Oh yall, I'm in love. I'm listening to Christy Wright's Business Boutique podcasts on Spotify (no this isn't some kind of plug or ad LOL). And speaking honestly, I started listening to the podcasts just out of curiosity. I do not expect to hear anything ground breaking, after all, I have been an entrepreneur for 10+ years and a mompreneur for 6+ years. Very little is earth shattering in my line of work or on being a business owner at this point. But I did end up discovering something else… a renewed confidence and courage in ME and what I am doing.
Ok, for today's topic: faith in your business? Have you struggled on whether or not to incorporate your faith in your business? Do you worry about what it might bring or where to place faith? You, my friend, are not alone. I really love what Christy has to say on this topic. Check it out here.
From the Bible: Acts 16 describes Lydia as a seller of purple cloth, the most expensive type in her day. She resided in the city of Thyatira and was known as one who worshiped God. She is also thought to be Paul's first convert. Think about this, Paul's 1st convert was a female entrepreneur. How cool is that! Might I also point out something Christy so wisely shared. After becoming a Christian she invited Paul and his people back to her house for food and lodging. That means, she owned a home, that was large enough to hold multiple people and the means to feed them all. So not only was she a business women, she was a successful one at that!
Faith in Business
First you need to decide what type of business you are. I am a Christian so for the following examples I will use Christ to share the point just like Christy did in her podcast. Are you a Christian who owns a business or are you a Christian Business?
For example, I am a Blogger who is a Christian. I am not a Christian Blogger. The 1st means I talk about being a mompreneur, automating part of your life so you are free to do other things, etc at times from a Christian standpoint and other times not. Whereas the 2nd label would mean I talk about being a Christian mom in business. This is an intentional business move for me. The things I share, the ways I show and the products I love can be appreciated whether you are a Christian or not. So decide how you want to be categorized. Also to note, just because you might be the later, Christian based, doesn't mean you have to be a non-profit. Christy elaborates on this in another one of her podcasts in depth (episode 15)
So, if you are like me, a business that is run by a Christian, your faith will still affect your business. Here's how, your faith informs your personal values, and your personal values inform your business. And example is Christy herself! She is a business coach, it doesn't matter if you are a Christian or not, the principles she teaches are foundational to growing your company. But as a by product, Christy often teaches classes like this one here. Or when she is on stage speaking she quotes scripture. This is her faith in business.
Faith allows you to be true to you!
Another great thing to remember is Faith allows you to be true to yourself. Since your faith is a part of you and you are the biggest part of your business, it is only natural that your faith will show in and through your business at times. But this is a great thing because you have a foundation. You always know you values and you will stay true to you!
Know who you and whose you are. – Pastor Kevin Muilenburg
And the last great point Christy makes is that your faith allow you to connect with other people of faith and spread hope to those who don't have faith. If you are a person of faith, then you know what I am talking about. If you find a product you love and then you find out that they are also a person of faith, you have an instant connection (and the sell is complete). But lets say you are selling something to a person who isn't a person of faith but in their bag you include a little card about you and it talks about your faith. That might be the key thing that person needed in that moment to enact change they need.
You don't have a faith life and a business life. You just have 1 life, stay true to you in that one life and that is what really matters. -Christy Wright
So let's say you don't quite have your business idea yet but rather, you have a group of people you know you want to serve! You can take the same 2 steps above and apply them here to create your business. First, your target market is done as you know who you want to serve. Second, what problems do those people encounter that you can fix? Or perhaps you know you want to do something but don't know what it is? Or maybe you need help on how to refine your 50000+ ideas into a business? I highly recommend you check out her Business Ideas Bootcamp! (this isn't an ad, this is me passionately looping you into my “how to live in success sanely”) You can learn more about it here.
You can listen to Christy Wright's Business Boutique Podcasts here. And you can learn more about what Christy offers on her Business Boutique Website. She has a book, educational courses, her blog and much more I highly recommend!
