third party reports that we need. Every person that works on our deals, we hire, we hire our lenders, we hire investors, you know, we talk with them, we get numbers, you know, who is the best financier for this particular deal?

So that's a wonderful blessing in and of itself, but pretty much when people are on my team, they know that we are doing this for the Lord and we make no bones about it. When we're on our development team calls, we, you know, I'd say, what do we need to be praying about what problems do we have? I'm very particular about allowing people to speak what I call word curses over my deals.

So we might be on a call with our development team and someone has just said, you know, we're not going to get the approval from the city. And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa. I break that curse in Jesus' name. Yes we will. So I had the ability and again, part of it is because of my role and to operate the development team.

But I have the ability to make sure everyone understands that we are going to be God honoring and all that we say, and we do before my GC goes onsite, I have a pre-construction conference. And I say, Hey guys, you need to make sure that not only you, but every vendor, every subcontractor, every employee of every subcontractor that walks on this property is treating our seniors like their mama.

We want kindness, respect, no cussing on our property. We're just very particular about how our seniors are treated, especially during our rehabs, because our seniors are on site. So I get to control the dialogue, if you will, that spoken about our property, which I think is very important. You know, James says the power of life and deaths in the tongue.

And we don't ignore our problems. We enjoy challenges, but we pray first and we certainly asked for wisdom and everyone knows that we're serving the Lord and truly at the end of the day for us, it is all about hearing job well done, my good and faithful servant.

Martha: Yeah. And that can mean so many things to so many different people because their jobs, you know, in, in the, in so many ways looks different, but it's all for the glory of God. So I want to talk to Joyce. Joyce, one of the many things that you do is to lead this round table Faith in Action. And you told me that it's so important for Christ followers to build their business on kingdom principles. What do you actually mean by that?

Joyce Avedisian: I actually mean. I mean, it comes right out of Matthew 6 33, right? Seek first, the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. So it means that we live every day, we align all our principles and our actions with God's word and the holy spirit so that there's this close alignment in everything we say and do. And that's what it means to to come close to God and to live God's word. And we do it in three ways, really. We do it by, I think being servant leaders and serving others in the workplace. We do it by being rulers, which we'll talk more about I'm sure. And the third way is we do it by creating a kingdom culture in our company. Yeah. And that's how we reflect Christ in everything we say and do.

Martha: You know, and I love that you have it sowell-defined and we are going to talk about this area of rulers, because one of the things I said in the beginning, when I had a conversation with you, Joyce, previously, you were sharing with me how one of your foundational ways of teaching, you actually learned a lot of it from Cissy.

And I was just very touched by that, because a lot of times in leadership we don't acknowledge or people fail to acknowledge when they've learned from, in this case, like this student. So talk to me about that for a minute. And then we'll, we'll, we'll pick up more of the conversation in the next segment, but what do you believe that it means to focus on taking the territory for the kingdom?

Joyce Avedisian: To actually take authority and speak God's word over situations and to do it with boldness and courage, the way Cissy does it. When someone in her company says something off key, she'll come right in and make it right. And I think, I think that's an area that I haven't been as aware of, or haven't been aware that God has called us.

He has given us dominion. He expects us to rule and be leaders in the workplace and wherever we are. And I never had the recognition at the level that as Cissy showed me.

Martha: You know, there's just so many things that we can dive into on that, about your servant leadership, your ability to learn in the midst of leading and so much more.

And we're going to talk about that deeper when we come back after this short break. But I think the key here for all of us to be hearing is that you said it's about taking the authority and speaking God's word. We can't speak God's word if we don't know it. So it's so important that we are getting that into our hearts and so that we can speak it and know what God has in store for us.

We'll be right back in just a moment with more from, sheWorks4Him.

Break: Hey listeners. One of the huge projects Martha and I have been working on for years is making it easy for every workplace believer to find all the voices, speaking encouragement, and equipping into the faith and work movement. Presenting the Awaken Podcast Network - online at AwakenPodcastNetwork.com with over 130 different podcast voices speaking truth into you, the workplace believer. Including over 30 podcasts, dedicated to Christian working women. Go online to Awaken Podcast Network.com that's Awakenpodcast network.com.

Martha: Welcome back to sheWorks4Him with your host here, Martha Brangenberg. We're talking today to Cissy Watson and Joyce Avedisian-Riedinger. And one of the things that we, I just wanted to go deeper into this conversation about being a ruler and taking territory for the kingdom and Cissy, Joyce has said that there's a couple of key reasons why we want to do that. What are they?

Cissy Watson: Really for the impact of our, whatever it is that we're stewarding. I mean, obviously this applies to business and that's how I apply it, but it also applies in our family or whatever it is that God's given us to steward our ministry. So it's, it's important that he has put something in our hands. And we're to steward that in a way to make him proud of us.

And the word says that, you know, that our battle is not against flesh and blood, but it's against the dark principality. So if we believe that then, and we know that things happen spiritually, then we need to interject, you know, our dominion and our authority that God has given us here on earth. He says, here are the keys to the kingdom of heaven.

I give you authority. You can buy in, or you can lose. And so that's why I very quickly break curses in Jesus' name. The things that are spoken against our deals or our properties, or even our seniors, and, but also loose the spirit of God. So it's important to create the atmosphere, but also basically to appropriately steward what it is that he's put in our hands.

Martha: Hm. Loose the spirit of God and to steward what he has. So Joyce, one of the things that we love to highlight on sheWorks4Him is giving people resources. And so we can't possibly have a discussion as deep as you do in your round table to discuss what this would really mean for each one of us.

But you have generously created a worksheet to help us explore this concept a little bit further about being a ruler and taking territory for the kingdom. And I want our listeners to know that you can email me martha@iworkforhim.com and I'm going to connect you to Joyce to get that worksheet. And also she's willing to set up a 10 minute session for more guidance or talk about the round table, whatever you might want to dig a little deeper into.

And so those links are going to be in our show notes, but I wanted to thank you for that resource because that is what we're here for - to give people that opportunity to go a little bit deeper into that. So, Joyce, can you highlight real quickly what they will find when they get that worksheet so that they know this is something they don't want to miss?

Joyce Avedisian: Oh, these are very practical steps to how to be most effective in declaring the word of God and taking ownership of situations. And it does two things. One. It restores the kingdom of God on earth. And the second thing is it overcomes evil. So that's why we do it.

Martha: You know, and each one of us, no matter what industry we're in, there is a need for that in our, in our work. So I just pray that each person that feels drawn to take advantage of getting that worksheet and digging a little deeper, will do so. Please don't hesitate to reach out. This is just a free thing that that is given to Joyce and Cissy, both to steward. And they've offered that for you. I want to wrap up with this ladies just really quick.

Each of you, is there a verse that is your decision helping you to guide you in your decisions in this season of your life? Joyce, you go first.

Joyce Avedisian: Yes. It's in Proverbs from chapter three. Seek the Lord with all your heart lean, not on your own understanding, but in all your ways, acknowledge him and he will make your path straight.

Martha: Amen. And.Cissy, do you have a verse that is meaningful to you in this season?

Cissy Watson: My, my scripture today is Matthew 25:23. His Lord said to him, well done, good and faithful servant. Thou has been faithful over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of the Lord.

Martha: Hmm. So applicable to the conversation we're having today. Thank you ladies both for sharing that with us, Cissy Watson and Joyce Avesdisian-Riedinger, and you've been listening to, sheWorks4Him with your host, Martha Brangenberg. We are Christian working women, helping other Christian working women to live out their calling at work, as sheWorks4Him!

As

Intro: Christian

Outro: women, we have many roles from daughter, sister, friend, wife, and mother to analyst, accountant, executive or educator.

Is it possible to balance our roles at work and home in a way that honors God? The answer is yes. And our new book, sheWorks4Him will help show you how written to celebrate, encourage and equip women in the workforce. sheWorks4Him, discusses the diverse experiences of today's Christian working woman. Pick up a copy by going to iWork4Him.com/bookstore.

You've been listening to the, sheWorks4Him podcast with your host, Catherine Gates, Nadya Dickson, and Martha Brangenberg. Please like us on Facebook and subscribe on YouTube under sheWorks4Him and to access any of the resources we mentioned on today's show see the show notes at sheWorks4Him.Com that's she works the number 4 Him.com. This podcast was created to empower you to live out your calling at work so the world knows sheWorks4Him.

5/9/22 - Create Your Career Advancement Roadmap: Mary Guirovich, My Promotion Plan

Intro: As a Christian working woman, you have many roles from your responsibility with family and friends to community and work. How do you connect all that you do with all that you are, and still have your face shine through. It's a challenge, but you are up to it. The, sheWorks4Him. Podcast is the gathering place to empower Christian working women, to live out their calling at work.

By connecting them to God resources and each other through powerful face stories from other working sisters in Christ. Welcome to sheWorks4Him.

Martha: You've tuned into sheWorks4Him, where we connect Christian, working women to God resources and one another. And today is like, no, every other time, when we get together with you, we want to highlight resources or things that God is doing around the, the globe that we can take advantage of.

And one of those that I want to highlight, right. Is the boss woman getaway. It's going to be happening in Orlando in June. And so you probably need to bring a bathing suit cause it's not going to be cold. It will. Well, the air conditioning is always cold inside in Florida. But this is a getaway for every woman, whether they work in their home or in the C-suite every single title that you may carry. This is an opportunity for you to come where they're creating a collaborative platform. That's going to promote the exchange of dialogue and topics and issues that are pertinent to the Christian working woman. And I just want to encourage you to check it out at boss woman getaway. That link will be in the show notes, so you don't have to go try and search and find it. But we just want to highlight that and I want to also highlight: if you know, of an event or a resource or something that we should be talking about, and sheWorks4Him, even if it's highlighting it, just like this, please email me, Martha@iWork4Him.com so that we can make sure that we are, again, just sharing the news of what God's doing in people's lives and the ways that, that. Are living that out through the things they're organizing and writing down. So thank you for being with us today. We are your hosts, Martha Brangenberg and Catherine Gates.

And remember, you can find us everywhere. She works the number 4 him,

Mary Guirovich: Catherine.

Catherine: Thanks, Martha. In 2017, the Boston consulting group published an article called dispelling the myths of a gender ambition. Exposing the lie that women tend to reduce their goals or advancement in their careers as they become mothers and advance in their years.

BCG research shows that women's ambition levels are influenced for better or worse, more by company culture than age or family status. In other words, women's ambition can be encouraged or damaged by their experiences at work. Our guests today, Mary Guirovich has firsthand experience of being discouraged in her desire to advance to the C-suite.

Mary did eventually become COO of the multi-million dollar company she helped start, but not without having someone express belief that she had what it takes. At one point as Mary was hiring for open positions, she was struck by what she saw as an epidemic of women who don't believe in themselves enough to confidently pursue the jobs they want, or negotiate for a higher salary. She is passionate about being a catalyst to help women advance in their careers and breakthrough their own personal best in all areas of their life. Mary is also the author of the best-selling book God's Not Done With You: how to advance in your career and live in abundance. Mary, welcome to sheWorks4Him.

Mary Guirovich: Thank you, Catherine. And Martha, it's so great to be here and have this opportunity.

Catherine: Well, it has been so fun to get to know you and learn more about your story, and we definitely want to get to how you integrate your faith in work and what that looks like for you. But first, can you share with our listeners, how did you become a follower of Jesus?

Mary Guirovich: Yeah, absolutely. So I was actually raised going to church ever since I was a little girl, my mom would take us to church every weekend and I knew of Jesus, but I didn't have a relationship with him that actually came in my twenties. After I was actually in this deep, dark, depressing place after a breakup, I kind of felt like the whole world was caving in around me.

I found myself laying on the floor one night, eating McDonald's talking to my roommate because I had downsized and on her door, it said, Jesus freak. And there I am laying on her floor eating this McDonald's and she says, why don't you come to church with me tomorrow? And I thought, oh, I can't go tomorrow.

I've been drinking tonight. Maybe next week. I went the next week. She lured me in with pancakes. And within weeks I had given my life to Jesus. Not only did I know of him, but now I had accepted him into my life as my Lord and savior.

Catherine: He really does get to us at our lowest moments. Sometimes it takes that doesn't it?

Thank God. Yeah. And praise God, your friend was there for you, but when did you realize that your work matters to God, Mary? What did God do to get your attention around that area of your life?

Mary Guirovich: Yeah. Once I gave my life to Jesus, I could tell that the holy spirit had come in. I didn't know this at the time, but my whole life just kind of transitioned.

And at that point in time, I was actually working at a restaurant or brewery and I could tell like, it wasn't congruent with what God wanted me to do, but I didn't really understand all of that. I ended up moving to Texas to help my sister out. And it was through that process that I started to trust God.

I literally gave away everything that wouldn't fit in my convertible, drove across the country and didn't even have a job. What was I going to do? It was like a whole brand new life, but I was trusting God. And it was through that process that I realized that God cared about the work that I did. And I could see him in those very early stages after becoming a believer.

And I would kind of go to him like praying and asking about which jobs I should be doing. And it wasn't necessarily in those moments that I could see what that work really meant. But it was turning around years later after I could see the journey that he was actually bringing me on. And I started to become convicted to know that, Hey, when I go to work, I'm not working for the people around me.

My work is for Jesus. And so everything I do, I want to do to honor him.

Martha: Beautiful. So I want to talk about that work a little bit, and maybe both sides of the coin. Like, what are some of the biggest struggles you've had and the biggest victories specifically as a Christian working woman? Like with that context, what caused you some struggles and challenges, but first, can you tell me like what industry you were in? So we kind of have some context.

Mary Guirovich: Yeah. So when I was first saved, I was in the hospitality industry. So I was working in restaurants and it was interesting because before I would just, I was kind of like a bull in a China cabinet. Like I knew what was right. I had confidence and I was going to go out there and make it happen.

And then once I'd given my life to Jesus, it was like, okay, let me pray about this meeting that's coming up. Let me, let me, I still wanted to do the right things. I'm very much a person that wants to know the right things to do. And I want to do the right thing. But now it was inviting God into the conversation.

So when I had to have tough conversations with my manager, it was like, let me pray about this before going into this conversation. And it was, it, it was just so much easier to kind of go through that. But there's definitely challenges that we face because there were times, you know, as I was kind of going through I, my job, I went out of restaurants and then I started doing some consulting with fortune 500 companies.

And the company I was working for actually shifted and changed things. And so where it was really good for my family. And I did, I was one of those women that my ambition started to go. Not that it went down, but my pay went down out after meeting my husband three times. And here I was at this point where they had kind of put me in this different role, they changed my pay.

It just, I wasn't happy where I was and I had tried looking for other jobs and that's one day I came home and broke out in hives and my husband said, why don't you look for a job outside of the restaurant industry? And I had a lot of distorted thinking and, but I said, you know what, okay, I'm going to do this.

And I found a job for a front office assistant position. And he's like, not that one. They're not going to pay you enough, but I heard this woman's voice. And I'm like, oh my gosh, this is it. I'm supposed to work for this company. I always cared about health and wellness. I was very misguided, but I cared about this.

This was something that was really meaningful to me. And I knew that God wanted me to be in this place and to work for this company. And he showed that very shortly after working there, I got a very big increase in my bonus within a week. And the doctor was opening up this doctor's coaching company in which I'd go on to be a partner in.

And so God knows where we're supposed to be. But we don't always know. And so there were times during that time, when I was going through interviews and not getting the job. But looking back, I'm like, oh, I praise God, because that would not be the job for me.

Catherine: He's directing our steps all the time. Well, I can't wait for our listeners to hear more of it right now. We're going to take a quick break. You're listening to, sheWorks4Him with your hosts, Martha Brangenberg and Catherine Gates. We'll be right back with Mary Guirovich.

Break: Did you know that God has a calling on your life? It's true. He's called you to bring Jesus to the world. For some that may look like a pulpit or a foreign mission field.

But for most of us, it looks like a construction site, the cubicle, a hospital, or a classroom, wherever it is that you work with volunteering and best that is your mission field. To learn more about integrating your faith into your work in retirement. Check out our books. iWork4Him. sheWorks4Him, and iRetire4Him by oing to iWork4Him.com/Bookstore.

Catherine: Welcome back to, sheWorks4Him. We're talking to the CEO of my promotion plan. Mary, you were sharing a little bit about some of the downfalls that you were experiencing, but then you started experiencing an uptick in your career. I know that you you've written this book.

God's Not Done With You. What motivated you to write that book? And, and what I'd love to hear. What are some of the biggest challenges you see for Christian working women with respect to their career advancement?

Mary Guirovich: Yeah. There were a couple things that really motivated me to write this book. The first was just a personal thing.

I had not believed that I was capable of reading, writing, or spelling for the majority of my life, because I started struggling with that as a six-year-old. And so I spent most of my life believing that it wasn't possible for me. And when I had this new belief I'm like, okay, I get right now. And that's one of the things that inspired me to want to write the book, but that's not really why I wanted to write the book.

That was just kind of this bonus thing. What really inspired me to write the book is the fact that I actually got stuck in my career. So I was working for this company and, you know, it seemed like I was doing all the right things. I was named team member of the year. I had the largest, most successful coaching load, but I wasn't really believing I was capable of being an executor. My husband would tell me how capable I was. And I tell him all the minute reasons why I wasn't. It's kind of, when we kind of look in our rear view mirror, instead of through the windshield that God has for us, we see all those mistakes.

And so through this process I actually one day decided at a leadership meeting. I said, I'm going to be the next CEO of this company. Little did I know that that position was going to open up just three months later. I thought God was giving me 10 years here. I got three months. So I went into my boss's office and I asked for that position and he said, well, you're going to have to do the position before you get the pay and the title.

And I was pretty much failing on all accounts. One woman even said she didn't want to be led by another woman. And others would just simply disregard me. I did have the support of the founder and, you know, there was some things going for me, but it really wasn't working. And so one day I was at work on my day off.

My husband calls me and he tells me that he's going to be out of his job, that his is going in another direction. So my breadwinning husband is going to lose his job. We just had our fourth child and I can't earn a promotion. And that's when God spoke to me and he said, Mary, make a plan. So I went on to put my plan together.

And through this promotion planning process, I was made VP of operations. And throughout the years, I was able to use this process to go to COO a year later. And then the plans worked so well for implementing that. I turned another one in and I was made a partner with the company. It was through this time that I was actually interviewing other women.

And that's when I realized that there was an epidemic of women that were undervaluing themselves, where I thought it was just me that was struggling to have belief in myself and where I thought I was struggling to own my own value. I now realize that I wasn't the only one. So I started teaching other people, the system that I use.

And women were able to advance in their careers that were deemed unpromotable in the past. People that, you know, didn't know how to approach their boss, because they were very uncertainand how to do that, or maybe they were afraid to do that. And so through this process, they were able to earn promotions and raises to much larger than the standard raises.

And that's why I wanted to write this book. And so when I started to write it, I was writing it to teach people the promotion planning process. But once I got that manuscript done, God spoke to me again. And he said, Mary, I'm supposed to be in the book. And I'm like, whoa, I'm just trying to accomplish writing a book here.

Now I gotta put you in it? Like, this is really scary because I want nothing more than to honor God's word, but he was right. He needed to be in the book because that's where true promotion comes from. It comes from the Lord. And it was through this process that I teach in the book of harmonizing your heart and renewing your mind that my, I was actually able to experience the promises of God for myself in my life.

And Catherine, you know, you talk about this in your book The Confidence, Cornerstone, how confidence is so key to women advancing and that's what's really needed. And so it's this confidence building section that really makes all the difference paired with the plan.

Catherine: Yeah. And actually in reading your book, there's a lot of parallels between some of the things we do to set up, you know, recognizing the beliefs that are getting in the way.

Right. And shifting those. That's fantastic. Now your offer. You have a free offer don't you? So people can get sort of a little taste of what is in that book and what it can do for them. Tell us a little bit about that free masterclass. How can people get access to that?

Mary Guirovich: Yeah. So you can go to CoachMaryG.com - they make it easy for you coachMaryg.com and you can get gain access to the free masterclass. So right on the site, you'll see it free masterclass. You're able to go on there and you can see the steps that we take in the promotion planning process, because it really is a system that's designed that really trying to advance in my career. None of the traditional stuff was really working for me. I couldn't overwork even more, you know, I didn't have time to wait on, on more mentors. I was on a lot of strategic projects. And so that's why I really want to teach people this. So they can gain access to that there.

Martha: So I'm curious - thank you for that. And I'm again, you said coachMaryg.com and so I hope that people will take advantage of that. And I'm curious though, when I'm hearing your story, like when you were interviewing people, did you, at that point did you help them? I mean, like were you actually, like, here's a way, you know, to promote, you know, help yourself?

Do you have more confidence? Did you find yourself there or, or at what point did you say? Ah, I need to share this with the world.

Mary Guirovich: Yeah. So it was actually through those interviews because I went to school for hotel, restaurant management. And so I was trained and taught to not hire people that weren't promotable in their last position.

Yeah, but I took a chance on some people and I'm like, I just like, once again, God's like telling me, like you're supposed to hire this person. And so I did. And like they came in and they were like running circles around people and I'm, well, they didn't have a mystical burst of this growth overnight. And so that was really how I discovered it.

So I did help them. The promotion planning system that I developed actually became the standard for advancing within my company. So these people that I interviewed and hired were able to advance and others, you know, it, it was, it was there was some coaching going on there sometimes just helping them to understand like, Hey, this is you, you really should be putting yourself out there for more.

But I think there's so many myths and so many there's so much misinformation out there on how we should value ourselves. And even just having that little bit of information. How much you should be asking for when you go into that next job and how to determine that amount, it it's life changing.

Martha: So Mary, I have a, another question a little bit back to something else you said when you wrote it out and then God said, Hey, I'm supposed to be in this book.

What does that look like? How, how because I hear in your personal life that it was, he was incorporated, but how did you write that into the texts that you

Mary Guirovich: share with the reader.

Yeah. So there was in their original manuscript, there was one chapter called executive mindset. And, you know, I was going through there, I was going through this healing time. Back in 2019, I heard Dr. Bruce Lipton speak at a John Maxwell conference and he was talking about how our subconscious mind works. And it was at that point that I identified. I had a struggles with spelling and reading and writing because my six year old self who went through a traumatic situation of being molested at that time was holding onto this belief.

And it was a sphere that was blocking my learning. And so I just adopted these new beliefs to say, okay, this is what it is. And so through this healing process, people introduced me to meditation. I got some neurofeedback, I was doing affirmations. I was doing gratitude and I was doing all of these things, but it was like, I had this personal development, health time. And then it was like, okay. And then I have this time where I read my Bible and I pray and it kind of felt like I was just checking boxes off and it wasn't integrated. And that was the problem is that, you know, God is here to provide for us. He is our healer, but I wasn't understanding God's love.

And so it was through this process. That God showed me. He gave me the wisdom and the understanding of yes. Okay. These affirmations work, but here look, look how many times I say I am in the Bible, right? This is not something that the world has just developed. God tells us to be thankful. He tells us to be thankful in our prayer before he even gives us things.

So there are these principles that, you know, science has kind of proven to work. And here I was able to integrate into this practice. I actually, in the book, I have a harmonizing the heart and renewing the mind section. And it's actually how I stay on track every day I develop my own journal. And so I have, and people have access to this too through my book.

It's, it's a bonus. And through my harmonizing, the heart and renewing the mind course that people can, it's a pay what you can, and we donate everything to charity. You know, this is what made the difference for me. And so this is how I integrated it into the book. It actually became the largest section and went from one chapter where it kind of felt like, am I cheating on God?

Because we're talking about this executive mindset without God. And now it's like, okay, no, seek him first because that's where true promotion comes from. We don't have to fear, man. We can get our competence from God because he is really the one that is opening the doors and closing the doors. It's not about all of these formulas that the world gives us.

Catherine: Yeah. He really is the one that we have to give credit to him. Right. Absolutely. And he has created all, all kinds of tools for us to connect with him. And, and to your point, really recognize who we truly are. Our true identity. Well, we're gonna take a quick break. You're listening to, sheWorks4Him with your hosts, Martha Brangenberg and Catherine Gates. We'll be right back with Mary Guirovich.

Break: Hey listeners. One of the huge projects Martha and I have been working on for years is making it easy for every workplace believer to find all the voices speaking, encouragement, and equipping into the faith and work movement, presenting the awaken podcast network.

Online and awakened podcast network.com with over 130 different podcast. Voices speaking truth into you. The workplace believer, including over 30 podcasts, dedicated to Christian working women. Go online to awaken podcast, network.com that's awaken podcast, network.com.

Martha: Welcome back to sheWorks4Him with Mary Guirovich, where we are talking today on a topic that I know a lot of people may not have ever heard anybody even having a conversation about. Like, can women really talk about how we could have more confidence to ask for, for the bigger paycheck, the bigger title, more responsibility? I know from all the women I've known over the years, many would have the testimony that would say kind of what you said, Mary, at the beginning. Like, well, you can have this role, but we're not going to give you the title. We're not going to give you the paycheck to go with it, but you can do all those things and maybe prove to us that you're worthy of it and such a backwards way. And unfortunately, very unfair way for anybody, whether it was male or female, but it seems to be a common theme. So I am, I just want to encourage everybody check out this book for yourself. And the links will be in the show notes. So you can get it. And also her free masterclass at coachmaryg.com.

Thank you so much for providing that for us. Just real quick. Tell us where you go for encouragement yourself, Mary, to live out your faith in all that you do, including your work.

Mary Guirovich: Yeah, encouragement is so important. And God tells us in the Bible, you know, to stay close, we need to stay in community. And so I try to surround myself with people that are like-minded my inner circle and the groups that I'm a part of.

So I have a Bible study group. A lot of people are local, but not everybody. So that is one thing. We actually have a group. So I, even today I'm like, Hey, can y'all pray for me. I'm part of the John Maxwell team. It's a great organization. Even today, I'm on there, got this amazing interview coming up where y'all pray for me and like just the encouragement, floods in.

And then I have areas where I want to get more. I want to give, but I also want to get, so I I'm part of Jim Richards ultimate impact group. He has great teachings every single week and it's just so encouraging. And this is what I listened to when I go to bed or I wake up. I'm constantly just getting God's word from different people and being a part of my church, community, Bible church, being on the prayer team, getting to talk with the pastor, it just hearing his insights and the people within the prayer team and getting to pray for others. This is a way that just encourages me to see what God is doing, not just in my life, but in the lives of others.

Catherine: Yeah. Community is huge, right? I mean, that's probably been the toughest part over the last couple of years is the isolation that a lot of people experienced, but to your point, Even even when we do have to be at home, we don't have to remain isolated.

There's so many tools. There's there are groups, there's zoom, there's group me. I love group me for, for staying in touch with my little, my, my small groups here and there. So that's fantastic. So Mary, we've got a wrap up and this has been amazing. I do hope that people will check out your book God's Not Done With You, but what scripture have you meaningful recently that you would like to leave with our listeners?

Mary Guirovich: Yeah. God has really been putting James 1:3-4 on my heart: For you know, that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. For when your endurance is full developed, you will be perfect and complete needing nothing.

And I think this is so great for work because this is what God tells us. We've got to have that faith first and we take the actions and it's through that endurance and those actions that we were were, we will gain that experience in that full faith, in that perseverance that we need.

Catherine: And we see God show up. Yes. Yeah, that's fantastic. Well, Mary, thank you so much. It's been so inspiring to hear your story. And I, we pray that many women are inspired and encouraged and will pick up your book and advance in their careers in ways that they maybe didn't see possible before. So you've been listening to, sheWorks4Him with your hosts, Martha Brangenberg and Catherine Gates.

We're a Christian working women, helping other Christian working women to live at their calling at work as sheWorks4Him.

Outro: As Christian women, we have many roles from daughter, sister, friend, wife, and mother to analyst, accountant, executive or educator. Is it possible to balance our roles at work and home in a way that honors God?

The answer is yes. And our new book, sheWorks4Him will help show you. Written to celebrate, encourage and equip women in the workforce. sheWorks4Him. Discusses the diverse experiences of today's Christian working woman. Pick up a copy by going to iWork4Him.com/bookstore.

You've been listening to the, sheWorks4Him podcast with your host, Catherine Gates, Nadya Dickson, and Martha Brangenberg. Please like us on Facebook and subscribe on YouTube under sheWorks4Him and to access any of the resources we mentioned on today show. See the show notes at sheWorks4Him.Com that's she works the number 4 him.com.

This Podcast was created to empower you to live out your calling at work so the world knows sheWorks4Him.

5/2/22 - A Digital Missionary: Heather Heuman, Sweet Tea Social Marketing

Intro: As a Christian working woman, you have many roles from your responsibility with family and friends to community and work. How do you connect all that you do with all that you are, and still have your faith shine through. It's a challenge, but you are up to it. The, sheWorks4Him podcast at the gathering place to empower Christian working women, to live out their calling at work.

By connecting them to God resources and each other through powerful faith stories from other working sisters in Christ.

Martha: Welcome to sheWorks4Him. You've tuned into, sheWorks4Him, where we connect Christian, working women to God resources and one another. And I believe we're going to do all three of those things today on this show.

So I'm looking forward to the conversation. Thank you friends for being here with me and I am your host, Martha Brangenberg. And I just want to remind you. We want to connect you to resources that are out there that you may not know about. And today is no different. I want to tell you about an event that's coming up in June and it is called boss woman getaway.

And this is an opportunity in June, in Orlando for women, whether they're executives, managers, supervisors, entrepreneurs, team leads, stay at home moms, whatever title you might wear at this season in your life. It's a place that's been created as a collaborative platform that will promote the exchange of dialogue on topics and issues that are pertinent to the Christian working woman.

And one of the things that I, when I talked to the organizers, they say, definitely it's an open door for all women to come, but don't doubt that you're going to be prayed for and prayed over in the midst of all of the learning that's going on. So I want to invite you. I'm so sad. We already had a conflict of our calendar, or I would be there myself, but I will have the link in the show notes for you to go and check out.

And while I'm on that topic, if there are other events or resources that are helpful to the Christian working moment, I want you to let me know. You can just email me at martha@iworkforhim.com and I'll put that in the show notes as well today, because I, we want to make sure that there are places people can go to find out what's going on because we work so hard to get events going or to write resources, to be able to share those with others is such a great thing.

When you hear the word missionary, you might think of traveling overseas, packing up your family, checking your tetanus records and raising financial support. Well, those are all elements of being an overseas missionary, but is that the only kind of missionary that there is? No, I believe it's not. Today we're going to talk with someone who feels called to be a missionary and how it applies to more of us than you think. As a believer in Jesus, we are all called to be missionaries. Some might be full-time short-term overseas or domestic, but my guest today calls herself a digital missionary. Are you curious?

But let's welcome my guest, Heather Heuman, founder of sweet tea social media marketing, and author of the golden rules of social media marketing, thrive in business with strategy and kindness, and self-proclaimed digital missionary to tell us more. Heather, I want to welcome you to, sheWorks4Him.

Heather Heuman: Thank you so much.I'm excited to be here and just kind of chat with you about all of this goodness.

Martha: Well, you know, that's one of the things that drew me to you and I, I would have to go back and look at when I first found sweet tea social media marketing, but right away, when I heard in your conversation that you called yourself a digital missionary of course, it caught my attention because I believe that our workplace is our mission field, but we're going to talk about that throughout the show today. But first I want to hear why you became a Jesus follower.

Heather Heuman: Wow. So, I mean, I became a Jesus follower because I feel ultimately that God was just drawing me to Him. I became a Christian when I was a freshman in high school through a, an organization called young life and their ministry.

And I was actually at like this big crusade, kind of like a Billy Graham crusade in my town that I had gone to with my young life community. And I had always been a really good kid and done all the right things, but there was that moment, even though I had been raised in the church, where I just genuinely felt that God was like speaking directly to me in that moment with thousands of people around and I knew that I didn't want to just know who Jesus was and didn't want to just, you know, in theory, believe that I was a good person, but genuinely know that, you know, Jesus died for me and that I wanted to, you know, believe that with all my heart and live differently. And so I made that decision at the age of 14 and haven't really turned back and just really just pursue that relationship with Jesus.

Martha: So tell me about that. You said specifically and live differently. So as a 14 year old, did you, what did that look like for you?

Heather Heuman: I mean, for me, like I said, I don't have some radical life if I was like wild and crazy and I became a Christian and I was like, oh, I'm going to stop doing crazy stuff. I mean, but I feel, again, even from that good background I would just say that my purpose became ignited that it wasn't just about getting good grades and pleasing my parents in, in doing what they told me to, which all of those are great and lovely, and we should honor our parents and obey what they say, but ultimately I felt I had a craving within myself at that age to learn more about God.

So, you know, I was already involved in like this Christian organization that I then began, you know, going to Bible studies. And then, you know, as I kept getting older, I would, you know, go to summer Bible studies and just really taking intentional time to daily, be with you know, in my scriptures and reading the Bible, but also wanting to just not be satisfied with like, I'm a Christian and in theory, like I have a ticket in my back pocket, but wanted it to be something that was unapologetically like over all of my life, not a box on Sunday.

Martha: Amen. And you know, that's so much about what we talk about on, sheWorks4Him. It's it, you know, Jesus, didn't just save us for the weekends, right, and Wednesday night church, but all of life. And that goes into our work as well. So at what point did you start calling yourself a digital missionary and, and how did that happen?

Heather Heuman: Yeah, so I ultimately, you know, I've got a fun journey of how God even got me into the digital marketing space. And so that goes back 22 years.

But when I started my first company in 2011, it was like this hyper-local business. And then in 2014, when I moved, which is where I currently am in South Carolina, I really just felt, you know, that I was wanting to help Christians and nonprofits, but even in my own I guess journey of trying to figure out who it was that God wanted me to help and what that actually looked like based on my experience that I had, a friend who just off the cuff, you know, she was like saying something about a digital missionary. And I was like, that's what I'm doing because I had a desire to use my gifts and my talents to help people connect with people, to build relationships and leverage this whole online beast. And I wanted to do all of it for the purpose of really trying to, to amplify a light for Jesus. And so I would be honest, I would, I've got to give full credit. My friend, Dr. Jenn Bennett was the very first person I ever heard say those words probably around 2016 and 2017. And I would just was like, that's exactly what I'm doing.

And so that was the first time I would say I heard a, a phrase or two words I felt describe what I already knew and felt God had called me to do.

Martha: Yeah. And I want to dig into that even more when we come back after the break, because I believe this conversation carries over to everyone that's listening.

What kind of a missionary are we in our workspace? And that might look different. It might have a different two words that kind of describe it. But ultimately we all have a mission field that we go to every day, whether, whether we're even paid for it or not, it's not all about the, the income from it, but where God has us in each season of our life. We'll be right back with more from Heather.

You're listening to, sheWorks4Him with Martha Brangenberg.

Break: Did you know that God has a calling on your life? It's true. He's called you to bring Jesus to the world. For some that may look like a pulpit or a foreign mission field, but for most of us, it looks like a construction site, a cubicle, a hospital, or a classroom, wherever it is that you work live volunteer and invest. That is your mission field.

To learn more about integrating your faith into your work in retirement. Check out our books: iWork4Him. sheWorks4Him and iRetire4Him by going to iWork4Him.com/bookstore.

Martha: Welcome back to, sheWorks4Him. Today I am chatting with Heather Heuman and she has a business and a podcast and a book and so much more. You can check her out at sweet tea social media marketing. Tell me again, the name of your...

Heather Heuman: It's okay. My company is sweet tea social marketing.

Martha: Sweet tea social marketing. So check her out there. Wonderful podcast. It's great to, in fact, your podcast is on our Awaken podcast network.

So listeners you've heard us talk about it before, but if you go to awakenpodcastnetwork.com, you will see. All kinds of podcasts, where people are continuing that conversation of their work and their faith in whatever industry they might be in. And you might find that there's helpful stuff for you there.

And I'm hoping Heather might even give you one little tip today as we continue the conversation. But Heather, let's get back to this conversation about being a digital missionary, because what is it that - maybe in the work that you've done - like, how has that been a challenge for you when you have placed it out there and said, this is how I want to conduct my, my heart of my business. And what kinds of things have you run into?

Heather Heuman: You know, I think it's been a little bit of my own journey of really believing that God could bless what I am doing in the midst of the traditional business world. And I'm, I'm saying that in all transparency, because in my, in my heart, I believed and know it's possible, but it's like, I am somewhat of a, a goal oriented person and I'm like, I want to do this, or my bucket list is to be on this stage. And so I would say earlier in my years, I would say, okay, my goal is to be on this stage. This is who their audience is. This is what they're looking for. Let me pitch myself or position what I do know in such a way that it makes sense for their audience. And some of that would require me to maybe leave Jesus out.

And it's mainly just focused on the content of marketing or social media strategy and all of those things. And so once I really just began to say, you know, my website says I have christian CEOs and business owners. My podcast is titled, you know, Business Jesus sweet tea. So I'm, I'm unapologetically being bold for Christ, but I still had pieces that I almost didn't want to let go of.

And it's not that I was being something untrue, but I was trying to pursue the accolade. Honestly, I mean this in love, but people that don't really matter, you know, and it's like, I'm going, here's my vision. Here's my mission. Here's all these things that I'm doing. But I still had a piece of me that did not want to let go of these: I want to be able to say I got on this stage or I want to be able to do this. And I would say I released that about three and a half years ago. And I just was like, that's so silly. I am 100% confident that I'm doing what God wants me to do. And I need to stop trying to spend so much effort to get on these stages, which in fact, the dream clients I would love to work with may or may not even be in that audience.

And so I would just would say that it was a personal shift to almost like fully let go and renew my mind because I would say I was like 90%. But that 10% was consuming so much of my mental bandwidth and so much of my, you still quite haven't accomplished this, that it was almost, I'd say bringing me down and almost shifting my focus more on myself, and a little bit less on the 90% that God was doing. And so I feel like that was something that when I made that shift and just leaned fully into whatever God wants this to be like, that's what I want to pursue. It's been really fun just seeing God continue to open doors that I didn't even know I would want to even go through.

Martha: Right. So let's talk about that for a minute. Cause I was, I'm curious, what kinds of things have, you know, where has God shown up? Specifically since you've let go of that? You know yeah. That little bit of an idol that you might've had.

Heather Heuman: Yeah. I mean, why don't we even say, look, I'm a teacher by nature. I love to teach people how to do things. And ultimately I want to teach them how to fish, so to say, and so I like to take my desire to teach and come alongside people so they can learn how to do social media more effective. And I've had like this academy that I launched in 2018 and I've had dozens and dozens and dozens of clients in that program who had fantastic success.

But I ultimately have this vision for that to become this huge part of my, my business and what was happening is that God was like exploding other parts of my business that I was almost like, no, no, I don't really want to, I don't really want to grow that. And it wasn't, no, I don't want to do that because I love it.

But I was like, no, God, my efforts are over here. Can you just bless, can you just bless what I'm trying to do? And I would say that it was somewhat a little bit of pride again on the inside. I don't want to give up. And for anybody listening right now, who's in entrepreneurial space. Like, there's this, there's a part of you that's like, I don't want to give up two months before, like I'm going to have this huge breakthrough, but I just prayed it over. And I genuinely felt God was like, Heather, you need to close that academy. You need to let go. You need to trust what I'm doing. And I've done that over the last, you know, four months and God just continues to like blow my socks off with clients doing what I love that allows for me still as a mom - cause my number one priority is to, I want to add financially to our income, but I want to be the wife and the mom that I feel God's called me to be. And I don't want to lose focus of this season for my life. So it's been really cool. Just kind of walking through that and just being like, God is just continually showing me his grace of like Heather, even though I've been telling you this for quite a bit, I'm glad that you're finally listening.

Martha: Well, you know, cause so many times we can feel like when we close something or, or even just shift, like as entrepreneurs, maybe feel like it's failure like that didn't work, but God has a different plan. So speak to the listeners in like a minute here. Like what you can encourage them with if they're facing maybe something similar where God is saying, you know, I'm trying to get your attention. You're not listening. How can you encourage your challenge them?

Heather Heuman: The number one thing I would say is that it is, I would say natural for you to maybe be hesitant, but I will say, and it's awesome in hindsight, but there is a gap between maybe what you need to stop doing, or a season that may need to transition or shift or pivot, and then the next thing, like growing, so to say, and there was a season, I don't want anybody to hear this to make it sound like I knew what the outcome was going to be before I let something go in there. And I will say, God has blessed what I am doing, but there's a gap in between. I feel for many people that feels like that, maybe isn't supposed to be there, but I believe that as a Christian is where we really have an awesome opportunity to fully and truthfully trust God.

Martha: So listeners, if that is a situation you're finding yourself in right now, you know, I think the encouragement there is to just be a good listener and to be asking the father where he wants you to be. And if there's something you do need to let go of or something that you need to better chase that he's built inside of you, that you just aren't pursuing, there's no better time than now to ask him what that is and to seek it out.

You are listening to, sheWorks4Him and we're going to be right back with more from Heather Heuman.

Break: Hey listeners. One of the huge projects Martha and I have been working on for years is making it easy for every workplace believer, defined all the voices, speaking, encouragement, and equipping into the faith and work movement.

Presenting the Awaken podcast network online at Awakenpodcastnetwork.com with over 130 different podcast voices speaking truth into you. The workplace believer, including over 30 podcasts, dedicated to Christian working women go online to awaken podcast network. So can podcast network.com.

Martha: Welcome back to, sheWorks4Him where today I am with Heather Heuman and, you know, friends we talk about on sheWorks4Him that we're connecting you to God resources and one another. And Heather has a resource that I remember downloading when I first found out about it. And I want you to know about it as well.

And it's the 31 day content calendar. So Heather tell people what they'll get when they click on that.

Heather Heuman: Yeah, absolutely. So what you're going to get is a PDF document that's available and ready for you with 31 social media post ideas. They're broken down into categories, and if you're someone that's going, what should I be posting on social media? What can get people talking? What is going to be something that I could post? If you yourself feel like maybe you're lacking imagination. It's going to give you not just posts for you to check out. But it's going to be 31 posts that you can do that are proven to have high engagement, good results, and help for you to really get that push that some of you might need as it relates to your social media marketing.

Martha: Excellent. And I'll have that link in the show notes, but friends, you can go to sweetteasocial marketing.com/ content calendar. If you can actually remember all that, that's awesome. But you can go back to the notes and check that out.

And then Heather, I also, you have pretty recently released a book that God had you write. Tell us about that resource as well.

Heather Heuman: Yeah, so my book is called the golden rules of social media marketing. And I will tell you that my book is about a two and a half hour read, and I wrote it so that a fourth grader could understand it and know how to go and improve their marketing for their business or their nonprofit using social media.

So I, my signature framework is taking everything in social media, everything in business, and saying, these are the six stages that you want to incorporate. And the whole book is just going through what those six stages. And letting you know that the goal is for you to try to be doing something from each of those stages in your marketing.

Martha: Excellent. And, you know, it's kind of funny because what I thought of when you said I wrote this, that a fourth grader, I'm thinking most of us probably think a fourth grader could do the social media better than we could, because it's more intuitive to a lot of the younger generations than it is maybe it's just somebody who's trying to and struggling on their own. But I would encourage you also to be listening to Heather's podcast. And this book is a great resource as well. So thank you for sharing all of those resources with us in the last little bit that we have together. I just really want you to talk about your talk, how God has shown you that, without hesitation - I guess I would say that's my opinion, my looking in on where you're at? Is it even in the middle of your teaching sessions and you know, that not everybody watching you is a believer in Jesus Christ, you're very clear that that's where you're coming from in such a sweet way. And I know you use goodness and kindness a lot in your, I mean, it's, it's part of your DNA, but just talk about that and then, and then encourage us how we maybe should take that next step.

Heather Heuman: So, yeah, I mean, for me personally, I feel that I have grown up in this era that is like, you don't talk about business and politics and religion in the same setting. And I would say that I think a lot of the issues that are happening in our country and in our world right now are a direct reflection of so many people that are literally trained to think that way - to compartmentalize their faith.

And so I have just had bold convictions that have always just been be who you are. Do so with grace and truth, but at the same time, let God and who he has created you to be, to also be a part of your business. And so I, like I said, I've got clients, they aren't necessarily believing. But they know that I am, and it's not a deal breaker for them.

And they're like, I'm like, I can still help you with your pet shampoo. Like that's fantastic. Not all of my clients, even if they are Christians are posting Bible verses and that may or may not be part of your business model. However, I believe when you are conducting business from a biblical worldview, that needs to be, you know, oozing out of the pores of who you are and how you treat people, how you show up.

And I, again, I feel that there are so many people that are just kind and they're nice and you're like, what do they really think? What are they really believe? And so I just like to just be straight forward and just say, this is, or this isn't going to resonate with some people and I'm not offended if I'm not a good fit for them.

But at the same time, I feel very confident in being myself to include the quirky parts of me and the Jesus loving part of me. And I find it personally, just to be really freeing because people know who they're getting ready to get on a phone call with, or they know what I am outside of this social media box.

Martha: Being authentic in all that we do. So real quick, 30 seconds or less, give us one little social media tip that we can take into our day.

Heather Heuman: I think everybody, whether you're business or non-profit, you need to say whoever you're trying to resonate with or attract - what's the one thing that you would like those people to know ?Whether it's a misconception or a truth or a way that you can help them and turn that into ongoing, consistent content, either in a post or in a video and stop hiding because you have to get visibility if you want to have more influence on social media.

Martha: Amen. Heather Heuman, thank you so much for being my guest and letting us just get a chance to chat and see the perspective of a digital missionary and how we all can be missionaries in our, in our space that God has us in. Thank you so much.

Heather Heuman: Absolutely.

Martha: You've been listening to, sheWorks4Him with your host, Martha Brangenberg. We're Christian working women, helping other Christian working women to live out their calling at work as sheWorks4Him.

Outro: As Christian women, we have many roles from daughter, sister, friend, wife, and mother to analyst, accountant, executive or educator. Is it possible to balance our roles at work and home in a way that honors God? The answer is yes. And our new book, sheWorks4Him will help show you. Written to celebrate, encourage and equip women in the workforce. sheWorks4Him discusses the diverse experiences of today's Christian working woman.

Pick up a copy by going to, iWork4Him.com/bookstore. You've been listening to the, sheWorks4Him podcast with your host, Catherine Gates, Nadya Dickson, and Martha Brangenberg. Please like us on Facebook and subscribe on YouTube under sheWorks4Him and to access any of the resources we mentioned on today's show see the show notes at sheWorks4Him.Com that's she works the number 4 Him.com.

This podcast was created to empower you to live out your calling at work so that the world knows sheWorks4Him.

4/25/22 - Bringing Your Whole Self to Work: Julia Oltmanns, Zurich Resilience Solutions

Intro: As a Christian working woman, you have many roles from your responsibility with family and friends to community and work. How do you connect all that you do with all that you are, and still have your faith shine through? It's a challenge, but you are up to it. The sheWorks4Him podcast is the gathering place to empower Christian working women, to live out their calling at work.

By connecting them to God resources and each other through powerful faith stories from other working sisters in Christ. Welcome to sheWorks4Him.

Martha: You've tuned into, sheWorks4Him, where we connect Christian, working women to God resources and one another. Thank you so much for tuning in today, friends.

And I just pray that our conversation that we have, maybe one that inspires you in a new way, and maybe even surprises you a little bit with what God wants to speak to you through our conversation. If you have not yet decided to subscribe to our podcast and on an ongoing basis, I just encourage you to do that.

All of the links for connecting with us are found on sheWorks4Him.com that's she works the number 4 him.com. And I want to just throw out a little, save the date. We're going to talk about it later in the show, but October 21st is the next boldly conference. For Christian working women. And this is something that we at, sheWorks4Him are very excited about and want to make sure that we, like we said, we're connecting you to God resources in one another.

This is a resource. It's a one another, and it's going to connect you to God. So it covers all the bases all at one time. So October 21st is a day you're going to want to set aside on your calendar and I'm excited to anticipate. In the fall ahead.

Catherine: Thanks so much, Martha. Hey, the first picture we get of God in Genesis is as a worker, since we are created in God's image, we're also workers.

When you read through scripture, it's very clear that God wants us to partner with him in our work. And that work is a blessing. So integrating our faith into our work should be. Yet conversation about expressing faith at work often includes concerns about how one can do it appropriately. If at all, thankfully we do live in a country in which it is not only legal to bring your faith, to work companies of all sizes across the country have Christian employee resource groups.

These groups provide resources, support, and community for employees who want to honor God and contribute to the success of their organizations through the work that they do. Julia Oltmanns was part of the team that launched Zurich north America's good news Christian employee resource group in 2018.

She's an attorney and was part of the legal team at the time. She now enjoys the role of director of DEI services reserve for Zurich resilience solutions, providing training and consulting as a service for other companies. Julia, welcome to sheWorks4Him.

Julia Oltmanns: Thank you. Hi, Catherine and Martha.

Catherine: It's so good to have you. You know, we met at that time and we're going to get into a little bit of that, but we would love a, before you talk about how you integrate your faith and work and, and a little bit of the Christian employee resource group, can you tell us how you became a Jesus follower?

Julia Oltmanns: Sure. So I would describe myself as you know growing up in a Christian home, always thinking of myself as a Christian, but honestly Really around that same time in 2018, God was doing things in my personal life and in my professional life that really caused me to reevaluate, you know, whether I was really following him and all aspects of my life.

So. It was really in that 2018 timeframe where through the things I was learning at a new church that we had switched to you know, our, a small group. We were a part of right. A special class we did at our church. So there were things I was learning there. And then just how God was calling me to really live out my faith at work as well, with respect to the employee resources.

And I really feel like I had a kind of very dramatic transformation in my life in 2018 and you know, made the decision in the fall of 2018 to be rebaptized. Because I just really felt. I, I knew in a different way, I knew kind of for the first time, what it really meant to live for Jesus and to follow him.

And I saw, I really didn't feel like I maybe knew, knew that as well. At 13, when I had originally, you know, been baptized and, and made that decision, I really felt like in 2018 was a new awakening.

Catherine: Wow. So you and I connected just as you are really making a fresh commitment. And I think it's an important distinction, you know, to say, you know, it's one thing to say, you're a Christian, you believe in Jesus, but it's another thing to say you know, you're really a follower of Jesus. Right. And so I, I loved being able to come alongside you when you launched Zurich's Christian employee resource group. Good news. Can you tell us how did that even get started? Well, what was the conversation? How did that, how did that come about?

Julia Oltmanns: Yeah, so I I ended up joining Zurich insurance company in 2016.

And honestly, at that time, I really was questioning God, you know, why do you have me going to work at an insurance company? I really had no desire to work for an insurance company. I didn't really know anything about insurance. I'm, I'm an employment lawyer by experience. And but that was the door that got opened at that time in 2016.

And shortly after I joined, I learned that there was a group of Christians that have been trying to form an employee resource group as there for a while. And so coincidentally or not, you know, not really coincidentally, right. But that's my experience. I previous companies, I had been the you know, legal expert on all things, diversity and inclusion.

I had advised on employee resource groups at my prior company. And I came to Zurich and that was really the, the role that they had for me, or, you know, one of the specialty areas was for me to advise on all diversity and inclusion related initiatives, including employee resource groups. So I had actually drafted the policy on how do you get approved to be an employee resource group?

And I sat on the committee that decided anybody who applied to be an employee resource group. So. When I first heard that there was a group of Christians trying to form an, a group that was new for me, you know, I'd never been at a previous company where there had been a faith-based ERG. And I ended up being, given my role on the committee that approves I at first, I just thought I'm going to wait.

And Kind of see how this plays out, right. Because I'm on the committee and I've got to make a decision and, and God ultimately you know, put me in a situation where I felt like I you know, couldn't just sit on the sidelines, but he was really calling me to be more involved.

Martha: So what does that look like? Having an employee resource group that is for I'm I'm. I know that there's all types of them out there, but specifically the good news one, like it is, I'm assuming under the banner of Christian faith. So what kinds of resources and tools do you find that are most helpful for the people that are a part of that group?

Julia Oltmanns: Yeah, so you know, Immediately we as we, as we applied and got set up you know, there are things that you need to do that are kind of consistent, right? With the support of the company and employee resource group, right, does ultimately need to support the mission and the purpose right, of the organization.

So there are things like, leadership development, right? Like your, all of your ERG are usually providing different kinds of resources to employees to support leadership development. And. Career development and, and things like that. But on the other hand, because we are a Christian employee resource group, we also provide a weekly prayer meeting that has 50 employees who joined the weekly prayer meeting every week.

And we have Bible studies all over the country at different locations, you know, and, and throughout the week, and we do an Easter service or worship service and a Christmas worship service. So yeah, it really is a mixture o things that are more explicitly work-focused right. We need to be supporting the goals of the business, but it's also caring for the overall wellbeing of the employees.

And we're, you know, we're able to care for the employees, especially once COVID hit, right? The prayer meeting was such a blessing, right? And such a resource for employees. So we're able to do both kind of care for the wellbeing of employees, but also support the business.

Martha: So before we go to break real quick, can you give me one example of how, what kind of impact having the, the good news employee play resource group available for employees? What kind of impact that's had, maybe you have a story of, of impact just before we go.

Julia Oltmanns: Yes, definitely. Like I can think of one of my colleagues who when we first announced at the end of 2018 and we actually, the way we announced the group was we had a Christmas event where we read the Christmas story from scripture.

Right. And. And, and so one of my coworkers and you know, a woman, I didn't know at the time. But my coworker I mean, she was crying in that first meeting and she felt like she had lived for so many years compartmentalizing, right? Her life. And thinking I'm one person at work and I am a Jesus follower in my personal time, but she didn't know how to bring those two together. And by having a Christian group at work, it was just an awakening for her. Right. She was finally able to see, I can integrate these two parts of my life and I, and for her that it feels like she's a whole person now.

Right. She doesn't feel like I'm divided right between these two areas of my life. She feels. I can now come to work and be a Jesus follower at work as well. And I can really see how to do that now.

Catherine: Yeah. Living a fully integrated life. It's such a joy and it saves so much energy too, right? Well you're listening to sheWorks4Him with your host, Martha Brangenberg and Catherine Gates.

We're going to take a short break and we'll be right back to hear more from Julia Oltmanns.

Break: Did you know that God has a calling on your life? It's true. He's called you to bring Jesus to the world. For some that may look like a pulpit or a foreign mission field. But for most of us, it looks like a construction site, the cubicle, a hospital, or a classroom, wherever it is that you work live volunteer invest, that is your mission field.

To learn more about integrating your faith into your work and retirement. Check out our books: iWork4Him. sheWorks4Him and iRetire4Him by going to iWork4Him/bookstore.

Catherine: Welcome back to, sheWorks4Him. We're talking to Julia Oltmanns from Zurich Resilience Solutions. Julia, you were sharing the difference that Zurich's Good News Christian Employee Resource Group has had on employees and the organization.

And especially the, the one employee, right? I, I love that story. I know who exactly who you're talking about. Clearly it's been a positive resource for so many people who don't realize that God cares about their work. At what point did you realize God cares as much about your work as an attorney, as that of a pastor or missionary?

Julia Oltmanns: Yeah, so I think a little more background might be helpful to that. Went through a period before I joined Zurich in 2016, where I was going through a work transition. And I thought, perhaps that God wanted me to go work for a non-profit. Or a Bible college, right? Or some kind of explicitly Christian organization.

So I actually went through a period of applying for all of these jobs that I thought would give me a way to feel like I was honoring God, you know, with my work. And, and I didn't get a single one of those jobs. Every one of those doors closed. And I ended up at, at Zurich in 2016. And then as I was mentioning, you know, I was a part of this committee that was reviewing, right, whether the Christian group would be approved at Zurich or not. And I found myself in a committee meeting where there was, there was a lot of hesitancy, right? There was, there was a lot of concern that a Christian group would be very divisive in the organization, would offend, you know, people of other faiths would, you know, would really be negative and cause disagreement and division.

And so I left that committee meeting. And I just felt like God was saying to me, you're supposed to do something about this. You know, you are given your legal background, right? Given your involvement in these employee resource groups, right. For so many years and, you know You know that a Christian group could be a real positive thing, right?

How it could support the needs of the business? How, again, I mentioned leadership development, right? Integrity, excellence in your work. Right. There's so many things that are that from a Christian values perspective, I knew could be really positive for the environment. And so I left that meeting thinking., I'm supposed to do something about this. I reached out to the head of HR and expressed my views and he said, well, that's great. I think if you would be involved in this, then it would help alleviate a lot of those concerns because you are an employment lawyer and what have you.

So before I knew it, I was the co-chair of the group, but At that point in my life, I had just started attending a women's Bible study for the first time I had just started reading the Bible myself, like all the way through for the first time I had never even prayed in public, you know, in front of other people, I completely felt ill-equipped, you know, to do that.

But I really felt like God said, you know, you, I placed you here. Right. It was kind of an Esther moment. I placed you here with this experience. At this time to step forward and to help this group get formed and to help, help to lead this group. And God, you know, was saying, I will provide what you need, right.

To be able to do that. And so that's really when. I embarked on a journey to learn about faith and work. You know, I thought, okay, if I'm going to be the leader of this group, I have to learn everything I can get my hands on. And started reading every, you know, book on faith and work I could and you know, scouring the internet for resources and trying to think, okay, how do I lead a group that's trying to integrate these two things together in a corporation?

Martha: You know, what's so amazing is when I hear you explain all of that, it's almost, God kind of backdoored you in a sense. He's like, okay, I've got her attention. She wants to be intentional. I'm going to give her this opportunity to really practice it.

I mean, that's what I'm hearing, you know, as an outsider looking in. And I, and in a positive way, I don't think that, you know, God's not a conniving God, but he just was like, okay, if you really mean this, Julia, let's see you walk it out. And but yet I want don't want people to miss the fact that he equipped you for that through the education, through the learning, through your profession so that you could carry it out in a way that gave a lot of comfort, I'm sure, to a lot of people, especially your HR department. So I love that because it's like nobody better to be in that role in that moment. Like you said that Esther moment.

So what a great example for us to hear firsthand. So I want to kind of switch it a little bit to, you know, you have a very demanding job and you're wife and you're a mom and you're very involved in your church. So how do you keep that proper perspective to have the right amount of time with your family and to invest in your marriage?

Julia Oltmanns: Yes, it's a good question. At the early part of us forming Good News this has been like early 2019. We invited a local pastor to come speak on work-life balance actually to our good news group. And so he put up a visual that I still share with people today. I refer to it all the time, but it really is a set of circles.

You know, that's like God at the center and then your family, right, is your next circle. Cause your husband, your spouse, right? Your immediate family's your first ministry and your first mission that God's given you and then your church next, right. Being really an active part of the body of Christ. That's the next focus area.

And then his visual says the world is the next one. And so for me being kind of a very driven professional person, that was a very convicting image. And that was a very convicting message that he gave was that whoa my work and everything I do in the world has to be prioritized right? In such a way that, you know, my time with God, right, my priority, there is first. My, my ministry and mission to my family and to my church really comes for, you know, it has to be prioritized. And it doesn't mean again that my work is not important that I do, you know, at that point. Right. I, I knew that I did have a mission in the, in the workplace and in the marketplace, but I have always tried to refer back to that visual constantly.

If I ever feel like I'm not sure. If I should accept this invitation, right. To go to this conference or accept this invitation to go speak here or do this activity, I go back to that visual to make sure. Okay. Do I have these in alignment? Right? Am I prioritizing things? According to what I think is, is God's will right for us.

As women as you know mothers, right. As part of a family. And as long as I'm, you know, always trying to come back to that and stay in alignment with that. I, I, you know, God has given me the opportunity to do a lot of things in the world and in work, you know, and in my workplace. But but I try to always come back to that, that that's his, that's what his will is for me is sustain the alignment in that way.

Catherine: That is so powerful. That is so powerful. It's setting your priorities straight is really the most effective time management tool. Right. And so Julia, I love like the whole idea of being able to, to share those types of things with other people through a Christian employee resource group. Would you share with our listeners, if they'd like to set, to start their own explore to starting their own Christian employee resource group at their company, what would you recommend?

What steps do you think they need to take?

Julia Oltmanns: Yeah. So back in 2019 I developed a toolkit for creating a Christian employee resource group. And really, it was just I wanted to document, you know, the steps that we took, right? Like how did we overcome the hesitancy? How did we overcome some of those objections, right, that you got from the HR department and the legal department, right. In the diversity and inclusion folks. So I documented all that in a tool kit and yeah, I'm happy to share that with anybody. And that's not the only way, right? There's not just one way. There's a lot of folks who've come together in a Christian ERG network from many different companies and we share ideas with each other.

We share best practices. We help, you know, those who are looking to form a Christian group in their company. So, you know, definitely we all have stories we can share, right. And help that we can provide to others on how to do that. But the first step that I have in my toolkit at least is just gather with one or two other believers in your company and just start praying together.

And I was the fortunate beneficiary of others at Zurich who had been praying for this, you know, before I even arrived there. Right, right. Then seeking this for a period of time. But I think just start, you know, with one or two other believers, Start praying that God will show you next steps and definitely utilize the Christian ERG network of, of other, you know, Christians at other companies who are willing to help you.

Catherine: Yeah. There's a lot of other people who have gone before and can offer tips. And I love that. Just take that first step. You're listening to, sheWorks4Him with your hosts, Martha Brangenberg and Catherine Gates. We're going to take a short break and we'll be right back with Julia Oltmanns.

Break: Hey listeners. One of the huge projects Martha and I have been working on for years is making it easy for every workplace believer to find all the voices speaking, encouragement, and equipping into the faith and work movement, presenting the Awaken podcast network. Online and Awaken podcast network.com with over 130 different podcast.

Voices speaking truth into you. The workplace believer, including over 30 podcasts, dedicated to Christian working women go online to awaken podcast, network.com that's Awaken podcast, network.com.

Martha: Welcome back to sheWorks4Him. You know, this conversation today, Julia, that we're having around Christian employee resource groups.

I mean resource groups for all kinds of. But specifically this, this idea around having a Christian one, if any of you listeners are intrigued by this and want to look at bringing it into your own organization, julia is willing to share her little toolkit that she's created. Just email me at martha@iworkforhim.com and that will be in the show notes.

So you can just send me an email requesting it. I will connect you with Julia. So you can get that information because, you know, one thing I know is that you've already done the work Julia and you're willing to share that with other people. And that's the part of the resources that we want to help.

Christian working women to resources that can help them to do whatever it is that God's called them to do even better. So, as we talk about resources, is there a book that you've read recently, Julia, that is really encouraging you in this conversation of faith and work and surrendering to God that you may be can help us know about in case it's something that somebody else needs to be reading at the same time?

Julia Oltmanns: Yes, it was, it's hard to pick because there are really so many great books, but one that came to mind was called working in the presence of God by Denise Daniels. And it really gives very practical tips on how can you have the spiritual disciplines and spiritual practices throughout your day to kind of integrate prayer throughout your day, really think of your work space as being holy ground, right?

That when you come to sit down at your desk, you know, whether you work from home, right, or in an office, You know that that's holy ground, that's where God has placed you. And you should enter that with a reverence. Right. And, and, you know, really seeking to do God's will in that place. So it's very practical guidance, but really helps you to think about kind of weaving spiritual practices and disciplines throughout your work.

Catherine: That's a great suggestion. I love that. And Julia, I'm excited that you're going to be speaking at the boldly conference on a panel where you get to share a lot more of your insights. So the Boldly conference for our listeners is taking place on Friday, October 21st, 2022. And you can learn more at boldlyconference.com, but we do have to wrap up for now.

So Julia, what one final piece of wisdom would you really like to leave our listeners with?

Julia Oltmanns: Yes, I really would encourage folks to number one, you know, look at your workplace and where God's placed you and the experience you have. Right. Just using my story as an example as a very intentional placement, right.

That God has put you there for a very specific purpose. Just like he did with Esther and be, you know, have your eyes open and right. Be ready and looking for those things that you can do and be bold. I think there is a lot of fear around, you know, being openly Christian, right. And being open about your faith at work.

And there are those worries about what's HR going to say, right. Or, or, you know, am I going to get in trouble? But I really feel like it's a time for boldness, right? It's a time to be bold that God's put you there for a reason and people are in such need, right. They really need others to walk alongside them.

They need others to be praying with them. If there are people in your workplace who are hurting. And so people then, and, and really come alongside those around you. And and, and don't be afraid, you know, to kind of share that your faith is what drives you, right. To care about people. Your faith is what drives you to, to work in a certain way.

I think that boldness is necessary

Catherine: right

Julia Oltmanns: now.

Catherine: Yeah. Amen. Amen. We need to normalize that conversation, right? We need to show that, you know, we are leaning on God and that's going to give so much, so many people hope. Julia, thank you so much. I really pray that women are inspired and motivated by what you've shared today.

You've been listening to, sheWorks4Him with your hosts, Martha Brangenberg and Catherine Gates. We're Christian working women, helping other Christian working women to live out their calling: sheWorks4Him.

As Christian women. We have many roles from daughter, sister, friend, wife, and mother to analyst, accountant, executive or educator.

Is it possible to balance our roles at work and home in a way that honors God? The answer is yes. And our new book, sheWorks4Him will help show you. Written to celebrate, encourage and equip women in the workforce. sheWorks4Him. Discusses the diverse experiences of today's Christian working woman.

Pick up a copy by going to, iWork4Him.com/bookstore. You've been listening to the, sheWorks4Him podcast with your host, Catherine Gates, Nadya Dickson, and Martha Brangenberg. Please like us on Facebook and subscribe on YouTube under sheWorks4Him and to access any of the resources we mentioned on today's show.

See the show notes at sheWorks4Him.Com that's she works the number 4 Him.com. This podcast was created to empower you to live out your calling. It works. The world knows sheWorks4Him.

4/18/22 - Business that Brings Freedom: Rachel Rose Nelson, Freedom Business Alliance

Intro: As a Christian working woman, you have many roles from your responsibility with family and friends to community and work. How do you connect all that you do with all that you are, and still have your face shine through? It's a challenge, but you are up to it. The, sheWorks4Him podcast at the gathering place to empower Christian working women, to live out their calling at work.

By connecting them to God resources and each other through powerful face stories from other working sisters in Christ. Welcome to sheWorks4Him.

Martha: You've tuned into, sheWorks4Him with your hosts, Martha Brangenberg and Nadya Dickson. We are a place where we connect Christian, working women to God resources and one another.

And I know that today's going to be like just what we experienced every time is that God connects us to new friends and through. Giving us resources that we maybe can use in our own lives to take us to a new level where maybe that is how we then connect with God. We don't know what God has in store for this conversation, but I'm so grateful for each and every listener that's here along the way with us.

And I'm just looking, anticipating what God has to say. So just remember you can connect with us on, sheWorks4Him.com. She works the number for him.com. You can also do that on all of our social media platform. LinkedIn is a great place to hang out with our, our are working women. We often get to know each other a little bit better personally, on Facebook and Instagram.

And I just am so grateful that you can be our friend in that way where we can stay connected. So remember to do that.

Nadya: Thank you, Martha, you know, more and more with we're becoming aware of an issue. That's just rocking our country and our world. And that is the area of human trafficking. And what we do know is that it has become an evil multi-billion dollar business trading in people.

And there are many impactful rescue organizations on the front lines. But today's guest believes that to fight human trafficking and exploitation strategy is needed. That includes more than one. Today we visit Portlan, Oregon, to have a conversation with Rachel Rose Nelson. Rachel is the executive director of Freedom Business Alliance, and she believes that Christian women in the marketplace have the opportunity to play a key role in helping create safe employment opportunities for survivors of human trafficking and exploitation.

Rachel Rose, Nelson. Welcome to sheWorks4Him.

Rachel Rose Nelson: Thank you so excited to be here too.

Nadya: Well, Rachel, before we get into more of your story, why don't you tell our listeners how or why you became a follower of Jesus?

Rachel Rose Nelson: Yeah. It's, it's a pretty dramatic story in that. I became a Christian age, 26 after the birth of my second son.

I was in the middle of an abusive marriage that caused me to get to the end of myself. The end of my ability to solve that problem and run right into God. And so it was a reluctant conversion, but a dramatic conversion. And I would say that is at the heart of why I feel led to be in the position I am today to help vulnerable women all over the world.

Nadya: Wow. So good, Rachel, and I know that you now are working all over the world and leadership development. You worked for 20 years as a creative director and a business consultant for small and large companies. Can you tell us just, even back then, how you integrated your faith with your.

Rachel Rose Nelson: Sure. I mean, I was already in business when I became a Christian.

And so I really have had a journey of integrating my faith and my work. I really think in the beginning, I didn't see a lot of integration. Probably the insight came when I encountered Proverbs 31 in the Bible. I think Proverbs 31 ministries was running a radio spot at that time. It kind of piqued my curiosity.

I read in so I looked it up in the Bible and read about this woman who was an entrepreneur, a philanthropist. You know, I really saw myself in her. And so I think at the beginning of that integration came, when I just cried out to the Lord, helped me gain the wisdom that this woman of noble character had helped me integrate that I knew I would be working at that intersection of faith and business, but it's been a journey of truly integrating those things.

Martha: You know, it really is a journey. And I think that's one of the things that. Our listeners really need to hear. It's like we're failing, you know, it's like today, what can I do? Open my eyes, Lord to that new opportunity. And to be more authentic has really that's integrating our faith is just being more authentic about who we really are and not segmenting our lives.

So I'm such a great reminder for each and every one of us. So you began your focus at California Polytechnic university in graphic communications. And then you went on to complete a masters of art in ministry leadership. What was the catalyst?

Rachel Rose Nelson: Yeah, well, there's about a 20 year gap between that initial degree.

And then when I went back and studied in seminary and. I would say I was a little bit of a fish out of water as a mother of three, a woman not training to be a pastor, but knowing I was going to be entering the world of business in a ministry capacity. And the catalyst actually was just starting to do a little research for on behalf of my teenage sons, about local Christian universities.

And I stumbled upon George Fox university seminary, and looked at the classes and I said, I would take these classes if there was no degree, they just sounded so fascinating. And I knew. At that point, I was doing a a writing project and it just seemed like the right next step to prepare me to speak with authority and from a studied perspective.

On God's word God's ways. And I had no intention of going through the ministry leadership track. I w I entered in spiritual formation. I thought I'm not a leader, but halfway through that journey. It really opened up. I mean, it was the only track that I had dismissed from the beginning. And then it, God just made it clear.

That is the track I want you on. So I shifted gears in the middle of that seminary experience to focus on leadership.

Martha: Wow. So where in that timeline, did you start the organization Her Worth International. And why did you start it?

Rachel Rose Nelson: Yeah. First off. I started it while I was in seminary.

Martha: You are a crazy woman.

Rachel Rose Nelson: I do not recommend that to anyone, but I was so on fire to address the issues I was seeing. I had a transformational experience. I went to Haiti in 2012 and. Spoke to a group of single mothers there who were living in extreme poverty, had resorted to prostitution to feed themselves in their families.

And I saw that connection. I had begun working with a local pastor there in Jack Mill, Haiti. And I just saw it also clearly I have learned God can give a vision. That doesn't mean you do need to do it tomorrow. There was a lot Preparation. He was, he was getting me ready for, but that was the impetus to starting.

It was to create a channel of support and empowerment for that group of women there in Haiti. But I saw, I was starting to become aware of the needs of women living in extreme poverty all over the world. So that was the start.

Wow. So

Martha: Rachel Rose Nelson, I know that there is so much that we're not going to be able to cover in our conversation because that is just, there's just, I can already see so many facets that we really want to dive into, but when we come back from the break, I really want to talk more about the conversation of human trafficking and How that might affect our listeners and what we can, what we can actually do about it.

But listeners, if you, along the journey, as we're having a conversation, want to connect with Rachel, I'm going to make sure all of that's in the show notes, how to engage with what God has you doing right now, and to learn more. So just go to those shows. And we'll make sure that you get more information, but we're going to be right back in just a minute with Rachel Rose Nelson.

We are your co-hosts Nadya Dickson, and Martha Brangenberg.

Break: Did you know that God has a calling on your life? It's true. He's called you to bring Jesus to the world for some that may look like a pulpit or a foreign mission field, but for most of us, it looks like a construction site, the cubicle, a hospital, or a class.

Wherever it is that you work with volunteer and best. That is your mission field. To learn more about integrating your faith into your work and retirement. Check out our books. iWork4Him. sheWorks4Him and iRetire4Him by going to, iWork4Him.com/bookstore.

Martha: Welcome back to, sheWorks4Him with your cohost Nadya Dickson and Martha Brangenberg.

We are joined today by Rachel Rose Nelson. And I know that there is, this is a topic. That a lot of women really want to lean into because it is it's heart-wrenching and, and as a woman, there are things that I don't know. I think that compel us to the compassion and the level that, that we need a better understanding though.

And, and Rachel, I am so grateful that you're here to share a little bit about how God is using you in that process, but listeners just remember the show notes. We'll have some connections, some live. To help you with some you know, just more information along the conversation. So Nadya, why don't you just kind of lead this conversation as we go into this segment?

Nadya: Sure. Well, you know, we've learned a lot. I have anyway, from my perspective in business and marketplace learned a lot about human trafficking and I, I see things now that I have not seen before, but once you see something you can't unsee. But just in your perspective, Rachel, you know, here we are in 2022, this is an age old issue.

I mean, it's been around forever, but we're just now learning more about it. What would you want our listeners to know about human trafficking? This business in 2022?

Rachel Rose Nelson: Yes. And you're right. It is a business. It's a wide multinational organized business trading in. And a lot of people are not aware of the prevalence.

There are over 40 million people caught in trafficking today, which is a staggering statistic. It's happening all over the world, including here, right here in the United States. It's kind of grown in people have grown in awareness, especially associated with some of the headlines in the news about traffic.

It looks different all over the world. Kind of along the lines of what I was sharing my awareness grew when I saw the particular manifestation of that economic vulnerability among this group in Haiti, but that opened my eyes to see, oh, this is happening all over the world to different women in different ways because of that vulnerability.

And So it's something where people will immediately think, okay, let's free these women from this situation, physically not realizing that around the world, the leading factor vulnerability is economic vulnerability, and that still exists. Once someone has been set free from their physical captivity, except now to make matters worse, they're dealing with post-traumatic.

Stress that will often manifest itself in the workplace, since it is in the workplace that they experienced that trauma, they have disrupted relationships with authority and peers. So it presents challenges that have to be addressed.

Nadya: Well, and so I know that part of your assignment now is to bring more awareness and opportunities.

Why don't you tell us a little bit more about the Freedom Business Alliance and how you were introduced to that work?

Rachel Rose Nelson: Sure. Well, again, it was through that initial work I was doing in Haiti and my growing awareness that this was part of the human trafficking crisis. And that there were people all over the world just like me, that God was calling out to create business solutions to combat this problem.

And so as soon as I became aware that there was a whole group, right. And it was really at an event where I had heard about it from one of the founders and I leaned in and kind of stopped her afterwards and said, Hey, we need to talk. And I always say, you know, it might be similar for your listeners.

They may be leaning in right now saying, how can I get involved in this? And I would encourage people to contact me and reach out and subscribe to our mailing list to get more involved. And it was really just a progression from there of the organization, understanding or getting more familiar with my business when.

And work as a strategist, as a consultant with other businesses, they brought me on just to facilitate strategic conversation. One thing led to the next, and now I'm here as executive director.

Martha: So tell us a little bit about what Freedom Business Alliance actually does for, you know, I'm kind of grasping that there's, you know, there's a way to help with income to, as you're pulling people out of trafficking.

Tell me what that really means. What does that look like? What does freedom business Alliance do?

Rachel Rose Nelson: Yeah. Well, we should probably start with what is a freedom business because most people don't know, right. And a freedom business is one that exists to create employment opportunities for survivors of human trafficking and those at risk of being trafficked.

And so these businesses have been purpose built for that. And. They are providing the structures of support because it really isn't enough to just offer a job. That's a great first start, but because of some of the issues that these survivors are dealing with, and because they haven't maybe received the level of education or vocational training, there are special special structures of support that have to be provided.

And. What we saw we've got started as a conversation coming out of the business as mission movement and a number of businesses saw they had the same mission to create these jobs. And they started in conversation. In 2013, formed the nonprofit in 2015 and convened forums in regions all over the world.

But we've grown in our role within the movement to address challenges that these businesses face that no single business can address on its own. So we work kind of as the strategic arm doing research training, building awareness, and looking for opportunities to capitalize on market opportunities in sales, on behalf of our members.

Martha: So if I could just kind of translate a little bit, someone could have just created this, had a passion that says, I see a need, and I want to create a business, not even knowing that they maybe necessarily were creating a freedom business, but now you are coming behind them trying to gather those people together so that they can exponentially work together for the good of.

Those that are, have been trafficked or been rescued or to keep them from it. Is that kind of a that is air bottom line, right?

Rachel Rose Nelson: That is exactly right.

Martha: Yeah. So, so what if somebody, I mean, are there still freedom businesses out there that don't know that they have an alliance?.

Rachel Rose Nelson: Absolutely. Yes, because there are people working in the anti-trafficking space, especially who've seen this issue and start businesses.

Martha: Right. So I just want to address that just for a moment because we are Christian working women, helping other Christian working women, connect to God resources and one another. And this is one of those places that we can very easily do. All of us have friends working in anti-trafficking and one way or another they're either, you know, on a, on a, you know, social media platform, or they're doing a business.

And this is an opportunity for us as listeners to say, Hey, there's an Alliance to help you do what you're doing. For the kingdom in a much bigger way. And so I just want to, why don't you just quit before we go to break, tell people how they can connect either themselves or their friends to your organization.

Rachel Rose Nelson: So, and it goes beyond there, maybe some who have a business and operation doing this, want to start one, right. And also is as easy as using the power of your purchases to make an impact. Most of these businesses are creating apparel, jewelry, handbags, things that women purchase, and you can support them just through your purchases.

The place to start would be our website. We have a member directory where you can see them, but be sure to subscribe and you'll receive updates of all the sorts of ways and entry points to get involved in this particular cause.

Martha: And that website. Freedom Business Alliance.com freedom business alliance.com listeners.

We'll be right back with more from Rachel Rose Nelson, right after this break, you're listening to, sheWorks4Him with Nadya Dickson and Martha Brangenberg. We'll be right back.

Break: Hey listeners. One of the huge projects Martha and I have been working on for years is making it easy for every workplace believer, defined all the voices, speaking, encouragement, and equipping into the faith and work movement.

Presenting the Awaken podcast network. Online and Awaken podcast network.com with over 130 different podcast. Voices speaking truth into you. The workplace believer, including over 30 podcasts, dedicated to Christian working women. Go online to awaken podcast, network.com that's Awaken podcast, network.com.

Martha: Welcome back to sheWorks4Him with your host, Martha Brangenberg and Nadya Dickson. I am so excited about this conversation because I know one thing about women and that is that we can't keep things to ourselves and we want to help and we want to do our part. We know that our our commerce speaks very loud and can also be of great help.

And so we are gift givers. We are buyers, we are consumers of things. So right now I feel like we just really need to address that and how people can help even in that way. And Rachel, you were saying that, you know, there are tons of companies out there that have product that is the result of this. Beautiful.These freedom businesses that are created all over the world to help in. Anti-trafficking. And so listeners, I just want to let you know that you can call our listener line and there's a very generous offer to have a giveaway of a piece of jewelry that has been created through freedom business.

But more than that, I want to encourage you to go and do some of your gifting, some of your buying Rachel and am I right to say that they can go to your website in order to find those other businesses. Is that right? Freedom Business Alliance.com. Yes. Okay. So listeners call our listener line (866) 713-9675.

Eight six, six, seven one three work is the phone number and you will be entered to win one of those giveaways. And, but everyone go to the website, make some purchases. It is it's it's that first step and just getting engaged in that way. So more than that, Rachel, how can Christian women in the marketplace play a role in, in this, in God's redemptive plan for the victims of trafficking?

Rachel Rose Nelson: I, you know, Jesus proclaimed his public ministry by citing Isaiah 61. The verse that says he is proclaiming good news to the poor and setting the captives free. And I really believe that when we're talking about the captivity of. Experiencing trauma that is going to take an army of women to come and lift our sisters out of those situations.

It is a unique call that in my position, I see most of these freedom businesses are led by women that God is calling to do this unique work that cannot be done by men because of the sensitive nature of it. And so if there is an inkling of a call. I encourage everyone to lean into that and pursue that public ministry that Jesus first proclaimed.

Nadya: Well, thank you so much, Rachel, you know, two weeks ago we had a lady that left pastoral ministry as her primary assignment to go into business. And I hear that you have been in business and now you have a primary focus ministering from. You know, it's an integrated business and faith platform, which I love.

I mean, you have, you're showing us that our assignment, God wastes, nothing. He takes everything we've ever done within our business world. Our, our ministry world. It's really all one world it's kingdom. Right. Do you have a particular life verse that you've lived by, through this journey or one that's speaking to you right now that you can share with our listeners to.

Rachel Rose Nelson: You know, I will just reiterate that verse. I just mentioned Isaiah 61. It's the spirit of the sovereign Lord is on me because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.

Nadya: So powerful and you're showing us what that looks like today in 2022, with everything God has brought you through yourself personally. And how your freedom is lent now leading the way for freedom for other women. So thank you so much for sharing with us today. A very vulnerable situation and just that God is faithful, that he has a redemptive plan, that he can take a mess and make a message out of it.

We're so grateful for the work that you're doing. Rachel, thank you for being our guest today.

Rachel Rose Nelson: Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak to your audience. So privileged to do so.

Martha: You've been listening to, sheWorks4Him with your host, Martha Brangenberg and Nadya Dickson we're Christian, working women, helping other Christian working women to live out their calling at work. as sheWorks4Him.

Outro: As Christian women, we have many roles from daughter, sister, friend, wife, and mother to analyst, accountant, executive or educator. Is it possible to balance our roles at work and home in a way that honors God? The answer is yes. And our new book, sheWorks4Him will help show you.

Written to celebrate, encourage and equip women in the workforce. sheWorks4Him. Discusses the diverse experiences of today's Christian working woman. Pick up a copy by going to, iWork4Him.com/bookstore. You've been listening to the, sheWorks4Him podcast with your host, Catherine Gates, Nadya Dickson, and Martha Brangenberg.

Please like us on Facebook and subscribe on YouTube under sheWorks4Him and to access any of the resources we mentioned on today's. See the show notes at sheWorks4Him. Dot com that's she works the number for him. Dot com. This podcast was created to empower you to live out your calling. It works.

The world knows sheWorks4Him.

4/11/22 - Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion is Everyone's Business: Kelley Johnson, Keirus by KJE

Intro: As a Christian working woman, you have many roles from your responsibility with family and friends to community and work. How do you connect all that you do with all that you are, and still have your face shine through. It's a challenge, but you are up to it. The, sheWorks4Him podcast at the gathering place to empower Christian working women, to live out their calling at work.

By connecting them to God resources and each other through powerful face stories from other working sisters in Christ. Welcome to sheWorks4Him.

Martha: You've tuned into sheWorks4Him, where we connect Christian, working women to God resources and one another and friends. I am grateful that you're here with us today and I pray that this will be a time where you can just connect to us as you would to a friend.

Whether you're talking with somebody with the earbud in your ear while you're doing the dishes or the laundry or driving, whatever it may be, that this is a time where you can connect with each of us as though we are friends and know each other. Well, because we are walking this road together as Christian working women.

And I'm just excited for today's conversation and grateful that you're joining. If you want to be able to follow our podcast on a weekly basis or connect through any of the links that we share, make sure that you're subscribing to our weekly newsletter. You can go to, sheWorks4Him.com that's she works the number 4 him.com and there you'll find all of the links that you need for each individual show, as well as subscribing and even watching the podcasts on our YouTube.

So, thanks so much for being with us today. And I want to remind all of you, this is kind of like a save the date reminder, October 21st is a data mark on your calendar for the next Boldly conference. And we Boldly had an inaugural event last October, and this is going to be October 20th. In 2022 live in Dallas and also available as a livestream.

And we'll have that link in our show notes as well, but just kind of a save the day, puts up on your calendar. Knowing that October 21st is a day that Christian working women are going to want to come together either virtually or in person for the Boldly conference.

Catherine: Thanks so much, Martha, the challenges around diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace are not new to any of us too often.

The efforts may produce results that are similar to shifting papers around to different piles on a cluttered desk. The papers may have moved, but the desk is still cluttered. Steps may have been taken, but the issues remain over the last couple of years. Those issues have been impossible to blossom. We need to understand that when we discriminate in any way against people, for whatever reason, everyone pays a costly price.

It's time for real solutions. Kelley Johnson understands the issues from both her professional and personal experiences. Kelley worked as chief diversity officer for a national retailer and has been running a DEI consulting firm for seven years. She sees how DEI efforts are often aimed at hiring, but stopped short of enabling true workplace culture transformation.

Today, Kelley is founder and CEO of Keirus by KJE, where she helps organizations understand and build the power of we creating spaces where people can add value and thrive. She's also the former host of the cubicles in Christ podcast and author of two books. Infinite, the power of love and emerge, rise up, be fearless and take possession of your purpose.

Kelley. Welcome to sheWorks4Him.

Kelley Johnson: Thanks So much Catherine and Martha. It's so great to connect with you and all.

Catherine: Kelley. I am so excited to have you on the, sheWorks4Him podcast. I've lost track of how long ago we first met, but it was several years ago at this point. And I've had the privilege of seeing the impact you're having in the marketplace.

And we're definitely going to talk about how you, how you live out your faith at work. But first, can you share with our listeners how you became a follower of Jesus?

Kelley Johnson: Yeah. So it's interesting. So I accepted Christ when I was pretty young, maybe six or seven. My mother was leading us through a family Bible study.

And so I had an early salvation experience, but I would say that I really didn't become a Christ follower until my adult life. Once I was married and a mom. And although I grew up in a Christian home, we had a lot of hardship, a lot of difficulties, which created trauma in my life. And it was sort of like as an adult, all of the past trauma started to come to a head as I was balancing the responsibilities of being a working mom, a working wife.

And I just, I was overwhelmed and. Had, you know, probably looked in a lot of different places and ways to, to gain healing. But I'm reminded of this gospel song by the Sean Mitchell. That's titled nobody greater. And he talks about the lyrics. Talk about, you know, I've searched all over and I couldn't find nobody, nobody greater than you.

And that's really where I was. I, I had looked for ways to sort of. Grow as a person and gain healing, but at the end of the day, there's no one like Jesus.

Catherine: That is so true. And I think you bring up an important distinction too. You know, this one thing to accept Jesus, but it's another thing to follow him, right.

To really bring him into our lives in every aspect and lean on him for strength and healing. And so Kelley, how has your faith influenced your career decisions?

Kelley Johnson: I wish Catherine, I could tell you, oh, it's always influenced my career decisions. But you know, I spent about 20 years, 20 over 20 years in corporate America before I launched my firm seven years ago and I compartmentalized my faith.

It's what I did on the weekends or in the evenings. Very few people knew I was a Christian and what I realized after I left corporate settings. I really didn't know how to integrate my faith into my word. Despite going to church regularly, it just didn't seem like a subject that I had been educated on.

And it's really what sort of prompted me to start the Cubicles and Christ podcast years ago, because I felt like there was. Void in my life of understanding how do I do this? Now that I realized that that was a missing piece to my career previously I wanted to share with others what I had learned.

And I'll say that, you know, I did always give God credit for my successes, but that was the extent of really integrating my faith into my career in the past.

Martha: No, it's so amazing to hear, you know, w I love the fact that you took what you wish you had done, you know, and tried to help other people to do that better.

And we love that about you, Kelley. And so now you find yourself in this diversity and equity and inclusion space. So what are you seeing over the last year or so, what have you been seen in that space and then how are you helping. Companies deal with.

Kelley Johnson: Yeah. So, I mean, I've actually seen the evolution of diversity equity and inclusion over the last, nearly 20 years.

It's really the unfortunate circumstances of the last couple that it gained global attention. Right? So in the past, historically, you know, the. The ugly aspects of this country's history around race in particular, but also gender in inequality. You know, it really all came to a head with the social justice issues we were facing.

And you know, when it happened, a lot of organizations, a lot of really large organizations said, oh goodness, we've got to do something. We've got to say something. And individuals also said, you know what? This is not okay. We should not be facing the issues that we're continuing to face. And so I'm appreciative of that and I'm even appreciative of the global attention of seeing people who are not Americans say, you know, we care about humanity and we need to do something about it.

We need to express that we care about humanity, you know, so I see it as sort of a. Conundrum in that it was very deeply personally difficult to witness what was happening, but also to then see the attention that it was causing. And I made a decision at that point, and I think I told the Lord this.

I said, you know what? I don't like the circumstances, why there's so much attention around it, but you've presented this opportunity to impact. Individuals to impact organizations. And for as long as you have me and the team working in this space, we're going to try to make as much of a difference as we can.

Catherine: Kelley. That's awesome. And we definitely want to hear more about that. We got to take a break right now. So you're listening to, sheWorks4Him with your hosts, Martha Brangenberg and Catherine Gates. We're going to take a short break and we'll be right back to hear more from Kelley Johnson.

Break: Did you know that God has a calling on your life?

It's true. He's called you to bring Jesus to the world. For some that may look like a pulpit or a foreign mission field, but for most of us, it looks like a construction site, a cubicle, a hospital, or a classroom, wherever it is that you work with volunteering and best. Is your mission field to learn more about integrating your faith into your work and retirement, check out our books.

iWork4Him. sheWorks4Him and iRetire4Him. I going to, iWork4Him.com/bookstore.

Martha: Welcome back to, sheWorks4Him with your co-host Catherine Gates and Martha Brangenberg. We're here today with Kelley Johnson and, you know, Kelley, one of the things that I really want to talk about and kind of land on just for a couple of minutes.

You know, I said at the beginning of the show, we really like to treat this podcast, like friends, just sitting around the table, having a conversation. And sometimes we need to lean in a little bit harder and say, explain something to me that I don't understand. And I feel like that's probably the same around this conversation around diversity, equity and inclusion, especially in light of.

The, the stress and the, and the, you know, the pressure around that conversation in the last couple of years from the media. So how can you friend, a friend kind of unpack that a little bit and what it really means when you're talking about DEI diversity, equity and inclusion. Not only to the companies you're working with, but to individuals, to us that are having the conversation.

Kelley Johnson: Yeah. I love that question. So thank you for asking and we get it a lot within our client organization. So even not within a faith setting, but friend to friend, if we were having a coffee somewhere, I would say because it's a longer conversation, so we'd need more than one cup, but friend-to-friend diversity is a noun.

Inclusion is a verb. It's an action. We have to include actively include diversity exists, whether we acknowledge it or not. Diversity is all around us. Equity is a decision and it is a decision to look for. What is fair? What is unfair? What are circumstances that cause unintentional consequences.

So we didn't intend for it to, but we have information. We have data that tells us, wow, we need to take a second look. So that is the quick, super simple, hopefully relatively simple answer. And I would say it's part of why I wrote infinite the power of love, which is a Bible study about diversity, equity and inclusion, because we need.

Believer to believer, we need a way to talk about these topics that are often talked about a lot at work, but not talked about as much at church.

Martha: Yeah. Let's just talk about that for a minute because you're so you have a Bible study. So not just a, not just a book that people can read, not just a here's somebody who's opinion, but we're actually a study where we can look at scripture.

Look at this conversation through the lens of scripture.

Kelley Johnson: Absolutely. Yes.

Catherine: And I was, I was just going to say, and you have that definition in, in this.

Kelley Johnson: Yeah, I do, because I know that we have to start with the basics. We're all in different spaces on this journey and that's okay.

Just like we're in different spaces on our faith journey, on our relationship with the Lord. Our understanding around diversity equity and inclusion is something that takes time and effort and energy and conversations like we're having today. But infinite, the power of love is actually part one of a two part series.

And so part one is it's a six session study, so it's great for small groups, whether in, in your workplace or in your church, here's life groups. But we start at the beginning, we literally start with creation and we talk about what was God's design God's design has diversity. Let's talk about night and day.

There's diversity. Let's talk about land and water. We thought diversity. So God had diversity on his mind and heart from day one, but then we move and we progressed to understand the practical application in our workplaces, our schools. And then we end with spiritual diversity. So we bring it back to our relationship with Christ and.

Their spiritual diversity in terms of our gifting. And what does that look like so that we can serve and support others. Yeah.

Catherine: And I, I love Kelley, you know, that I have the infinite study and it's, it's so well laid out. And so I definitely highly recommend that people bring that into your company, but, you know, you mentioned like diversity.

Exists. Right. But th but it is a matter of really embracing it and bringing it in. And so Kelley, you know, what can each of us do regardless of where we are, but level of the organization of what our role is, right. But what can each of us do to have a positive impact on embracing diversity, on making decisions around and supporting decisions around equity and on, you know, carrying out that action of inclusion.

Kelley Johnson: You know, and thank you, Catherine, for always, you know, you and I have had conversations that have been life-changing. So thank you for that. And I would say the simple answer is ask the Lord in a situation or in the moment, how can I demonstrate your love right now in this moment, in this interaction, in this situation?

And just like with any prayer, we gotta be careful cause God will answer. And that means he's going to give us an opportunity to act on what he tells us. And so if we're seeking the Lord, just like we seek him for wisdom in any other area of our life, we should seek him about how do we relate to others?

How do we demonstrate love and be willing to do it? Obedience is better than sacrifice. And so we have to really take those bold steps to demonstrate his love.

Catherine: Yeah. I love that. You said bold steps that I want our listeners to know that there, they can hear a lot more from you on that topic at the Boldly conference, which is Friday, October 21st, 2022.

And they can see more about that, about that event at Boldlyconference.com. But Kelley, we can work for God. Right. But it doesn't mean we've surrendered our work to him. What did it take for you? You know, you mentioned that you didn't always write, include God, you might've given him glory, but you didn't really include him in your work all the time.

What did it take for you to finally surrender your work to God? What does that look like for you?

Kelley Johnson: Oh, okay. That one is I'll try. Not get emotional because I remember I was struggling in my business and I was like, you know what, I'm trying to do it your way. So why isn't it working? And I remember walking in praying, I write about some of this in, in infinite, but I love to walk and pray.

And I remember walking from my daughter's school after taking her one day and I literally say, I surrender X, Y, Z. Like I just started listing all the things in my life. I surrender my family. I surrender my finances. I surrender my diet. I surrender my time. I surrender my business. I S I surrender, you know, I literally just, and I know it was spirit led cause I wouldn't do that on my own, but I literally just.

Surrendering everything I could. And so I would say that it takes a declaration. It takes a declaration for me, it took a declaration to say I will surrender. And it, after that it was it was a matter of listening and acting as quickly as I could to do what the father was asking you to do.

Catherine: And it's daily, right?

You have to surrender every single day. Okay. I surrender again. Right? Well, you're listening to, sheWorks4Him with your host, Martha Brangenberg and Catherine Gates. We're listening to Kelley Johnson and we're going to take a short break. So be sure to stick with us. Hey listeners.

Break: One of the huge projects Martha and I have been working on for years is making it easy for every workplace believer, defined all the voices, speaking, encouragement, and equipping into the faith and work.

Presenting the Awaken podcast network online and Awaken podcast network.com with over 130 different podcast. Voices speaking truth into you. The workplace believer, including over 30 podcasts, dedicated to Christian working women. Go online to awaken podcast, network.com that's Awaken podcast, network.com.

Martha: Welcome back to sheWorks4Him with our guests, Kelley Johnson. You have pointed us towards a lot of resources that God has allowed you to have the privilege of writing. And I'm so grateful for it. And I believe that a lot of us are thinking, oh, this is a Bible study. I want to take to some of my friends, this infinite study that you guys, you have just shared.

We're going to have all of those links and details in our show notes for people to go back to. And I just wanted to highlight, and thank you that you are given a little bit of extra bonus content for our listeners to be able to gleam from. So everybody just check out the show notes to get that information, because I really think that we need to take this to the next step and see what scripture really has to say.

And Kelley you've helped us along the way to do that. So thank you for that. You. You are such an encouragement to other people. Where do you go to get encouragement when you are in a difficult season or you have something that you're struggling with? I'd love to just hear how, what God's doing in your life, in that area.

Kelley Johnson: Yeah. Thank you, Martha. And thank you for the work that you and Jim have done over the years to support and encourage so many other working professionals. I consider us all co-laborers and so it's just a pleasure. I'm active in my home church. And so, you know, faithfully attend and have served in prayer ministry for years and the women's ministry.

I did a little stint in the youth ministry. That was probably my most challenging but in terms of encouraging getting sort of fed is what I, how I kind of think of. I'm listening to two to three additional sermons a week outside of what I get on Sundays. You know, of course I have my morning devotional time, which is usually brief.

I'll be very honest. I, I have not yet gotten to the point where I can have like a one hour devotional time every morning. But then I would say sort of my big investment in myself and I highly encourage it is once a year, I try to go away for a couple of days and attend a conference. Kind of a Christian development type conference, or I've even done a silent retreat for three days.

Just to be still and hear from the Lord in a, in a more kind of big way to really get big picture direction on what he has next for me.

Catherine: That's that's awesome. I love the silent retreat. That's not something I've done yet, but it's something I would love to do. So Kelley re we've got a wrap up.

We're running out of time, but is there a verse that is really speaking to you right now at this stage of your life that you would like to share with our listeners?

Kelley Johnson: Yes, I'd love to. So Zephaniah 3:17. And do I have time to read it? Yes. For the Lord, your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior.

He will take delight in you with gladness, with his love. He will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs. I just love that.

Catherine: Yeah. That's such a meaningful verse for us right now in the time that we're in. Isn't it? Yeah. Well, Kelley, thank you so much for your time for your insight.

We pray that many women are inspired by what you've shared today. So you've been listening to, sheWorks4Him with your host, Martha Brangenberg and Catherine Gates. We are Christian working women, helping other Christian working women to live out their calling at work. As sheWorks4Him

Intro: as Christian women, we have many roles from daughter, sister, friend, wife, and mother to analyst, accountant, executive or educator. Is it possible to balance our roles at work and home in a way that honors God? The answer is yes. And our new book, sheWorks4Him will help show you that. Written to celebrate, encourage and equip women in the workforce.

sheWorks4Him. Discusses the diverse experiences of today's Christian working woman. Pick up a copy by going to, iWork4Him.com/bookstore. You've been listening to the, sheWorks4Him podcast with your host, Catherine Gates, Nadia Dickson, and Martha Brangenberg. Please like us on Facebook and subscribe on YouTube under sheWorks4Him and to access any of the resources we mentioned on today's.

See the show notes at sheWorks4Him. Dot com that's she works the number for him. Dot com. This podcast was created to empower you to live out your calling. It works. The world knows sheWorks4Him.

4/4/22 - Working and Walking with Courage: Krystal Stewart, author of Claim Your Courage

Intro: As a Christian working woman, you have many roles from your responsibility with family and friends to community and work. How do you connect all that you do with all that you are, and still have your face shine through. It's a challenge, but you are up to it. The, sheWorks4Him podcast at the gathering place to empower Christian working women, to live out their calling at work.

By connecting them to God resources and each other through powerful face stories from other working sisters in Christ. Welcome to sheWorks4Him.

Martha: You've tuned into, sheWorks4Him, where we connect Christian, working women to God resources and to one another. We are your host today. Martha Brandbenburg and Nadya Dickson.

Remember, you can always go to our website. sheWorks4Him.com that's she works the number 4 Him.com and there, I just want to encourage everybody. If you haven't told. You will find right there on that main page that you can sign up for our weekly podcasts, email, that way you get it in your inbox.

In case you forget to go to your favorite podcast app, or your notifications are turned off, which I know in more and more of us are doing all the time, because there's just so much out there on the emails. That just a kind reminder that when, when the timing is right, you've got some news stories, some new inspirations.

Encouragement for you to listen to in the aspect of the, sheWorks4Him podcasts. So remember our website, sheWorks4Him. Dot com. We'd love for you to sign up and connect with us on social media. And on Instagram or Facebook, or watch the podcast on our YouTube channel, which is just such a fun way.

I know for me, I love to see expression. I love to see personality come through visually, which is what God created us to have. So our, you can follow our YouTube channel by subscribing there, but thank you for being here today. And we look forward to having this show with you.

Nadya: Thank you so much, Martha.

Well, here we are Christian working women and we all. At least I can speak for myself and the women that I know and do life with. We always have a deep desire to walk in a spirit of faith regarding everything that we do, how we function in all our roles at work and at home. But for the last two years, especially there really has been an overarching message of fear coming from the media and all kinds of different outlets.

About the pandemic and now, you know, the threats of war here and abroad. How do we continue to walk in the assurance of our faith and maintain resilience at our work and our home for our family and our colleagues? Well, today we go to Maryland to have a conversation with Krystal Stewart. Krystal has had firsthand experience looking into the face of fear.

And through her relationship with God, she has overcome fear and rage and she determined to march forward. And discover her true self in the process. And she has a lot of great things to share with us today. I know you're going to be encouraged, Kristen. Welcome Krystal. Welcome to sheWorks4Him.

Krystal Stewart: Hi everyone.

So excited to just have this opportunity and thank you guys just for what you're doing and just putting that out there and encouraging people because we all need it. Wherever we are, especially business women out there, right.

Martha: Krystal. We are so excited to have you as our guests today. And I'm very much looking forward to what God has done in and through your life.

And the first thing I want to know, as I get to know you is for you to tell me a little bit about yourself, through your faith journey and why you became a follower of Jesus.

Krystal Stewart: Well, for me, I'm a pastor's kid. And again, don't re you know, if you've heard all of the stories, half of them are true. Half of them are not true, but everyone always has stories about pastor's kids.

But I say all that to say I was blessed to be raised in the church. And that was a blessing for me. My father was in the business world himself, and at the age of five years old, my parents were looking for a place that had the best and longest afterschool program. And it just so happened to be a Christian private school.

So they placed us in a Christian private school, came to the Christmas play and gave their hearts to the Lord, which was amazing. So it was from the age of probably seven on my dad went into full-time ministry and I was blessed to be able to be raised in the church world. And so I started having experiences as a young age with the Lord and you know, at camps in different times, I, I, everybody usually has like a date or a time, like October 5th is my date that I got saved.

And for me, I can't really trace it back to a moment. I grew up as a, you know, as a young child, just having those moments. And it was like, he, not that he was always part of my life, but I've always had that close relationship. So.

Martha: That's so powerful. And I would love to, I mean, we could just camp on this whole idea of your dad and the church and, you know, just that exposure, but what a great thing.

We never know when the heart is going to be ripe and what the path is going to be, that intersects people with Jesus Christ. And that's why it's so important for us to be so intentional. In our daily life. So tell me then, so fast forward a little bit, when did you discover, because of having grown up as a PK, right?

When did you discover that your work mattered to God outside of just the ministry that you saw happening in the local church through your parents work?

Krystal Stewart: Well, I'm a PK married a PK. So that, you know, kind of developed into, you know, at a young age, I got married very young. I was 17 years old. My husband was a 20 years old.

We went into ministry as youth pastors at a young age. And so it was just, again, always part of our life for both of us working in the church, being able to have that opportunity to encourage people, whether they were teenagers, you know, our kids all the way. So I have only been in the actual, I guess, quote unquote business world for the last three years which, you know, we'll get to a little bit later.

But for me again, the church is also still like that business world. You're, you're getting people that are coming from all walks of life and needing to meet them where they are and minister to them. So that's just always been that blessing for me to have that opportunity to have everybody come to you that were from, you know, every different place.

Nadya: Wow. So Krystal, I know that you and your husband spent a season as pastors in Florida, and there was an opportunity that came to you.

You were talking about opportunities and people that come, and this one literally landed at the church door. Do you want to share a little bit about that?

Krystal Stewart: Yeah. So we planted a church in Florida.

We were there for 12 years and we planted a church called refuge church. We had a large feeding ministry, the place that we were in had just a great need in the community. And it just so happened. I went through a season of having cancer, which was horrible. It was, you know, not planned, of course, nobody planned something like that, but I was in such a. you know, questioning place of like, God, this doesn't make sense right now what's going on. And at that time, our church was at its height of growth. We were doing a huge feeding ministry. So one day my husband said, can you come to the church with me? And while I redo the tile and let's just kind of restart, you know, and see what's going on.

So I was sitting there with him. I couldn't do anything at the time I had just had surgery. And we didn't have a feeding ministry that day, but there was a family outside of our church that was homeless and they had these two small children. I had three children already at the time. But they had these two small children and I share about it a lot more in detail of my story and it actually hit the news.

But we ended up taking them home for a night to make a long story, really short a storm was coming. The parents asked if we could take them home for a night. And I just remember in that moment saying. God, what are you doing? This makes no sense, but that moment, and I talk about courage. Courage is again, part of my life in all areas of life.

It was that moment of courage for me in hindsight, which made no sense in the moment. And for any of us overthinkers really made no sense when you're looking at the future, but turned into one of the most beautiful blessings and miracles of my life because those two boys are now my sons, my fourth and fifth children.

And that was gosh, that was six years ago. So they are now six and eight years old, which is amazing. So again, long story short, there's so much more to it that I share about in my book and it hit the news, but it just shows. When you're in those moments and you say, yes, to God, and then sometimes you don't have a lot of time to think about it.

But it can turn into something much bigger than what God was originally wanting to do with your life.

Nadya: So, so good. Well, I know, I know more about that story and I'm glad that you teased the listener's ears about it because it truly is a miraculous journey. But you also then eventually made a transition.

And this is where I met you in the DC area. And you went from that full-time pastoral role into taking territory naturally. And so you became a realtor, you got licensed as a realtor. How has your faith impacted you in this new kind of work?

Krystal Stewart: Well, again, is everybody can relate and, you know, faith is not just something that we experience in church.

Faith is our life. It's something that we have at our home. It's something we have in our marriage. It's something we have as mothers. It's something we have in business. It's in all parts of our life. So whether we're actually able to be preaching the gospel with a microphone or not our lives are preaching and everything that we do. But a really crazy transition for me, always working in the church and now just strictly working in the business world. And it's funny because Nadya, when we first met, at the beginning of that journey for me I was struggling at the beginning, I struggled. And I remember sitting at a restaurant with you and I'm pretty sure I probably cried at that restaurant experience, but I was just saying at that time, Like, oh my gosh.

I work in in the DMV area. So I have my DC real estate license, Maryland real estate license of Virginia real estate license. When I was working in, you know, top producing companies and, you know, the pressure was great, but of course the teams and, you know, different people that I work with, which is fine, but they were not, you know, Christians or, you know, faith filled people.

And I was trying to really find my place in being able to still be. Who I am, you know, in those environments. And you encouraged me so much in those moments, because I just remember thinking I don't fit here. I don't know how to do this. This is, I mean, I've always worked in the church literally, and now I'm out with your, you know, on these teams and dealing with them, you know, pretty hard stuff, but you encouraged me.

You said Krystal, if God opened those doors for you and he told you to walk through them, then you know, let's just keep praying. And at that time I was functioning with a team, but there was a lot of different things that were just not working. And you prayed and was like Krystal, let's just pray and see if God starts giving you wisdom on what to do next.

And it was shortly after our conversation that God opened another door for me to switch to another team. And from that point on, it has been just like, boom, boom, boom, amazing. Just incredible favor, incredible open doors and just total expansion. Even in my business. So, again, it just shows the power of prayer, but still being who you are in those situations, but reaching out for wisdom when you get in those types situations,

Martha: oh, there's so many good nuggets there, Krystal, because you exactly, you hit on it.

You know, sometimes we need to seek that wise counsel of other people. And knowing that you were pressing into this in a conversation that I need to still be who I am, which is who, you know, your past was always built on your maybe identity in the church, but it was deep down at your faith and it's, how could you still live that out and seeking that wise counsel and praying into that and seeking the answer.

And sometimes it isn't a move. Sometimes it isn't a transition to something different, but Clearly open doors for you. And we're going to touch talk about that more. And I'm excited because in the next segment, I really want to talk about your book and hear about this whole conversation of courage, because so many of us need that on a daily basis.

You're listening to, sheWorks4Him with our guests today, Krystal Stewart, and we'll

be right back.

Break: Did you know that God has a calling on your life? It's true. He's called you to bring Jesus to the world. For some that may look like a pulpit or a foreign mission field, but for most of us, it looks like a construction site, a cubicle, a hospital, or a classroom, wherever it is that you work with volunteer and invest.

That is your mission field. To learn more about integrating your faith into your work in retirement. Check out our books: iWork4Him. sheWorks4Him and iRetire4Him by going to iWork4Him.com/Bookstore.

Martha: Welcome back to, sheworks4Him with your cohost, Nadya Dickson and Martha Brangenberg.

We're here today with Krystal Stewart and krystal. The theme of your conversation really is about courage. And I love that. This little snippet into your life, where you were in a point where you didn't feel like you could be authentically who you were and who God made you to be and your faith, and just the struggle with the team that you were with and through a conversation with Nadya and prayer together, you said that it's like that catapulted a lot of change that has really had a positive impact. And I want you to just speak to that just a little bit more because. So many of us it's like that first step. What do we do? I'm frustrated, but I just keep showing up every day. And so what happened then once that opened some new doors for.

Krystal Stewart: Yeah. So for me again when I met with Nadya, I was so frustrated and I really felt led from God to step into the business world. It wasn't just, oh, I want to go into business. I specifically heard a word from God at that point of saying this is going to be an arc for your family. And when we think of arc, we think of a safe place.

We think of perfect. And I was stepping into this and that was not happening. I mean, I was, you know, spending money. I was not making money and everything was just kind of going wrong. So again, after you know, praying with her and I was praying, do I need to make a change? Do I need to stay there? And then I just kept compiling confirmation that no, this change needed to be made.

So it was with that small change that I made and all of a sudden doors just started to open for me and in the business. I went from, you know, not meeting any of my goals to the next year, you know, breaking six figures in business to the next year. Multi-six figures and stepping into the commercial world.

I mean, last year I was able to sell over 120 apartment buildings, which is incredible. So, and that all happened going back to my courage story of my first client, when I didn't have anyone, they were saying, Hey, does anybody want to take anyone who might be interested in commercial? Well I had never done commercial, but I thought, again, my, who I am is that person of courage and Hey, if somebody else can do it, I could do it.

So I said, I'll take them. I had no idea what I was doing, but I just stepping into that and favor and, you know, different people came up alongside me and it just started opening doors. So again, courage, you know, who you are in the church can be the same person who you are there. It's not that you're preaching with what you do, but that's what people say.

I don't understand. How do you say yes to stuff? How do you believe that, you know, different stuff will come up and be able to help you, but it's again, just walking by faith and being able to, sometimes you don't see the step ahead of you, but you just step or you say yes.

Martha: So talk to me about this theme of courage. And then what led you to writing the book, claim your courage? I'm very curious, like had you always felt like you were, God created you as a courageous woman?

Krystal Stewart: So in general, I'm probably definitely a risk taker. I'm the sky diver, the, you know, little adventure person. If you give me something they're telling me, I can't do it, I'm going to do it.

So, you know, courage is definitely a thing for me, even in the natural of it, I like to push myself. I like to push my limits. And again, if somebody else can do it, that's not, you know, it doesn't show favoritism. If you did it for them, he can do it for me. So usually the only thing holding us back is ourselves, our limitations, what we think about ourselves and you know, what we step into, but courage for me and writing a book became a whole thing because God spoke that to me over 10 years ago.

And when I first started stepping into that, Closed door closed door. It just was not happening. So the word courage came to me through even writing a book. I share about it even through walking through my cancer journey, walking through challenges in my marriage walking through challenges with the church and the spirit of religion.

And, and then, you know, of course in the business realm. So I find it to be something that has definitely came to every area of my life. Courage, claiming your courage in those situations. You know, and I mean, we talk about faith. Of course, we walk by faith, right. But what, and this was, you know, that epiphany I had with God, okay, God, I maybe I don't have enough faith.

And then one day he said, Krystal, with a faith of small of a mustard seed, you can move a mountain. So no matter what, you have enough faith, but it's that you yourself is holding yourself back from activating your faith. And I found that courage was that bridge builder, taking those steps of courage is what activated.

Martha: So talk to me just quick about the book. Like who, who do you think should pick up the book and what are you hoping that they get out of it when they spend their time reading it?

Krystal Stewart: Yeah. Oh, look at it. That's right here. Right.

Martha: So if you're watching on YouTube, you can see it.

Krystal Stewart: That's awesome. Yes. So again, you can order it on Amazon, but I like to just be very open I'm very vulnerable and sharing stories.

Like I said, from being, even down to being a pastor's kid and watching, you know, different situations that happened in the church that, you know, kind of jaded me a little bit, not so much with my relationship with God, but my relationship with the church. Down to marriage situations and being able to say, Hey, this is not okay.

And having the courage to be able to say, everything's not okay right now. And there's probably some things that we need to work on and took courage or having the courage again, to bring my boys home and then step into adoption that took courage, taking the courage to say. When I felt God urging me to step into business and I felt so long qualified.

And then when I felt like I was failing having the courage to continue you know, taking those steps until, you know, things started working out. So for me, courage is definitely a way of life. I hit on so many multiple areas in that you know, the path to courage and, you know, I love the last four letters encourages actually raised.

So that's where the rage comes from. Cause sometimes for me, courage, didn't start as courage, courage started as rage and as anger. And I thought I was totally sending and going to hell at that point. Like I know anger is wrong, be angry and sin not. And I was mad for a lot of things.

Martha: So we want people to be able to get a copy of your book and Krystal, you have generously offered to give one away as to a listener.

So listeners, if you are intrigued by this book, Claim Your Courage, you can call our listener line at eight six six seven one three nine six seven five eight six six seven one three work. And we'll have that in our show notes. So you don't have to memorize it right now, but call and leave us a message.

We'll get back to you. This may be an opportunity for you to read it and then pass it on to a friend. Or you may know someone who really needs this message right now, but then people, you can all buy it for yourselves as well. So Krystal, thank you for that generosity and Nadya why don't you close this out with another question for this segment,?

Nadya: Sure, let's just take a couple minutes before we go into the next segment, but Krystal for our listeners today.

We know that most of them are Christian working women. And what kind of encouragement would you leave with them in a, you know, a minute, a minute and a half nugget. How to walk and courage in their workplace.

Krystal Stewart: For me, I would say, just continue to be who you are. Don't let the environment that you're in change you, you be someone that, you know, changes that environment and be courageous. Be courageously who God's created you to be, be who you are. You're unique, you're different. You're not gonna fit. But that's okay. So you can be you and still do it, even with kindness and with generosity. It doesn't mean that we have to be hard, or we have to be, you know, brash about who we are, but just, you know, having that boldness and that confidence and knowing who God's created you to be, who, where he has placed you to be, and then being able to just walk through.

Martha: That's so good. And, you know, sometimes I think that, we think that courage means we have to be like a bull in a China shop and it really doesn't have to be that way. Just having that confidence that comes through Christ. Maybe that next step that we need to take. We're going to have more of this, this conversation and just a little bit, we're going to take a quick break.

We're talking with Krystal Stewart today. Claim Your Courage is out there for you to get, if you want to call our listener line (866) 713-9675. We'll be right back in just a moment.

Break: Hey listeners. One of the huge projects Martha and I have been working on for years is making it easy for every workplace believer to find all the voices speaking, encouragement, and equipping into the faith and work movement, presenting the Awaken podcast network.

Online and Awaken podcast network.com with over 130 different podcast. Voices speaking truth into you. The workplace believer, including over 30 podcasts, dedicated to Christian working women. Go online to awaken podcast, network.com that's Awaken podcast, network.com.

Martha: Welcome back to sheWorks4Him with your co-host Martha Brangenberg and Nadya Dickson today. Krystal Stewart, you have been able to open our eyes a little bit to this idea of courage and through your book, claim your courage. We can learn more about the different ways that we can really walk in that ourselves. And for some people that may look like confidence for some people, it may look like, you know, many different things, but listeners, remember you can call and get a copy of that book or go out and buy it on your own and share it with your friends.

But thank you so much for being our guests here today. And I can't wait to hear the next question. Nadya is going to ask you.

Nadya: Well, Krystal you really are giving us an authentic, you are an authentic model. If somebody that's walking in courage and going into new frontiers new places, just doing it in confidence in Christ, but not feeling confident, maybe in.

In your own natural self without being informed by the spirit. So saying that you came from a pastoral role as a city impactor, and now you are really focused in the marketplace. How can other women feel like they're playing a role in impacting their city, perhaps towards God's redemptive plan for that city from a marketplace perspective?

Krystal Stewart: Well, for me, I always say, find the needs in your city and then be a part of it. So don't shy away from it. What I've, you know, like to go back to myself as saying, as love looks like. And many times we're all in our own cities, but, and there's there's needs in everybody's cities, but sometimes we just don't see it, or we choose to stay in our little box of what's comfortable, what we want to see.

But a lot of times people think it has to be some big thing, but really love looks around. If you ask God, God, give me eyes to see. You know, if even the person that you're working with, that you don't even understand, that's who your assignment is, maybe it's on a bigger scale and you need to get involved in, you know, another ministry or something going on.

But I don't think it's the same thing for everyone. And I don't think it's the same place for every city and every season, I think it always changes and we don't need to get stuck in a box like. But I just want to challenge you to look around and see what the current needs are around you. And just understand if you're there out of 7 billion people on this planet, God's placed you there.

It's not coincidence. So be who you are in those situations.

Martha: Love looks around. Well, that is so profound. I I'm thinking there needs to be a t-shirt line when I hear things like that. I'm like, I can embrace that idea because you know, so many times we look we're so tunnel vision, we're so focused on, but if we really love those around us, we're looking around to see what those needs are.

And that applies in our workplace that applies in our city that applies in our own families. So wow. What a powerful nugget. So one last thing, Krystal, just before we go, I just am curious. Is there like a life verse that drives you or something that is speaking into you right now in this season? Go either way.

Krystal Stewart: My life versus definitely John 16:33. I say it every day. I say it to everybody in some point, and in this world, you'll have trials and tribulations, but take courage for, I have overcome this world. So in every situation, I mean, life has its way, whether it's even a business or with your kids, or, I mean, look at the news.

It has this way of having this rollercoaster. You can have the highest of highs and then the lowest of lows. And if we let our emotions or who we are playing into, that we find ourself on that roller coaster. But when we put it into perspective to say, Jesus warns that subprime and this world you're going to have, you're going to have good days.

You're gonna have bad days. You're going to have days where things are going good and they're not take courage. Take courage is every day. For, I have overcome the world, we know the end of the story. We know the end of the book, and if he gave us the promise, then we just have to keep walking through it.

So that's my life verse. I say it all the time. I love it. John 16:33.

That's

Martha: so powerful. Thank you so much for sharing that with us. And I'm guessing that it's probably

referred to in your book claim your courage. So listeners, again, just a reminder, this is a generous opportunity for you to get a copy from Krystal by calling the listener line, that number will be in our show notes.

Krystal. It has been a pleasure to have you on the show today. And I hope that you know I'm encouraged by the courage conversation and I'm sure that the other women are too. So thank you for this.

Nadya: Thank you so much.

Krystal Stewart: Thank you. Thank you.

Martha: You've been listening to, sheWorks4Him with your hosts, Martha Brangenberg and Nadya Dickson we're Christian working women, helping other Christian working to live out their calling at work,

as sheWorks4Him

Outro: As Christian women, we have many roles from daughter, sister, friend, wife, and mother to analyst, accountant, executive or educator. Is it possible to balance our roles at work and home in a way that honors God? The answer is yes. And our new book, sheWorks4Him will help show you how.

Written to celebrate, encourage and equip women in the workforce. sheWorks4Him. Discusses the diverse experiences of today's Christian working woman. Pick up a copy by going to, I work for him.com/bookstore. You've been listening to the, sheWorks4Him podcast with your host, Catherine Gates, Nadya Dickson, and Martha Brangenberg.

Please like us on Facebook and subscribe on YouTube under sheWorks4Him and to access any of the resources we mentioned on today's. See the show notes at sheWorks4Him. Dot com that's she works the number four kim.com. This podcast was created to empower you to live out your calling at work so the world knows sheWorks4Him.

3/28/22 - Women's Work Matters: Peggy Bodde, Sacred Work

Intro: As a Christian working woman, you have many roles from your responsibility with family and friends to community and work. How do you connect all that you do with all that you are, and still have your face shine through. It's a challenge, but you are up to it. The, sheWorks4Him podcast at the gathering place to empower Christian working women, to live out their calling at work.

By connecting them to God resources and each other through powerful face stories from other working sisters in Christ. Welcome to sheWorks4Him.

Martha: You've tuned into, sheWorks4Him, where we connect Christian, working women to God resources and one another. And that is our prayer for you today.

Listeners, as you join us in conversation that somehow you will feel more connected to each other through just Christian working women. We're all in this together. Getting connected to God and resources that can help you along the way. You can find those resources by going to, sheWorks4Him.com that's she works the number for him.com and learn more about some of our past guests, the resources that they have shared and other ways that you can stay connected.

And we are so glad that you are here. Remember that she works the number for him.com.

Catherine: Giving our best at work comes easiest. When we have confidence in the value of what we have to contribute it to many Christian working women still struggle with seeing the value of their work in God's eyes, perceiving their work in the marketplace as less valuable than the work of women in ministry or missions.

But women need to know that God uses their work in business. At least as much as he uses the work of women in minister. Peggy Bodde worked in the corporate world for 25 years after wrestling was seeing the value of her work in God's eyes. God showed her that what he has commissioned her to do is no less important than the work of women in missions or ministry in a step of faith.

Peggy made the transition to full-time writer and entrepreneur eight years ago. At the same time, she felt compelled to continue helping other Christian women see the value, God, places on their work and find rest in it. Peggy is a full-time writer and the founder of sacred work, a foundation she established to serve working women through mentorship.

Peggy, welcome to sheWorks4Him.

Peggy Bodde: Thank you. I am so excited to be here and I'm a regular listener of your podcast. And so glad you guys launched it. Having to be.

Catherine: Thank you. Well, I'm so excited to share your story, Peggy, and, um, you and I have developed such a great friendship, just starting from your connection to me on LinkedIn, which is amazing.

So I can't wait for you to share how you live out your faith at work, but first, can you share with our listeners how you became a Jesus follower?

Peggy Bodde: I would have to say I became a Christ follower against all odds. And I say that because I was adopted into an abusive home and the adoptive parents were both avid church goers.

They took us to church regularly. So you can imagine it was really confusing for me because the Jesus I was learning about in Sunday school did not seem to be present in our home, but by God's grace, my time in that home ended and. God faithfully pursued me. It was a long, messy journey, but he, um, I think that's why it's called amazing grace.

And I would have to say as far as a reason that I became a Christ follower, it's because he wouldn't take no for an answer. And I'm grateful for that. Um, amen.

Martha: Are we all grateful that he doesn't take no, we can be cut to stubborn sometimes, but so grateful for that. So Peggy, tell us what kind of work you do.

Peggy Bodde: Well, as Catherine mentioned, I was a corporate leader for most of my career. Well, over 25 years, but then eight years ago, I resigned as the senior vice president to start my own small business, a freelance writing business. So today I'm a full-time writer and I largely write for educational publishers, which is just another way of saying I research and write textbooks, which I really enjoy.

But my passion is writing content to equip and support Christian professional women. So I do that on the side and I'm super excited because, uh, I wrote a book proposal last year, along the lines of the topic that we're discussing. And it was picked up by a literary agent and she shopping it out to Christian publishers right now,

Martha: uh, is so exciting, you know, and I have to say, you know, one of the things that I've learned over the years, Like every, there is.

Special people God has created for every position that's out there. We need textbook writers. So I love that. That's what you do and you love it because without it, we wouldn't have them. Right. And as much as people might, you know, chagrin the cost or, or having to read those textbooks, we're grateful for you for writing them.

So, and that is the way God has equipped you. And he equips each one of us different. But in what you are doing in that, um, on, you're kind of on the side, what you're talking about there. Um, we just love this conversation about Christian working women and anything that can be a resource. I'm excited to hear more about your upcoming book that will be coming out.

So how did your decision to follow Jesus impact your approach to your work? Whether it's your writing or whatever it is that God has you do?

Peggy Bodde: That's a great question. So in whatever role I've been in, whether as a leader or a writer, there are three actions that I try to take. So the first one is to show excellence because I think when we bring our best to the table, we glorify God.

And we also earn the respect of the people around us and respect is foundational for relationship. And the second thing is to broker hope. And I think as Christians, especially Christian leaders, It's our responsibility to inspire hope and dispel fear when people are faced with difficult circumstances at work, which happens often.

And the last thing I would say is to love fully, and that's not something, you know, you're going to find in a management or leadership book, but I know that God places a high priority on it. So I have always done my best to do that because what better way to set ourselves apart as leaders in the workplace than to love.

So those are the three guardware guardrails that I try to use anytime I'm in a workspace, whatever that may be.

Catherine: I love that it's and it's easy to keep in mind to excellence, hope and love. We all could use more of that in our workplaces. So Peggy, tell us a little bit about, I know you have a passion for equipping other working women and really supporting them based on your experience.

What are you doing to equip price followers, to live out their faith?

Peggy Bodde: So I write and speak about the intersection between faith and work at every, every chance I get, whether it's podcasts like this one or a women's event like I did last week. I also have a private women's group on LinkedIn and it's called sacred work.

And it's a space where professional Christian women can get together and encourage and support one another. Um, but most of my one-on-one equipping comes through my ministry, which is also called sacred work. So through the ministry, I help one to two women every month. And I love that because it's really personal.

I get to know that. Um, I get to come alongside them and help them work through whatever career or leadership problem they're facing. And I take them through that pain point to the other side, and we usually stay in touch and develop friendships after that. So, um, that is a really rewarding part of it and way that I equipped women in the workplace who, um, have a heart for Christ.

Catherine: That's so wonderful. I'm sure there's some women who are listening right now who would love to connect with you. Can you tell us really quickly how they can find.

Peggy Bodde: Sure. My website is PeggyBodde.com and they can find my email information, um, other contact information there, but it's all for free because it is my ministry.

So if they, um, send me a message via the website, then I will get in touch with them about, um, the next step that they would like to take.

Catherine: Fantastic. You're listening to, sheWorks4Him. We're going to take a short break and then we'll be right back with Peggy Bodde.

Intro: Did you

Break: know that God has a calling on your life?

It's true. He's called you to bring Jesus to the world. For some that may look like a pulpit or a foreign mission field, but for most of us, it looks like a construction site, the cubicle, a hospital, or a classroom, wherever it is that you work with volunteer and, and best that is your mission field. To learn more about integrating your faith into your work in retirement.

Check out our books iWork4Him. sheWorks4Him and iRetire4Him by going to iWork4Him.com/bookstore.

Catherine: Welcome back to, sheWorks4Him. We're talking to Peggy Bodde writer and founder of sacred work. Peggy is offering a free download four steps to help you make a successful career transition.

And so we will make sure to put the link so that you can download that in the show notes. Peggy, I love that you are helping other women live out their faith at work. What did it take for you to surrender your work to.

Peggy Bodde: I'll surrender is a big word. And there are, there are some lessons in God's kingdom that I learned easily and surrendering my work was not one of them, but he knows what we need.

Um, and toward the end of my career, I got a very big lesson, which was a turning point for me. So I was scheduled to interview for the CEO of our company. And unexpectedly had to have surgery on my spine. So I was in the hospital for a few days and while he was there, my boss interviewed and hired the other candidate for the position.

So this was a very painful, difficult time for me, but God used it to show me that I had put my job on the throne. So he had blessed me with this amazing career. I was a single mom. Um, the career provided for me and my daughter, but I had taken that gift and dishonored it by making it into an idol. So that was a really hard lesson in surrender.

Um, but God also used it in an amazing way because my heart and my mind were surrendered to the point that I was willing to make the career change that he had been prodding me to make for two years. So he had been working on my heart. The holy spirit had been speaking to me, um, to quit my corporate job and start my own business and, and become a full-time writer.

But I was afraid, you know, there were so many things that I was scared of. I had trust issues with the Lord. So when this big situation happened, this scenario, it really humbled me. And it helped me to understand what it meant to fully surrender. And I did, and I made the career change.

Martha: And I'm guessing that that's a little bit of where this download, that you're offering, that we're going to have in the show links comes from because the title of it is four steps to help you make a successful career transition.

So if you've been through it and you've learned a lot of lessons along the way, and you're willing to share that with others, then we're more than willing to receive that gift and hopefully learn from it ourselves. So at what point in your life did you realize. That God cared more, or just as much about your work as that he did have a pastor or missionary and not more or less.

Peggy Bodde: I am really grateful because I came to this realization pretty early in my career. So I mentioned that I was a single mom and I didn't have the option to stay at home with my daughter. And I spent a lot of time. Second guessing the work that God called me to, I always felt less than as a mom, less than as a Christian, um, the Christian community at that time.

Um, there wasn't a lot of latitude for roles that women could could take in the workplace or at home. It was very defined. So one day, um, And that leaves me feeling really isolated. So one day I was crying out to the Lord about it. I was praying and I was saying, you know, God, not only do I think I'm not bringing value to your kingdom, but I'm probably sending by working instead of being at home and I should be working in ministry or I should be using my gifts to be a missionary.

And it was almost audible. I heard the holy spirit say, who is criticizing you because it's not. And at that moment, I felt this huge peace settle over me. And that question was, was completely answered and I did dig into scripture and that was just more affirming because I saw example after example of how God uses diverse people, men and women.

In a million different roles to accomplish the purposes for his kingdom. So all of those realizations gave me a lot of peace, but also a lot of confidence and clarity. And that message is one that I preach to women to this.

Martha: Hmm, good for you. And, you know, I love the fact that you said, you know, you dug into scripture as you, you saw it, what it was that God was really trying to show you.

And that having that connection to the Lord and using the word to guide and direct us is so very precious and valuable on in the flat. What do you do for living out your faith in your work for encouragement? Is there a group that you surround yourself with or that you participate in, or what is that resource for you that helps you to keep moving forward?

Peggy Bodde: God has really blessed me with amazing friends. All of whom are professional Christian women. So that that's an incredible experience. I'm in Bible studies and prayer groups with them. I was also in a small group with Catherine. She was our leader recently through women in the marketplace. And that was a wonderful experience too.

I believe that. The best way for professional Christian women to be encouraged is by other professional Christian women. So I'm really inspired and encouraged to see women in the marketplace. sheWorks4Him, propel all these organizations, collaborating and working together to bring resources to professional Christian women it's much needed.

And it's just really encouraging to see.

Catherine: Yeah, and you're right. We need to work together. Right? We need to, we need community where we can trust one another and really be open. I mean, I can do the same study, you know, with a dif different groups of women. And I always, always learn so much, not only from God's word, but from the other women and their perspective.

So it's so incredibly valuable. So Peggy, what's a recent lesson. If you wouldn't mind sharing that, you've learned about living out your faith at work. What's some insight that you've recently.

Peggy Bodde: I was reflecting recently about how, if we are obedient, God will take our work experience and use it in his kingdom in ways that we can't even imagine.

So for example, as we talked about, I'm a writer, I write eight hours a day, five days a week. So the skills that I developed. Writing as my job I can use to write for God's kingdom. They make me a better writer for God's kingdom. But the other way I've been able to use that is I've had women who are stay-at-home moms who need to bring in a little extra money and they want to do, how do I make money as a writer?

Well, I can help them. Um, at the same time, all the years I spent leading in corporate, God didn't waste that because now I'm using that experience to mentor and coach, um, other Christian women in my ministry. So that doesn't waste anything. He is truly the master orchestrator. And I just love that.

Catherine: That is so that's so true.

And I think it's so important for all of us to recognize that in here that he doesn't waste anything the hard times, the good times, the things that have that seem so well past, right. He uses it all. That's fantastic. You're listening to, sheWorks4Him with your host, Martha Brangenberg and Catherine.

We're going to take a short break and we'll be right back with Peggy Bodde.

Break: Hey listeners.

One of the huge projects Martha and I have been working on for years is making it easy for every workplace believer to find all the voices speaking, encouragement, and equipping into the faith and work movement, presenting the Awaken podcast network.

Online and Awaken podcast network.com with over 130 different podcast. Voices speaking truth into you. The workplace believer, including over 30 podcasts, dedicated to Christian working women go online to awaken podcast, network.com that's Awaken podcast, network.com.

Martha: Welcome back to sheWorks4Him.

We're talking to Peggy Bodde writer and founder of sacred work.

You know, I, again, I just want to reiterate that I am so grateful that you are go to scripture learning what God is teaching you, listening to his voice. When you run into an area where you need to seek wise counsel, when you need to gain wisdom from somebody else, where do you go for

that?

Peggy Bodde: I have read a ton of books and listened to a lot of podcasts. Um, I also have some great business mentors. And as I mentioned, Christian friends who are also small business owners, leaders, et cetera, but I have to say the holy spirit has been the best mentor for me. Um, once I realized that God doesn't want me to compartmentalize that part of my life, he doesn't want us to take work and set it aside.

And go to him about everything else, but work. He is very interested in our work. So once I realized that and I started speaking, uh, seeking the holy Spirit's help, um, in all work-related issues, it made so many things about work, easier, dealing with challenges, personnel, problems, decisions. I had to make everything I believe in the power of prayer.

And I know that when we invite God into our workspace, he is going to show.

Catherine: So Peggy, you know, we like to be super practical and sometimes I know people can get in their heads about what does that even mean? Seek the holy spirit. So can you, can you kind of like bring that down to real practical? What does that look like for you?

How do you seek the holy spirit for, for those things and how frequently does that happen?

Peggy Bodde: Oh, it happens in all things all the time, but on a practical level, you know, for me, when I, when I dug into scripture and realize that the holy spirit is my advocate, he's my counselor. Um, he prays for me what, I don't even know how to pray for myself.

You know, all of there's a lot of power and all of that. So. I basically bring any, any time I need to, Sermont help making a decision. I lay that at the foot of the cross. So I pray about it. I asked the holy spirit to show me in scripture, to reaffirm, to me, to make my way clear. Um, and I, and I target specific things and work because I think we have a tendency to, um, invite God into our health, our families, church, life, all of that, and not into the work part.

So for me, on a practical level, it is being very specific about what I pray about and what I bring before God, as far as work goes, you know, I'm very, very specifically. And I think that's about as practically as I can explain it. I don't know if that make sense.

Catherine: No, that's, that makes a lot of sense. And that's great.

I just, sometimes people, like I said, they get in their heads and they're just not sure. I mean, to your point, you know, it's, it's stopping throughout the day. Lord, what do you want me to do next? What to, how does this need to. Or, or, you know, as we were trying to get guests for the show, you know, Lord show me who you want on the show decks, you know, and it's amazing how he's like, oh, good.

Thank you for asking me now I'll lead you to that person.

Peggy Bodde: Thank you for inviting me in.

Catherine: Yeah. Yeah. And sometimes it's journaling, you know, sometimes it's just speaking, you know, doing that two way journaling where I write down a question and I just write down then what I feel like God's speaking to. So, no, I think that's very helpful for listeners to have those practical, practical tips, if you will.

So Peggy, before we wrap up, can you just leave us with one final piece of wisdom, something that maybe you would, you want to make sure is said in the show that our listeners can gain from?

Peggy Bodde: Absolutely. I would say to your list. Don't downgrade the value of the work that God has called you to do. God will use women in the workplace just as mightily as he uses women in the mission field and in ministry.

And we spend about a third of our lives at work. Don't use that time. Doubting, you said making a difference.

Catherine: Oh, love that. Love that, Peggy. Thank you so much. I really pray that, that there are thousands of women who are inspired by your story. I we're just so grateful that you've been a guest on our show.

You've been listening. You've been listening to, sheWorks4Him with your host Martha Brangenberg and Catherine Gates. We're Christian workers. Helping other Christian working women to live out their calling at work as sheWorks4Him

Outro: christian women, we have many roles from daughter, sister, friend, wife, and mother to analyst, accountant, executive or educator.

Is it possible to balance our roles at work and home in a way that honors God? The answer is yes. And our new book, sheWorks4Him will help show you. Written to celebrate, encourage and equip women in the workforce. sheWorks4Him. Discusses the diverse experiences of today's Christian working woman.

Pick up a copy by going to, iwork4him.com/bookstore. You've been listening to the, sheWorks4Him podcast with your host, Catherine Gates, Nadya Dickson, and Martha Brangenberg. Please like us on Facebook and subscribe on YouTube under sheWorks4Him and to access any of the resources we mentioned on today's.

See the show notes at sheWorks4Him. Dot com that's she works the number four kim.com. This podcast was created to empower you to live out your calling. It works. The world knows sheWorks4Him.

3/21/22 - Spiritual Disciplines for the Workplace: Ines Franklin, Trochia Ministries

As a Christian working woman, you have many roles from your responsibility with family and friends to community and work. How do you connect all that you do with all that you are, and still have your face shine through. It's a challenge, but you are up to it. The, sheWorks4Him podcast at the gathering place to empower Christian working women, to live out their calling at work.

By connecting them to God resources and each other through powerful face stories from other working sisters in Christ.

Martha: Welcome to sheWorks4Him. You've tuned into, sheWorks4Him with your co-host Martha Brandenburg and Nadya Dickson. We are here to connect Christian, working women to God resources and one another.

And we do that in so many different ways with so many different stories that we are able to share. And each one brings us just to that table where. Share with each other, where God is leading us a little bit further along in our journey. And you can go back and listen to old podcasts. You can reconnect to our resources by going to, sheWorks4Him.com or find us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and our YouTube channel, where you can actually watch our conversation because you will know as women there's so much more being said without being said.

So thank you for connecting to us on all of these different plans.

Nadya: Thank you, Martha. We've been so encouraged already by just having an amazing panel of women as guests that we've interviewed in the past. And sheWorks4Him and many women from various marketplace roles have shared great examples of how their faith integrates with their work.

But even then some of us find we still struggled to understand how we can walk authentic. To integrate our faith with our work, especially after we've experienced life challenges or previous failures or defeat. Our guest today is going to share practical ways. We can all practice spiritual disciplines and victory in our work.

We're going to Newport beach to speak with Ines Franklin, and that's works with people every day to help them clarify their true identity in Christ and how they can authentically function as believers, wherever they are. She's a speaker, she's a teacher writer and she's a podcast. The host herself of uncharted know, welcome to sheWorks4Him.

Ines Franklin: It's my joy. Thank you so much for having me.

Nadya: Why did you become a follower of

Jesus?

Ines Franklin: I made a mess. How's that made a really, really big mess. And I realized I needed a different way. And so someone else introduced me to Jesus. And as I started to get to know him and read the Bible for the first time, at 40 years old, I saw, oh, there is a different way to live.

And so I decided I wanted to follow Jesus and change the way that I lived with.

Martha: You know that probably a lot of people can really, if you wanted to sum it up, we've done this, you know, we all have made a mess right. On our own. We are a mess, a hot mess, in fact, many of us. So, so as you started that journey and reading the Bible for yourself and growing in your faith, how did your faith impact your vocational work that you were doing?

Ines Franklin: Well, it changed everything. Uh, every. Um, my mess actually happened at work. So it was in the workplace that I entered into an affair with my boss. And so edge just shattered everything, not only my personal social life, but my work environment, everything changed. And so when I gave my life to Jesus, um, he started to change me first.

And as I changed everything around me changed, including my relationships at work. I think people were, uh, in my, in the business, including my clients. I mean, everybody knew what happened. It became well-known. And to watch, I think people watched me transition from deep shame to humility yet victory. Right.

Um, sadness. Yes. But not sure. And that transition kind of gave people permission to say, I ha I've messed up too versus judging. And so it was really interesting to watch my relationships change at work. Can't even the way that I conducted my work with a deeper sense of humility. Because when you do the very thing, you never thought you would do, uh, you know, that really humbles you as then you realize like, okay, I'm not beyond things that I think other people do that I would never do.

I realize now I can do those things too. And so I changed my heart and that.

Martha: You know, that transparency leads to so many other great conversations because so many of us, um, wear a mask or we, you know, we hide behind what's really going in on, on, in our life and having someone be transparent in front of us gives us that, that freedom to be a little bit more vulnerable ourselves.

So what led you then to attend seminary and became begin this full-time vocational ministry.

Ines Franklin: Yeah, that's so crazy. Uh, two years after mind you, I was 40 years old and I read the Bible for the first time. And two years into that journey. I had not read the whole Bible yet. I skipped a few of the minor prophets cause I was bored.

I was so tired of all the negative stuff, but I hadn't read the whole Bible in all honesty, but in one of my prayer time, Uh, let me back up. A friend of mine suggested this idea of reading scripture, writing a prayer and writing whatever came to heart. No, without editing it, just writing it down. So I started in January and I was doing that.

And in March, my prayer came out in a very interesting way. The way that I wrote was had to do with asking God, to cleanse my heart and use me for his purposes and leave me. But the more the prayer kept writing. After I read it, I realized, oh wow, God is telling me that he wants to use me to, to speak, to teach.

And that was sort of a, I didn't edit it because I was told not to. But, um, I left it on my journal and kept doing this all year round told no one about that, but God kept pestering my heart and my mind with this thought all year round. And then. It got confirmed the following year, uh, from outside of me, other people studied to save these things and I realized I need to get myself equipped if this is where God is calling me.

I can't just, I mean, I got to read the Bible. I can't teach the Bible only if I don't know the Bible. So I started this study and obviously by yourself, there's so much we can do, but not enough. And so I joined Bible studies and they were wonderful Bible studies with women, but they studied one book.

Sometimes four quarter or six months or a year and our 66 books. And I was 40 years old. That was going to take way too long. And most of the women weren't doing their homework. And so the conversations I felt like I came all prepared for a deep conversation and they're talking about, you know, going grocery shopping.

So that did not work for me. So, uh, a friend of mine, I was expressing my frustration and he said, you know, you need to go to seminary. And I thought that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. I've got a teenage daughter in high school. Uh, I, there's no way I don't have time for that, but again, God, once he plants a seed, he kept going at it.

And so, yeah, I applied for seminary and it was a massive hill to climb because I did not finish my undergraduate degree. And so in order to get into seminary, I had to do a whole bunch of things. First apply under special status. So it took me several years. And in 2008, September, 2008, I started at fuller seminary.

Under quote, special status is what they used to call it. They only accept two students a year under that program. And they put me through a ton of stuff that I had to do first and yeah, there wasn't seminary. And I cried the first day I saw it. I was like, what am I doing here? God, 42 years old. And I'm starting school again.

It makes no sense, but only God. Wow,

Nadya: what a journey. Well, I miss, you know, as you mentioned earlier that, um, God encouraged you to let him rescue for shame. This is something I read in your testimony. And, um, you know, as working Christian women, we deal with all kinds of different types of shame. Maybe we're working too much and not spending enough time with our kids or in our marriage or the other way around we're spending so much time with our family.

We feel like our work is getting neglected and it can go even deeper than that. You know, some of the things that really wound the heart that you went through, how can Christian working women overcome, you know, these feelings of shame or inadequacy that impacts how we show.

Ines Franklin: Yeah. So let me first tackle shame, because if you're in Christ, Jesus, you can not live in shame.

And I say that with boldness and humility, because I did, I lived for nine years in shame, even after I accepted Jesus into my life. And it was a pastor who challenged me and said, You don't believe in grace, if you are living in shame, you're not really believing in the grace. You've been given you're cheapening grace.

And I didn't like that when he said that to me, but I had to really think through that. And so whatever you need to do to square your understanding of grace, uh, and that's really what he challenged me to do. Go back and study grace, go back and come contemplate on what Jesus did for you. Look back at the cross and see what, how he paid for all of you.

That does not mean we don't live with sadness for our choices. So shame and sadness gets often intertwine and we confuse the two. And so shame means I am bad, I've done something bad and therefore I am bad and therefore God is done with me and we should not live in that sense if we are a follower of Jesus, because he did everything to save our lives.

And so, right. And so. Uh, sadness says I've done something bad. I have, I have contributed to the pain of this world. And there's a sadness that comes from that and a compassion for those we hurt and even ourselves, because we've been hurt by others by their choices and, and sadness. I keep, I have sadness still for the choices I made and I go to God every time I feel sad about it.

Right. And I asked him to comfort my heart. Sometimes I have to call a friend because it overwhelms me. And again, I try not to confuse that feeling was changed. Um, anytime I feel shame, I go, you know what? I go, I go to Ephesians. Paul's rambling about who we are in Christ is the passage I go to. And I read slowly over and over again, reminding myself who I am and whose I am to get rid of shame.

But then it expects sadness and inadequate. See is that's. I think we all struggle with that all the time. And I just want to, again, go back to Ephesians one.

Nadya: Thank you so much. And thank you for your transparency. We're going to break, but we'll be back with the. We have a lot more to share with you.

Did you know that God has a calling on your life?

It's true. He's called you to bring Jesus to the world. For some that may look like a pulpit or a foreign mission field, but for most of us, it looks like a construction site, a cubicle, a hospital, or a classroom, wherever it is that you work with volunteering and best that. Field to learn more about integrating your faith

into your work and retirement,

check out our books.

iWork4Him, sheWorks4Him and iRetire4Him by going to, Iwork4him.com/bookstore.

Martha: Welcome back to, sheWorks4Him where root today, talking with Ines Franklin, and then as you have had such an amazing transformation that God has done in your own life, and yet he allowed you to do this study and to really understand scripture that.

You know, when you're speaking it into us, as we're hearing you talk about shame versus sadness, and there's just so much wisdom there that I know that each one of us is going to have something today to take away. Um, so let's fast forward a little bit. You went to seminary, you cried on your first day, but obviously you made it through, right?

I mean, I can, I can say that that was an accomplished task, right? So tell us then what is inspired you to start? What launch, what you now have as Tolkien ministries?

Ines Franklin: So, two years into seminary, I realized I essentially, I was taking in all this information. It was killing me to have all this information and not sharing it with someone else.

I had no place to put it out. I wasn't speaking anywhere. I had even didn't even know how it was going to get to share this with anyone. But Facebook was starting to become a pretty big. And so I thought I'll just create a little page on Facebook and share some stuff. And then I had a lot of stuff and I thought maybe I'll do a website and a blog.

And, but I didn't want to do a blog by myself. So I, I asked some friends and we joined together. And, uh, I started Trochia ministries as a way to share what I'm learning really. That's all I wanted to do

Martha: and tell us what Trochia stands for, because I think it's meaningful when you have a name like that, that has so much meaning.

Ines Franklin: Thank you. Yeah. And it's Trochia, it sounds like trachea for those who are listening, Tro-Kia, it's one, it's a Greek word found only once in the Bible in Hebrews 12, 13. And it's the word for past. And Hebrews 1213 says make level the path where you feet so that the lane will not be disabled, but rather be healed.

And the writer of Hebrews at that time is trying to make this really huge point. And that is when we live our lives, this to plan and following Jesus, we bring healing to the world, not only ourselves, only, but to the world, to those around us. So the whole point of Trochia. I'm healing. I'm trying to learn.

I want to share what I learned. I want to live out this life faithfully with integrity, so that I experienced healing. And hopefully those who are around me will as well, and then encourage others to do the same that we walk the walk.

Martha: We know. And that is why we have you as a guest on, sheWorks4Him because with our core values of wanting to connect each other to God resources and one another, that's exactly what you've done.

And even you saying, bringing some friends together to do it, that heart of collaboration is really what the world needs and what a great way for you to model that thing.

Ines Franklin: Thank you.

Nadya: Thank you. Thank you, Ines. And, um, as we're talking about bringing healing to the world, We spend most of our waking hours at work or building our careers.

So knowing that our listeners are Christian working women and trying to know how to walk this out and function in these things, how can we best be empowered to be the largest force for impact for the kingdom. Right, right, right. Where we are.

Ines Franklin: I love that. So I think that keeping God at the center is the key.

I certainly didn't do that for half my life. Right. God was over there on the. Um, but putting God in the center. And one of the ways to do that in my mind is through spiritual disciplines, spiritual disciplines are not about gaining favor with God or gaining our salvation. They're not asked to gain points with God, the ways for us to open our hearts for God's transformation.

And what's interesting is we can do them anywhere, including work. And so I think about the many things I could have been doing. If I had been a follower of Jesus and my work to keep me from making some of the big mistakes. Uh, one of them was accountability, allowing others to speak into my life, being open to somebody at work, right?

Because we can't have accountability, people at home and friends, even at church and then go to work and do whatever we want, but truly choosing someone at work who has our values and say, would you hold me accountable? That I live out my faith here as well as I do. And I try to do elsewhere in my life.

Uh, another thing we can do is we can be. We can be ministers, right? Ambassadors as Paul says of the good news of Jesus Christ, but we can do so with, um, our heart of humility. So perhaps sharing, encouraging Bible verses with others, being a good Bible students so that we have these passages in our heart ready when we are dealing with situations at work.

And we might encourage someone with the word of. Um, and then the last,

Martha: let me camp, let me camp on that one just for a minute, before you go onto the last one, because what does that look like? So you went to seminary, so you, you know,

you paid

and you invested a lot of time to get God's word in your heart and to really understand it.

And I'm way more than, than most of us are going to do. So what does that look like practically for a Christian working with. To, um, to take the F or make the effort to hide God's word in their heart. Morphing.

Ines Franklin: Just, I love that. I love, I liked the like show me. Yes. Okay. So, uh, one of the great things that we have available to us is the Bible app, which allows us to on the way to work, listen to scripture, you can sign up for, um, a Bible reading plan.

And in 15 minutes you have listened to a good chunk of the board of. Um, and you, whatever you like, you can listen to it again. And by the time you get to work, you've put that in your heart. And it's amazing how God will use those very passages during your day. And you can do that on the way home to kind of reset your heart again.

Right. Um, so that's one way to intake the word of God, also podcasts, right? There's last wonderful podcasts that are incorrect. I use an app called Lectio 365, which is a kind of like a spiritual practice early in the morning while I'm putting on my makeup. I listened to the word of God and I breathe in God's word in my heart.

And then when I go to sleep, I stick it by my bedside. And it also has another few 15 minutes of God's word into my heart. So just intaking, just it's the constant intaking repetition of having that word in to your mind. We'll it'll come out. It will come out. You don't have to like try to memorize it.

I've never tried to memorize God's word ever. I just listened to it and let it just bathe over me. Even if at the moment, I don't understand what it's saying and God will pull that out at the right time. I believe it.

Martha: So why don't you go ahead and tell us the third one then that you were going to share.

Thank you for taking that little, a side path with me.

Ines Franklin: Not a problem. Uh, there's so many other ones, but I I'll pick this sentiment. Um, because. At work when I'm making decisions all the time, lots and lots of issues. And we're dealing with a great deal of stress. Often our values as Christians will be challenged and discernment it.

Isn't just about making the decisions. The sermon is about being wise with what we know so that we can, we can make a decision that is in line with. And to me, the sermon is to open ourselves, to listen to God so that he will tell us what's the right thing to do. The holy spirit we're told in scripture is what's.

He is the one who helps us with good decision making. So the way that I would practice that is, again, this is just posture, spending time in God's presence, just listening, whether you're listening to God's word or. Okay. Um, I'm having a big decision to make. I got to go. I'm going to run to the bathroom, sit in a stall quietly and just God, I need to, I need to hear your voice.

I have this decision to make. Would you speak to me God? And sometimes we may hear nothing, but just that our very posture of God, I am opening this to you. Yeah, we, when we'd go to deal with that situation, I'm telling you we're going to go there differently. Even if we've heard zip from God at the moment we ask, hide yourself in the closet, go outside, take a walk, take some deep breaths and say, God, I'm listening to you.

Help me make a decision with you in mind.

Nadya: I love that as, and that is very practical because we know there are so many different relational dynamics that we work with, you know, different personality types and different. Issues that may arise in, um, maybe a competitive workspace. And so just to be still and be anxious for nothing but cast our cares on him.

This knowing that we can do that. And pause, um, gives that helps our emotional intelligence at work. Right. And D so it is very practical. Well, um, you are listening to, sheWorks4Him. We're going to take a quick break, but when we come back, we're going to talk more about how spiritual distress. Lay out in practical ways in

your workspace.

Hey listeners. One of the huge projects Martha and I have been working on for years is making it easy for every workplace believer, defined all the voices, speaking, encouragement, and equipping into the faith and work movement. Presenting the Awaken podcast network. Online and Awaken podcast network.com with over 130 different podcast.

Voices speaking truth into you. The workplace believer, including over 30 podcasts, dedicated to Christian working women. Go online to awaken podcast, network.com that's Awaken podcast, network.com.

Martha: Welcome back to sheWorks4Him. Podcasts with your co-host Nadya Dickson and Martha Brangenberg. I am guessing that each one of you is going okay.

That was three amazing spiritual disciplines that Ines shared with us. And we have talked her into sharing some more, um, first and as I want you to talk about, you know, cause we're going to talk about, again, some more practical ways to apply these in our workspace as Christian working women. But these come from a resource that we want to make sure that the listeners know, uh, although you probably could have come up with them yourself, you have a guide.

Tell us a little bit about.

Ines Franklin: Yes. So in seminary, I bought a gazillion books and read a lot of books. It's just what you do when you seminary. And most of them books, nobody would read again, because there was so hard, but this one is a gem and I go to it all the time. It's all. And this is called spiritual disciplines.

Handbook is written by Adele Albert Calhoun, and she has about three pages per discipline. Very simple. She explains that she gives practical ways to use it. Um, and there's tons of them here and they are fabulous. And so you can start the day and go, I'm going to practice this one today. You don't have to practice all of them all the time.

Uh, and so let me give you a couple more. So for example, uh, oh, and this one, this one comes in handy when you're at work and that is controlling the time. Right. Yeah. He says, James says, right, the tongue set things on fire and it does, especially at work. If so. Oh my goodness. You know, they always, we have all these fun little statements about the water cooler and the things that happen.

And there's always opportunity to enter into a conversation. That's either going to turn into gossip or slander. And so waking up in that morning and. No, God, I can't control this tongue game. Makes it clear. I need your help to do so. I need your alarm to show in my head when I start saying things or engaging in conversations that are going to be harmful to my heart and harmful to others.

And that is actually a spiritual discipline. Again is not about earning points with God or being all religious or anything. It's just saying I'm going to open up my hearts for God to do a transformation. That's what spiritual practices are. They. They're posturing things that we do to allow God to transform us from the inside out, you know?

Martha: And it makes me think that they really, although you were saying, like in practice one focus on one for the day, but honestly, if you start to build them on each other, the first thing I thought of when you said that was going back to accountability. If I have accountability in my workplace, in it set in place.

And established, then it is easier to control the tongue because I have somebody that's going to call me out. I've given them permission right. To, to make, to hold me to that higher standard. So they really can play together once they build on each other. And once you are able to practice them in your life.

Okay. So give us one more. Okay.

Ines Franklin: Oh, okay. One more. I'll say fast. Um, now again, fasting is one of those loaded terms because people think, oh, fastening a food. I can't do that. Am I, did I have that ache? Or that here's the simple definition of fasting. And I love this saying no to yourself. So you can say yes to God.

So, and there are many ways in which we can say no to ourselves. We tend to say yes to ourselves all the time. But saying no to ourselves in some area of our lives, whether it's in food, which of course is the most visceral because we feel it within a couple hours. Boom. Right. We have to feel the sense of the need to say yes to ourselves in order to say no to ourselves.

So we can say yes to God and we can, we can do that at work. And the reason why fasting is so important as a spiritual discipline is when we're at work and a situation, again, pulls us to need something by itself. Let's say someone. Does something that gets in the way of our project or a progress or, you know, an employee does something terrible.

Our need to take care of ourselves is going to be really high. And we're going to want to do things saying yes to ourselves. And sometimes in that self care, I'll call it self care. Sometimes it comes from the right. Uh, comes out of broken S and we end up self caring by harming others saying no to ourselves learning and having a practice of saying no to ourselves will give us pause before we act with revenge competition.

Again, slander gossip. Any kind of, um, action that actually brings harm, which we later regret, right? Because how often do we act out of just a new emotional impulse and then we go, oh, I shouldn't have said that. I shouldn't have done that. Well, fasting teaches us to say no to ourselves over time. And again, at work you can fast in a million different ways, not just in food, obviously that's an easy.

Um, you can fast from, um, you know, even taking a break, I'm going to take a break today, not to feed myself, but I'm going to go spend time reading God's word instead.

Nadya: Oh goodness. You know, and I remember going through a discipline, um, last year, at the beginning of the year, I fasted words. There were certain words that I did not want to use anymore.

And I fasted from using them and I would catch myself. And I think the recurring theme I hear is. Being, you know, walking practically in spiritual disciplines is about discipline. It's about pausing and relinquishing your right to the Lord and just hearing what he has to say about a matter. So what about your own personal life verse right now?

What is encouraging you at this moment?

Ines Franklin: So I actually, this year, uh, my passage, it's very strange and it's going to come. It came from first kings 19:13. What God says to Elijah, what are you doing? And Elijah was very frustrated and disappointed and he was looking to kind of end his life because things were so bad and God makes it really clear to him.

Elijah, the world doesn't have to change. Even God doesn't have to change Elijah. You're the one who has to change. It was the largest mindset that needed to change. And I feel I'm, God's telling me today this year that there's some, there's a mindset I need to change. And so, um, in a way that I, I see it is in the work that I do, um, is so easy to get caught up on.

Numbers, how many people are following? Is there a, is there a fruitfulness? And I, I obsess over is everything that I'm doing actually producing good fruit. Should I be doing something else instead? And that comes from a good place, but sometimes it can get twisted and, and God's trying to change my heart to really trust him with the end product instead of.

Me driving that. So he's saying, what are you doing during that stop going to that place where you're measuring things on the ultimate one who decides what's going to not trust me. That is so.

Nadya: And as thank you so much for being with us today. Um, all of your years of prayer and fasting and studying has blessed us tremendously right now.

And I can tell you that I see fruit. I see your fruit on other people's trees. Um, thank you for being with us today as sheWorks4Him.

Martha: Yes. Thank you so much. And you've been listening to, sheWorks4Him with your host, Martha Brandenburg and Nadya at Dickson we're Christian, working women, helping other Christian working women to live out their calling at work.

As sheWorks4Him

as Christian women, we have many roles from daughter, sister, friend, wife, and mother to analyst, accountant, executive or educator. Is it possible to balance our roles at work and home in a way that honors God? The answer is yes. And our new book, sheWorks4Him will help show you.

Written to celebrate, encourage and equip women in the workforce. sheWorks4Him. Discusses the diverse experiences of today's Christian working woman. Pick up a copy by going to, I work for him.com/bookstore. You've been listening to the, sheWorks4Him podcast with your host, Catherine Gates, Nadya Dickson, and Martha Brangenberg.

Please like us on Facebook and subscribe on YouTube under sheWorks4Him and to access any of the resources we mentioned on today's. See the show notes at sheWorks4Him. Dot com that's she works the number four kim.com. This

podcast

Ines Franklin: was created to empower you to live out your calling. It works.

The world knows sheWorks4Him.

3/14/22 - Unconventional Business Women: Kimberly Wright

Intro: As a Christian working woman, you have many roles from your responsibility with family and friends to community and work. How do you connect all that you do with all that you are, and still have your face shine through. It's a challenge, but you are up to it. The, sheWorks4Him podcast at the gathering place to empower Christian working women, to live out their calling at work.

By connecting them to God resources and each other through powerful face stories from other working sisters in Christ. Welcome to sheWorks4Him.

You've tuned into, sheWorks4Him, where we

Martha: connect Christian, working women to God resources. And one of the. And today's a very special day where we're going to be talking about, um, an organization and a heart for women that I just I'm excited that we get to expose it and share it with our listeners.

So I hope you'll stay till the very end and hear all that God has for us in this conversation. I am your host, Martha Brangenberg, and you can find out more about, sheWorks4Him and sheWorks4Him. Dot com. And there, you can find all of the links to follow us on social media. Remember there is a YouTube channel.

sheWorks4Him. And I love that opportunity to watch the interviews, because as we been joking about lately, you know, women, we have a lot of expressions that you don't hear so that, you know, there might be so much going on behind the scenes while we're having a conversation together. So check out our YouTube channel and you can subscribe to.

You know, there are many ways to do business, but as has anyone ever suggested that you be unconventional? Well, the scripture is full of principles to apply to our business and our work in doing so. It is unconventional unconventional business that is now add to the equation that men and women are not the same.

God created us differently. We work well together, but we are unique and we have unique needs. Meeting the specific needs of men and women is critical for our flourishing. So when we put these two ideas together, we get unconventional business women, Kimberly Wright, as the new executive director for unconventional business women.

And she has a passion to see this conversation expand far and wide in the Midwest and beyond Kimberly, I want to welcome you to, she works for you.

Kimberly Wright: Thank you. Thank you. I'm so excited to be a part. Thank you. Well, it

Martha: is my pleasure and you know, I have been aware of unconventional business and I'm not on our, um, partner, our umbrella show of I work for him.

We have interviewed Rick box there several times over the years, and we have a real heart for collaboration with unconventional business, but I love opening the door to the women aspect and we're going to dive deep into. As we go throughout this conversation, but first I wanted, I love to find out more about you intimately and the way that I feel best to do that is to understand why you became a follower of Jesus.

Kimberly Wright: No, I, I don't remember a time where I didn't, um, follow Jesus or at least try to, it was a very young immature faith, but I remember still vividly going down to the alter of the small country church that I grew up in when I was five years old and getting sick. And I didn't know. Scripture or the word or anything like that really growing up.

Um, but my faith was very real to me. I had a, a kind of a dysfunctional childhood and there was, you know, some tragedies in my childhood. And so Jesus was always very real. Um, and so I'm thankful for that growing into there's bumps along the way, but it has grown into an adult. Faith is what I like to call it.

Oh,

Martha: that's great. You know, we are all grateful for the grace that we've been given for those bumps along the way. None of us, you know, we, we have an idea of what we think it might look like, but in our life we have a lot of lessons along the way. So with you having had a relationship with Jesus from such a very early age, did you always understand that your work mattered to God?

Or was there something that happened in your life that helped you to better understand.

Kimberly Wright: You know, I, I didn't, I was very much one of those that, you know, my, I tried to live, uh, you know, be good through the week and that my faith was really a Sunday 8:00 AM. I tried to love on people and be kind during the week, but there was no, um, There was no tie in into what I was doing.

And I started my first job that I'd ever had with a nonprofit was called citizens, caring for children. And we work with foster children and it was a Christian organization that we worked with these abused and neglected children. And that was the first hint that wow. Some of the things that we do can have an impact, you know, big picture for people.

And, um, and so that started, you know, my journey of learning that God cared about our work. So great. When

Martha: you have that, you know, foster the foster system, just being involved in that in any aspect, no matter what your job is there, um, voice such a huge role of being the hands and feet of Christ, for sure, to those hurting children in their families.

So over the years, I know we've talked previously and you've had a lot of different hats that you've worn in, in your work life. Um, what is one example of a time when you saw God show up in your work where you least expect it, and maybe it really, um, helped you to better see that connection of your faith in all that you did?

Kimberly Wright: Yeah. You know, I had one particular job where. You know, it really came alive because, you know, the, the nonprofit that I'd worked for, if it was, you know, kind of a ministry and in a sense, I mean, it was a business, but it was a ministry. So I had stepped into a role when we lived in Las Vegas as a administrator of an organization.

All of a sudden I was the, you know, responsible for 43 employees. And it was, um, I was coming in mid season of, you know, at a time where there had been a leader in there for seven years. And it was a, um, she had laughed under, you know, unhappy circumstance and there was just a lot of problems within the organization.

And so. I was so scared. I mean, I knew that God had called me to that position, but I will admit I was so fearful of everyone hates me from the get go. This is not, I'm not going to be easy at all. And I just prayed because I was like, Lord, I know you have called me to do this. This is beyond my ability. I need you in every step of the way.

And God, every day just sustained me and helped me to build relationships. One by one with each of these people. That created a whole new atmosphere and environment, and it was all just God's direction and favor. And there was some of the neatest things that God did for me. Like this one, um, one of the employees I asked if there was something that she needed, you know, Uh, her room, her, you know, anything like that.

And, and so she came back and she's like, you know, I need a whiteboard, I just need a really big whiteboard. And I said, okay, I'll work on that. And I went and sat down because our budget was nothing. I was trying to get us out of the red. And I was like, oh Lord, this is, you know, what am I doing? Five minutes later, my husband calls me and from his office and he said, Hey, I know this is weird, but do you need a whiteboard?

He said, somebody just destroying their office, the remodeling. And there's this huge whiteboard down there. And he goes, I hated to see it in the dumpster. I just thought, oh God, you're showing off.

Martha: Yeah. I just, I just got goosebumps because you know, that is when you, when you really recognize that it was a direct answer to prayer.

Um, in a moment when you were like, you know, I want to do this, but I don't have a budget yet. And God shows up God kind of showed off in fact, in that way, because if he had called before the conversation, you know, I mean, it still is. It's a, still a God provision, but just. Those kinds of things, you know, when we, as, um, I want to just talk to the listeners for a minute, cause that's one of the things that, you know, so often.

It's those little things that we think we just need to handle ourselves and forget about involving the creator of the universe into that conversation. I've been really hearing a lot lately about, um, you know, God's helper, holy spirit. It was given to us as our helper. Jesus, the only reason he had to leave the earth was so that we could have the holy spirit.

To go with each and every one of us. And that was a moment where you, um, acknowledged that. And then he provided in such an amazing way. And what an example to then your employee. When we come back, I want to dig into this a little bit deeper and talk about unconventional business with. We'll be right back.

You're listening to, sheWorks4Him with my guest today, Kimberly Wright. Did you know that God has a calling on your life? It's true. He's called you to bring Jesus to the world. For some that may look like a pulpit or a foreign mission field, but for most of us, it looks like a construction site, a cubicle, a hospital, or a classroom, wherever it is that you work with volunteering and best that is your mission field.

To learn more about integrating your faith into your work in retirement. Check out our. I worked for him. sheWorks4Him and I retire for him. I going to, I work for him.com/bookstore. Welcome back to, sheWorks4Him. I am your host, Martha Brangenberg, and my guest today. Kimberly Wright is the new executive director for unconventional business women.

And Kimberly, you were just sharing a really practical life example in one of your jobs. There was a need by an employee. She voiced it. You prayed about it. Five minutes later, it was answered by a random call from your husband that God provided. Um, I just want to take that one step further. What did you communicate back to the employee?

Because I really think that that's where our testimony can become, um, you know, that's where it can expand and go beyond. So what did that look like after God showed you his answer?

Kimberly Wright: You know, it was really neat because I went back to her and I. And, and I think honestly, a part of her was asking with the expectation.

I'm not going to get this, you know, because I think she had asked in the past and it hadn't, you know, come to fruition for her. And so it was just kind of one of those. I really need it, but I feel like I'm not going to get it. So it was exciting to go back to her and tell her, you know, what God cares about every detail and, um, even, even whiteboards.

And so. Uh, you know, just a great testimony for me to get to share her and also honestly, to my husband to get to tell him, okay, God just used you in a big way. Yeah. If

Martha: he wouldn't have, if he wouldn't have cared or taken that extra moment, you know, then that, that prayer might have not had the same, um, results.

So what a great example, and I just want to encourage. Everyone listening right now on our website, I work for him.com, which is the, sheWorks4Him.com website as well. We have a thing where you can join the, I work for him nation. And one of the things we talk about is praying for your coworkers and employees every day.

And with that comes praying for them, their needs, their requests. And then praying with them. So when that opportunity arises to actually say, you know, what can I pray with you about that need? And let's see what God does. So that is just a, uh, a great reminder that every day in our lives, we can incorporate that into the work that we're doing because in our hearts, we may be already doing it, but verbalizing it with that.

So as I was joking earlier, you've worn a lot of hats in your work. And before we put on your executive director hat for unconventional business women, I want to look back to when you were first, just an attendee of maybe an unconventional business event. And I guess for our listeners who may not know what unconventional.

Even is why don't you give us a brief little overview of what that organization is and how it's meeting the needs of workers?

Kimberly Wright: Absolutely. Well, first of all, it's very exciting because we are celebrating, this is our 20 year anniversary. And so that's really a monument of a testimony to what God has done.

And Rick Box's faithfulness, um, to follow God with this organization. But the, the purpose of our ministry is to serve, uh, equip and encourage, uh, small Christian business owners and business leaders. How to live out their faith at work in a practical way. You know, sometimes it's, it's conceptually, it makes sense, but, okay, how can I actually do this?

What are some tangible things? So we bring in event hold events that we bring in speakers. Give ideas and testimonies. We have a monthly webinar that Rick interview someone and does the same type of, you know, shares the same type of message. So we want to equip them, um, to really know how to apply the Bible as the business handbook.

Martha: So as a participant, then you were first invited to one of those events, right? Is that, that was your first exposure.

Kimberly Wright: It was well, actually my first exposure was even on a smaller scale. Um, as we had talked about Kathy box Rick's wife founded U B w a in 2018. So it hasn't been around for 20 years. Um, but she saw the need for bringing women to community together.

And so she had a dinner event, um, in 2019 that was, you know, a more intimate affair. There was about 60, 75 ladies there. We had dinner, fellowship and a speaker. And the timing of that was just definitely, um, God ordained steps for me to even get there. I'd never heard of the organization. A friend invited me that she knew very little and that's really was my first exposure, but it was so powerful and impactful hearing the speaker, talk about how God was using her.

She was a franchise owner and the things that God was doing through her business and how she was using as a ministry and. It made my heart leap. Um, it was very exciting for me.

Martha: So as you became more involved as a participant, what kinds of things did God grow in you? Or how were you being challenged as a, as an attendee or a participant?

Kimberly Wright: You know, I really started solidifying, you know, we think sometimes, or have the idea that, uh, being in ministry is working within the church walls. And, you know, even with the ministry of the foster care system, that I, you know, when I was working in that, that was still a ministry type thing. And so this really started teaching me and showing me that you can be a financial planner, you can be an accountant, you can be an attorney.

You can, you know, be a fitness trainer and have a ministry that wherever we go, that's our ministry. And UBN was really, um, significant and teaching me that and, and showing them. You know, are the best ministry. Isn't always within the four walls of church.

Martha: So one of the things that, you know, might at this point for listeners who have not heard of this before, there might be some confusion because there's unconventional business and then there's unconventional business women.

So unconventional business co-ed atmosphere, you know, you're there with a lot of other people out in their different occupations come together for different meetings of different kinds. And they can, um, before I even. Flatter all the opportunities where let's just tell everybody where they can go and learn about that.

As what website would they go to?

Kimberly Wright: It's unconventional business.org.

Martha: Okay. So our website, unconventional business.org to go learn about all the different aspects, but then there's this newer kind of branch unconventional business women. What, what would you say, why is there such a need for that women aspect from your perspective?

Kimberly Wright: You know, you, you touched on it a little bit earlier that, you know, God gifted men and women differently and also gave us different needs. Um, and in the workplace, even men face different challenges than women face. Um, sometimes they have the same goals and same career aspirations, but the corporate ladder or whatever it is, they're in, it looks differently climbing it for each one.

And so there is a need for women to come together in community and to have someone to connect with it will understand that's like-minded and, um, you know, figure out how to juggle, you know, is it okay to have these ambitious goals and to love Jesus and, you know, can those go together? How do I juggle my family and my desire to be successful?

And so we need each other for that. I

Martha: love the model because I am one of those people that I love to be in a room with men and women, because there's so much. There's such a wealth of knowledge and whether you're, you know, whatever concept you're talking about or whatever the need is or whatever, the, the topic that maybe you're growing in, there's so much to gain from everyone.

But yet then now having this aspect of just the women where you can focus in on. Those other needs that are not, uh, cannot be addressed in a co-ed situation. Um, you're really filling both and it's not either, or right. I mean, it's not, it's not one or the other. It's both. And I love how you guys are modeling.

For, um, just the workplace in general. So Kimberly Wright. I have so many more questions I want to ask you, but we're going to take a quick break. And when we come back, I just want to dig into a few more things you're listening to. sheWorks4Him, podcasts with your coach, with your host, Martha Brangenberg,

I'll be right back.

Hey listeners.

One of the huge projects Martha and I have been working on for years is making it easy for every workplace believer to find all the voices, speaking, encouragement, and equipping into the faith and work. Presenting the Awaken podcast network online@Awakenpodcastnetwork.com with over 130 different podcast.

Voices speaking truth into you. The workplace believer, including over 30 podcasts, dedicated to Christian working women. Go online to awaken podcast, network.com that's Awaken podcast, network.com.

Welcome back to. I am having a great conversation today with Kimberly Wright. She is the new executive director for unconventional business women.

And we were just talking in the last segment about how unconventional business was created as unconventional business network, I believe, right. Or pride that org is the website. Was created for men and women coming together, learning, having, um, different meetings, whether they're monthly or quarterly to, to learn about different ways of connecting our faith and our work and having that integrity in that network together.

But then this unconventional business women aspect, kind of a, like you can pull the women out for a special. Um, time together where we're dealing with issues just for women, but it's not either, or it's not, you can only be in this or you can only be in this and you can only, you know, it's not just for men.

Um, if that is for everyone. And I think that where I want to go with this conversation, Kimberly, is that talk to the women who struggle with even justifying spending time. With something like unconventional business women, because I know that a lot of us, you know, there's a lot of talk around self care and, um, doing things to grow and to strengthen whatever it is that we're wanting to work on in our lives.

But sometimes we don't give ourselves permission to spend the time. What might feel selfish or whatever that may be. So just talk to me for a minute about that. Why do we struggle to sometimes get involved in things like unconventional business women and how can we get over that?

Kimberly Wright: Yeah. I love that you use that term permission because sometimes I feel, I struggle with that myself.

I just need somebody to, you know, give me some permission to, to do that. I led Bible studies for many years in the church. And I would often leave the same one in the morning and then also at the evenings. And so the professional women tended to be the ones in the evenings that would come and over and over for years, I would hear these women talk about, they just felt, they felt lonely.

They felt lonely in their church. They missed out is the way they viewed it on everything going on during the day. They didn't always have the time to serve in the same capacity as you know, a mom that had more flexibility or stayed at home. And so they just were lonely and missing out on community. Um, just of any sorts.

And so I love that UBW can be that place for them, that they feel like they have some like-minded women that they're not judged for any of their goals or dreams, because I think that's kind of a struggle sometimes whether it's self perception or it's actually something they've encountered, you know, that can hold women back.

Um, I think another thing, and I raise my hand first of being so guilty of this, but I think that we tend to sometimes compare ourselves very quickly to someone, even if in, in any setting of, we can feel really good about what we've accomplished. And then we meet some mom that is more successful and our kids are, you know, their clothes are ironed or we just kind of compare ourselves.

So it causes us to drop. Um, and so I think that's a, that's a big barrier for women is we just compare ourselves and it it's just steals our joy. It steals our peace and it stills, um, our ability to obey God and to follow him even more boldly.

Martha: Hmm. So many good words there that we all need to hear. And there's probably somebody right now that they're like that is, you know, that's the thing I'm struggling with, where there is comparison or guilt or just being alone.

Um, but ladies, I want to encourage you, whether it's unconventional business women or some other organization that you have locally, or that you can find online, which we have a whole list of resources on our website, sheWorks4Him.com. Um, I encourage you to take the time. Give yourself permission to get involved and allow yourself to find it.

Maybe you call it your tribe or your people, you know, that place where you can go and it gets some accountability and some challenge and, and really bear some fruit for your S your own community that you can take back there. So I, you know, giving, getting permission is a huge thing. So Kimberly one last thing before we go today, I just want to hear what's the Lord been teaching you, whether it's in your new role as executive director or in, um, something of your own experience that God is teaching you right now that we can learn from?

Kimberly Wright: You know, I, um, I'm really struggling with, I love work. I love my job and I'm really struggling though with that time, um, boundaries. Type thing. And so I've been reading, I've listened to it. Um, I'm an audible junkie and then I also love to read. And so I, um, have listened to it. Now I'm reading it redeeming your time by Jordan Reiner.

He is going to be one of our speakers coming up and he's such a delight to even talk to you, but his books really, really speak to me. Um, so that's one of the things that has been very helpful for me is learning that we can honor God with our time without. Overdoing. And then using all 24 hours that, you know, we need rest.

Um, God

Martha: has a plan for that and he's really laid it out if we open our eyes in the scripture to what he's really telling us. So thank you for sharing that. And yes, you guys have an event coming up where Jordan's actually going to be involved in. So I'm excited about that. So listeners, you can find out more on unconventional.

That org and Kimberly, thank you so much for being my guest today. And sheWorks4Him and sharing just a little of your heart with our audience.

Kimberly Wright: Thank you. This has been my honor. I really appreciate it. Thank

Martha: you. It's wonderful. So you've been listening to, sheWorks4Him with your host, Martha Brown.

We're Christian working women, helping other Christian working women to live out their calling network. As sheWorks4Him as Christian women, we have many roles from daughter, sister, friend, wife, and mother to analyst, accountant, executive or educator. Is it possible to balance our roles at work and home in a way that honors God?

The answer is. And our new book, sheWorks4Him will help show you how written to celebrate, encourage and equip women in the workforce. sheWorks4Him, discusses the diverse experiences of today's Christian working woman. Pick up a copy by going to, I work for him.com/bookstore. You've been listening to the, sheWorks4Him podcast with your host, Catherine Gates, Nadia Dickson, and Martha Brangenberg.

Please like us on Facebook and subscribe on YouTube under sheWorks4Him and to access any of the resources we mentioned on today's. See the show notes at sheWorks4Him. Dot com that's she works the number four, tim.com. This podcast was created to empower you to live out your calling. It works.

The world knows sheWorks4Him.

3/7/22 - Take the Next Faithful Step: Adrian Bracy, The Bracy Group

Intro: As a Christian working woman, you have many roles from your responsibility with family and friends to community and work. How do you connect all that you do with all that you are, and still have your face shine through. It's a challenge, but you are up to it. The, sheWorks4Him podcast at the gathering place to empower Christian working women, to live out their calling at work.

By connecting them to God resources and each other through powerful face stories from other working sisters in Christ. Welcome to sheWorks4Him.

Martha: You've tuned into, sheWorks4Him, where we connect Christian, working women to God resources and one another, you know, as always, it is our desire that you, the listener and we as the ones that are part of this conversation that we don't miss, what God has for us too.

So I just pray that you'll have a few moments where you can listen in with us, join the conversation and hear what God has to say in your own life. We are your hosts, Martha Brangenberg and Catherine Gates. And you can find out more about, sheWorks4Him at she works the number for him. Dot com. And also remember we are on social media on pretty much every platform you're on how though ever we have not ventured into Tik TOK or, you know, I just want to say that right now, but we, um, have a YouTube channel.

I would love for you to check it out, subscribe and follow us there and enjoy the conversation as together we talk about, sheWorks4Him, Catherine.

Catherine: So many women, Martha are searching for their purpose in life. Wondering what's my. Ephesians two 10 tells us that we are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

We need to look to God for each next step and be ready to pivot as he leads. Adrian, Bracey understands this firsthand. She has a passion for accounting and saw herself becoming a CFO. She first had to walk through a time of testing. That became a significant turning point in her walk with God and a springboard to Adrian's career with the NFL, where she worked for the Miami dolphins St.

Louis Rams and served as CFO for the Arizona Cardinals. After 18 years with the NFL, God led Adrian to pivot and take the position of CEO for YWC Metro St. Louis, where she was able to work on her other passion for enhancing the lives of women and girls. Today Adrian provides executive coaching consulting and speaking, and is the author of halftime.

Learn to pivot as a leader and identify your next step. Adrian, welcome to sheWorks4Him.

Adrian Bracy: Well, ladies, thank you for having me, Martha and Catherine. It's an honor, and a privilege to be here. Thank you.

Catherine: Well, I'm so glad Adrian, that you and I connected just recently through the rooted sisters, which we're definitely going to talk about in a little while, but I'm excited for our listeners to hear your story first.

Why don't you share with us how you became a Jesus follower?

Adrian Bracy: Well, my journey goes way back. Uh, I was adopted at age 10 and my adopted mom. Uh, she introduced me to Lord and I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior at age two.

Catherine: Wow. That's amazing. So when you, when did you realize that your work matter to God?

How did God get your attention?

Adrian Bracy: So my, my attention was earlier on, um, I was actually working for the Miami dolphins at the time and I realized that. Was having trouble. So I went to the school, her school, she was a senior and realized that she had missed 45 days and she was going to be expelled from school.

And so I went to my sister's house and found my niece sleeping. I packed her bags. I moved her in with me and she graduated and never missed another day of school. And that's when my passion and my purpose, I believe was actually revealed to me that it is helping. Young women and women in general. And that's when I knew that it mattered that my work, whatever, uh, God has led me to do.

It's it's for his glory. And, uh, and others will benefit.

Catherine: You actually shared another story with me, Adrian though, that, um, that came a little earlier in your work before you went to the NFL, there was a, there was a real, um, significant turning point for you. Can you share a little bit about what happened.

Adrian Bracy: Oh, wow. Yes, that's a, yeah, that's a story. Sometimes I try to forget. Um, so I was actually a controller for a company in aviation company and in Miami I was assistant controller, but then I was re uh, uh, promoted, right, uh, to the controller's position within a year. And there was new management, uh, from.

From the company that's parent probies and Israel, but the new manager was not used to working with women and black women, uh, to be exact. So he brought in, uh, a gentlemen to report that I would report to. So he brought in and created this position. So, um, that hurt me really, really bad. Um, and I knew that.

Time to pivot. I knew that I was at halftime and I prayed. I asked God to help me because I remember Catherine one day sitting in my car crying because I didn't want to go into the office. That's when it really hit me that this was really time for me to pivot. It was time to change. It was time to move, to do something, to make an adjustment.

And that's um, yeah, that was, that was very, that was a hard time in my life. And that was my first experience to, uh, you know, and I believe it was not just being a woman, but it was also being black and a woman that I experienced this. And so that's um, yeah.

Martha: So, I wonder how that helped you as you've moved forward in your career to working with for many years with the NFL, which for a lot of people that can sound amazing, that can sound challenging.

I am sure that it was all of the above and so much more. What did that look like for you to live out your faith in that work environment? You know, I can only imagine that it's a male dominated field, both on the field and in the office space as well. Cause we, we forget that it takes, uh, a lot of people that, to keep things going and do the finances and do all of the background stuff for something like the NFL.

So what did that look like? How were you able to then, um, take things that God has taught you over the years to live out your faith in that working.

Adrian Bracy: Well, like I explained, so my, that one experience really helped me because it actually gave me confidence, um, to, to work and deal with, with men. And so when I entered the NFL, I was already grounded in my.

I didn't have to create things. I didn't have to create that relationship with God. And that's why I think it's so important that we, when we go into battle or go into war, you don't start to get prepared. You prepare before you go into it. So I was already prepared when I went in the NFL. Um, but what really helped me was surrounding myself with other people.

Um, other women in this case who really helped me, uh, not so much as a mentor, but we can say a mentor. She actually wasn't meant for an hour. I think about it. She gave me some lessons on dealing with, with men actually, uh, in the NFL coaches, because coaches are a little bit different than, uh, Uh, there is a little bit of ego, probably a little bit higher ego there.

And so dealing with a would that type of person create, it really requires a different type of personality. And so. I had to, to develop it. It, you know, and that's the good thing about leadership is that it can be developed for, for most people. Now, there are some people who, uh, who don't really want to be a leader, uh, in the business world and that's okay.

But for the leaders, if it's a good thing to know, um, that self-awareness, which is one of the things that I had to, you know, I had to develop, I had to develop confidence to be able to, to go head to head with these, these guys, because there were times when. I was not invited into the boardroom because I was a woman and I had to actually be candid and say, listen, I need to be there.

I am the finance, I'm the CFO, I'm the VP of finance and I need to be at the table. Um, and so. Getting that respect and not having the, the attitude. And that's the other thing my mentor told me, it's, you know, don't go in with this attitude, this chip on your shoulder, because you know, emotions for a lot of men is a term.

And especially, I know for a fact in the NFL, so being able to control my emotions, I mean, that's, that's probably the simplest way and not take things personal.

Catherine: And I know that a lot of women are going to get a lot out of what you're saying right now. And I can't wait to get to the rest of it. We're going to take a quick break right now.

You're listening to, sheWorks4Him with your Gates. We're going to take a break and we will be right back with Adrian. Bracey.

Intro: Did you know that God has a calling on your life? It's true. He's called you to bring Jesus to the world. For some that may look like a pulpit or a foreign mission field.

But for most of us, it looks like a construction site, a cubicle, a hospital, or a classroom, wherever it is that you work with volunteer and, and best that is your mission field. To learn more about integrating your faith into your work and retirement. Check out our books. I worked for him. sheWorks4Him and I retire for him by going to, I work for him, doc.

Slash

Catherine: bookstore. Welcome back to, sheWorks4Him. We're talking to Adrian, Bracey the former CFO for the NFL and president CEO of the Bracey group.

Martha: So Andrew you in God gave you all kinds of experiences in your life and in your leadership. And you have written this book called halftime, learn to pivot as a leader and identify your next.

Tell us briefly. What led you to write that book? And what do you hope that people will take away when they actually read it?

Adrian Bracy: Well, what led me to write the book was during my half-time moment when it was time to reflect and decide on what next, um, that's when the Lord just put it in my heart to be prepared for what's next and what's next for me?

Opening my own coaching consulting and speaking consulting firms. And so I wanted to have the book prepare, but the real, I mean, what the motive behind that was really to help bring value to others. That is the bottom line for this book for me, is helping paint it for basically all the wisdom and experience that I have painted for and what I hope the readers would get out of this.

For the most part, we all go through halftime. And if you have not, as my grandmother would say, keep living because you,

Martha: I love that. And talking to us, paying it forward one, luckily listener is going to get a signed copy of your new. Um, the halftime and we want you to call our listener line at eight six six seven one three nine six seven five eight six six seven one three.

Work. We will have that number in our show notes and you can call in and one listener will get a signed copy of that book. So, Adrian, thank you so much for paying it forward in writing the book and in giving away a copy. So I want to, um, take this chance to talk about this switch from being the CFO of the NFL to a CEO at the YWC and that is quite a pivot for you.

So how did that come about and how have you seen God's hand on you as you've made that transition?

Adrian Bracy: So it came about, uh, in 2007 or so I knew it was time that's when I moved, we moved to Phoenix and the day that we, we landed, I knew it was not long that I was not going to be there long. It was 115 degrees.

I don't like the heat number one. So I knew that wasn't going to work, but after afterwards, I just, it wasn't a good fit. But the job itself, the city and a board member from St. Louis came to Phoenix on vacation and said, how are you? And I told her that I wasn't happy. And I really miss St. Louis. And she said, we'll get you back.

And I believed her. And I, I took a webinar, uh, by Stephen Covey to prepare myself and included in my personal mission statement. What's inspiring and enhancing the lives of women and girls. So I truly believe that the next career would be helping women and girls. Well, six or seven months later, she called me and said, the CEO of Y WCA St.

Louis was retiring. Send me your resume. And 12 years at the white WCA, it was only got.

Catherine: Wow. That's amazing. Wow. Like, and that's just to show God was showing you, and again, like you said, you were preparing and we really do need to be ready for those opportunities as they come. Right. And just know that in God's timing, it'll have.

That's right. So exactly. Yeah. And so speaking of women and girls, you and I met, as I mentioned earlier through a Bible study, given by the rooted sisters, a non-profit and their mission is to provide a safe place for women leaders in the marketplace to connect with one another and grow in a closer, more intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.

How did you get involved with Rita sisters? Tell us a little bit about that.

Adrian Bracy: Well, it was through a colleague. Actually two colleagues and they're both co-founders of rude sisters, Cindy Erickson, uh, Owens and Lisa Nichols. Um, just through conversation, uh, you know, we have this group of women Bible study and we would like for you to attend.

And I did, and I hadn't looked back and now it's been five years or so, or maybe a little bit more than five years. Yes. That's

wonderful.

Catherine: What are you, what would you say you've really. Um, the most from being part of rooted sisters, what's been most meaningful.

Adrian Bracy: Well, there's a long list, but if I had to just say one thing, it's probably going to be relationships that I built, um, with women like-minded Christian women, uh, who loved the Lord.

And what I really love about it, it's the diverse group of women primarily. Um, most of my, my network is primarily black African-American and so here I get an opportunity to fill out. With my white sisters and we get to sit down and talk and have some, some, some dialogue that they probably, they probably wouldn't be able to ask others.

And then there are questions that I have that I probably wouldn't be to ask a white friend, or they wouldn't be able to ask maybe another black person. So here it's a good, safe place where we get to love on each other and just be real and authentic and love the Lord.

Martha: You know, it's I want you to just take a minute here before I ask this next question and encourage all of us that maybe don't have a place like that.

Like, what is the value? I mean, you're sharing that, you know, this gives you a safe place for that. How can you encourage other people to get in find a place like that for

Adrian Bracy: themselves? Oh, wow. I would so recommend finding a safe place. Where you you're surrounded by like-minded people. Uh, this happens to be a women's Bible study, but I also have men that love the Lord.

And so I joined them in another things, but having a rooted sisters it's. I tell you what it's, um, it's mind blowing for me because there are things outside of the spiritual stuff. We talk about family. We have women who've had, uh, divorced going through a divorce, uh, children on drugs. Um, you name it, it's a place, a healing.

And so I think it's one of the we like that we, and I believe we need that. I do. I believe that we need each other. The Bible tells us that we need each other. And so it goes so, so much further than. The Bible for us, it's real

Martha: sisters. You know, I always kind of use that question when somebody said, you know, if something were to happen in the middle of the night, who would you call and having that community, that safe group of people that you trust and you've grown with together, how has that community of women that you have around you impacted your success over the years?

Adrian Bracy: Um, for me, like I have a special group there called my personal board of directors. And these are women that hold me accountable. When I wanted to write the book, this was years ago, I didn't write the book. And my board chair says, when are you going to write the book? And she actually sent me information on writing a book.

Every year, uh, that was her first of the year. Are you going to start on the book this year? So, um, having that, and of course she loves the Lord. This is my board directors. They they're all Christian sisters. Um, and yeah, so we help each others and it's reciprocal. So they helped me, but I've also helped them.

And I think. A really good relationship. There has to be reciprocal, reciprocal relationship. It's not just give or take it's both.

Catherine: We need to encourage each other. Right. I mean, we're supposed to be operating as the body of Christ with Jesus as the head. And that's beautiful. Yes. You're listening to, sheWorks4Him with your host, Martha Brangenberg and Catherine Gates.

We're talking to Adrian Bracy and we're going to. A quick break and there'll be right back.

Hey listeners. One of the huge projects Martha and I have been working on for years is making it easy for every workplace believer, defined all the voices, speaking, encouragement, and equipping into the faith and work movement.

Presenting the Awaken podcast network. Online and Awaken podcast network.com with over 130 different podcast. Voices speaking truth into you. The workplace believer, including over 30 podcasts, dedicated to Christian working women go online to awaken podcast, network.com that's Awaken podcast,

network.com.

Welcome back to sheWorks4Him today. Adrian Bracey is sharing how she seen God moving in her work as former CFO in the NFL and CEO of Y WCA and. She's also published a book halftime, learn to pivot as a leader and identify your next step. And she's generously giving away a copy of her book for one blessed quality.

Today, when you call into our listener line, Martha, what's that number again?

Martha: That number is. Eight. Oh my goodness. I just drew like 8, 6, 6, 7 1 3 9 6 7 5 8 6 6 7 1 3 work. And that number will be in our show notes, but I can imagine. Um, that this is something that you would love to have. So please call our listener line.

And one of you will get a copy and we'll, and Adrian, we'll send it right directly to you after she signs it. So don't hesitate to do that friends. Um, this is a generous gift for you. So Adrian, as we talk about, um, you know, I love practicality. I love show me. I love that whole idea of show me what it looks like.

So for you. Um, how do you keep your iron sharp? Show me what that looks like for you. And are there special resources or tools that you use to keep that your iron sharp?

Adrian Bracy: Wow. I like that show me, you know, I live in state of Missouri the show, so there you go. So, uh, for me, uh, it's a routine that I've had for years waking up every morning.

Hour or more, um, pending on my day. And sometime it could be a little shorter. It's my devotion with the Lord. So that sharpens me reading the word of thought. Um, really understand and not just reading, but being a doer. It's not just reading the word, but being a doer of the word. Really, um, putting off, putting on the whole armor of God, first thing in the morning.

So that is something that gives me the fuels that I need throughout the day. So I start my morning off with reading through my devotional, my prayer, Ms. Pitchers, and then I've learned to meditate. I started meditating. Um, I tried yoga. That's hard, but I do, I didn't believe in taking care of yourself. Um, so meditation is the other thing that really helped sharpen my, my myself, me personally.

Um, and then, you know, I love going to take care. I'm a self care person. I love going to the spa. Uh, I have a membership at a spa here in St. Louis, because I think it's important to, to take care of yourself. I give a lot, I pour out a lot, so I have to make the pie. Back into myself, either through friends or through the spa.

I love getting my hair done every week. My manicure, my pedicure. So, so that's important. And that's the one thing a lot of women don't do. Let's take the self care.

Catherine: Yeah, you're right, Adrian. I mean, if you're going to give out, you've got to fill yourself up as well. And, and I, and I do love that you start every day with the word of God, you know, we need to fall in love with his word, right.

We're fellowshipping with when we're in that word. And, and so I wonder if there's a verse from scripture as a last question, Adrian, is there any verse from scripture right now that you are finding specifically meaningful to.

Adrian Bracy: Oh, gosh, there's so many, my gosh, but I love Philippians four through seven, a fourth chapter six through seven verse 67, whereas the anxious for nothing, but in all things, prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, make your request known to God and the peace of God.

I mean the peace. That's just, oh my gosh, the piece I'm just telling you, that's the best thing of, of just be the horse that had hadn't at peace. It will guard your heart and your mind through Christ Jesus. So those that, that I carry with me because sometimes I get anxious and I want things to happen right away.

And then I have to really just settle down and just let go and let God, and then let the peace of God just come over.

Catherine: Beautiful. Absolutely. And we were living in times where we really need that piece every day. Right. I really do well, Adrian, this has gone too fast. This has been amazing. Thank you so much for sharing your experience, your wisdom and your insights.

So openly and authentically, you've been listening to, sheWorks4Him with your hosts, Martha Brangenberg and Catherine Gates. We're Christian working women, helping other Christian working women live out their calling at work.

Outro: As sheWorks4Him as Christian women. We have many roles from daughter, sister, friend, wife, and mother to analyst, accountant, executive or educator.

Is it possible to balance our roles at work and home in a way that honors God? The answer is yes. And our new book, sheWorks4Him will help show you. Written to celebrate, encourage and equip women in the workforce. sheWorks4Him. Discusses the diverse experiences of today's Christian working woman.

Pick up a copy by going to, iWork4Him.com/bookstore. You've been listening to the, sheWorks4Him podcast with your host, Catherine Gates, Nadia Dickson, and Martha Brangenberg. Please like us on Facebook and subscribe on YouTube under sheWorks4Him and to access any of the resources we mentioned on today's show.

See the show notes at sheWorks4Him. Dot com that's she works the number 4 Him.com. This podcast was created to empower you to live out your calling at work so the world knows sheWorks4Him.