Created for This with Danielle Roberts

Join fellow Life Coach, Diana Kerr, and I as we talk about living boldly for Jesus. This episode is full of practical ways to live out your faith and be counterculture while living boldly for Jesus.

Diana Kerr is a Certified Professional Life Coach on a mission to help go-getter Christian women break free from overwhelm and design their time + life for what matters most. She has coached women like Lara Casey, Val Woerner, Gina Zeidler, and others like them who love Jesus and want to approach their lives and businesses with bold intentionality. Diana lives in Milwaukee, WI, with her husband, Kyle, and their son, Harrington.

For her free 12-page workbook, 3 Lies about Time Christian Women Tell Themselves & 3 Truths That Will Set You Free go here.

I'm talking about a lie today that is prevalent in our society. It's the like that you and I can "have it all." This lie is detrimental to us because we, as business owners know we can do what we want to do, BUT we will never have it all. And, we can't do it all. At some point, we're going to have to be content with what we have. I love the verse in 1 Timothy 6:6-11 that talks about contentment because honestly, being content with where I am can be really hard for me.

1 Timothy 6:6-11 New International Version (NIV) - "But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. Those who want to get richfall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness."

Jill McCormick talks with me about learning to work with from our giftings and our strengths, instead of working at a job or doing something we "should" do. We deep dive into how to avoid burn out and using our energy and our time on things that we leave and what we're gifted in so we can move into what God has for us to do. By using what God's given us, we are doing his good works and glorifying him. Busyness brings pressure and that pressure comes from external expectations and internal expectations of what we should be doing. We also have a very strong monologue ticker that has negative critique which is exhausting. When we don't taken into account what God's asked us to do, we end up trying to do everything and we can't live that way. We are not designed to live that way.

As I've studied rest, when we do the things that light us up, we actually get refreshed. We try to fill every void through busyness. And we wear ourselves out.

Some ways that we can figure out how we're wired:

• Asking Jesus how he wired us and bring the struggles that we're feeling to him. Jill has done this numerous times. Unlike our inner critic, the voice of God is kind, convicting and gracious. When we hear negative things, that is our inner critic trying to kill and destroy what God's done.
• The Enneagram is a personality system which breaks down the good and bad things but also shows you your motivation behind what you do what you do.

When you start living out of your strengths, it's 1,000 times better and there's freedom. When we live out of what we should do, we feel heavy. On the flipside, operating out of our strengths, there's a lightness and we can walk in freedom.

When we talk with Jesus authentically and honestly, and with the real things, we see better results. We can't make forward progress, which is looking more and more like Jesus. He knows it already and he loves us and his grace never runs out. So it's better to do it with Jesus, through his strength and his power. He meets us where we are.

One thing that God has taught Jill through parenting is that she's responsible for obedience and He's responsible for the outcomes. That's hard for many of us to accept, especially business owners. We want to control everything. She says, I'm going to do what I can do and I can obey with his help.

As a public speaker, Jill speaks on stepping away from doing more and trying harder and walking in grace. We easily extend grace to others but we have a hard time accepting that for ourselves. She's working on a talk about idols are for us as an American mom and what happens when we let go of them. She also talks about Luke 10 as a foundation for self-care and breaking down loving the Lord with all your heart, soul and mind.

One of the things that I, Danielle, am writing on in my book is radical self-care. Not just the pedicure, but the healthy habits that we create. Jesus wants us to take care of ourselves.

To find out more about Jill, you can visit her website, Facebook page or her Instagram.

Jill McCormick is the writer behind jillemccormick.com, a blog where she shares common-sense grace with the try-hard girl. Jill grew up in the suburbs of Houston, graduated from Texas A&M with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism, and has had a unique career path. She's worked in professional sports, higher education, trucking, health care, children's ministry, and now she writes words on the Internet! Jill married her high school sweetheart Ryan in 1999. They have two daughters born 18 months apart. She starts and ends every day with sprinkles: on oatmeal for breakfast and on ice cream for dessert.

This show's sponsor is my devotional, Created for This, specifically written for business women. Based on Proverbs 31, the book studies the topics of identity and comparison, marriage, singleness, mentoring and more. To find out more and purchase your own copy, you can go here.

If you're new to me, I'm an Accountability Coach, soon to be a certified Life Coach and an Essential Oil Educator.

When I recorded this, we had bedbugs who decided to hitch a ride home with me. While this has not been an optimal experience and a rather pricy one to get them taken care of, I'm glad I learned these lessons. *This episode was recorded pre-house heating and currently we're bedbug free.

1. Margin. You may have heard of it before, basically, it's leaving enough room in your life for life to happen. I don't ever want to fill my life so full that I don't have room for something to shift or change. My mastermind that I was selling seats into should have happened. With the numbers it should have worked. And there was interest but there was a lot of "it's not the right time" or "I don't have the money or space right now." Because I haven't had the mastermind, and I'd lost a few one on one clients, I've had the space to deal with the bedbugs and I'll have the free time to deal with the guy coming to heat the house. Having a margin has saved my sanity. Moving forward I want to make sure I've got extra space in my schedule in case someone gets sick or something else needs to happen.
2. Your rest days and rest hours are vital. I'm passionate about intentional resting. Turning off your phone or social media and grabbing a book to rejuvenate or go to church and just be renewed by God, while worshiping with others. I woke up on Saturday feeling exhausted. We had some obligations so I took care of those and then relaxed. It wasn't like I was putting off work, there's not a whole lot you can do. We'd already gotten the mattress encasements on, and I'd spread Diatomaceous Earth all over my daughter's room. At that point, it was better to rest.
3. Our identity has to be rooted in Christ. With the mastermind not selling any seats, I could have said 'Danielle, you're a failure, you could have done more, you could have done something different, your business sucks.' The fact that my identity is rooted in Jesus, the truth is, he is where I'm drawing my worth and my identity. That means I don't need to get down on myself and who says that to a friend. You should treat yourself better than your friend or at the same level. Who I am in Jesus is not going to change, depending on how my business performs or how I perform as a business owner or a housekeeper. Your identity doesn't depend on how you are as a business owner, it depends on who you are in Christ, who Christ says you are. That freedom you have to walk that out everything you've been created for comes from Jesus. Ultimately, that freedom doesn't come from being a business owner and being able to create your own schedule, which although it's amazing, can change. So what happens if it changes, how does that identity affect who you are at your core. I'll be talking more about this and about the core of who we are. It's been really powerful for me to say "I'm a child of God. I'm free. I don't have any condemnation. I am an image bearer of God. I am redeemed." There are so many "I am" statements from the Bible we can affirm our identity in Christ. Our identity will bring us down or pull us up, but I'm more concerned about being pulled down by what I allow into my life. I want to make sure my identity is rooted in Christ. He doesn't change. Our relationships change. I've been married to my husband for almost nine years and we've both changed. We're still married, praise the Lord!

If you're looking for Christian affirmations like I talked about, you can click here.

This show is sponsored by my devotional, Created for This. It's a devotional for Christian business women and the topics we handle every single day. You can buy it here, right now.

Integrating your faith and business - this topic is near and dear to both mine and Lilah Higgins' hearts because we know there are Christian business owners who have so many questions about how to bring their faith into their business and to what extent.

Lilah and I chat about bringing God into your business and how knowing God at a deeper level has brought out the changes that have happened in her business over the last few years.

We also talk about TheForge, a leadership training community that she and her husband, Zach, created which brings together business owners who want to focus on leadership and their faith. You can get a 10% off discount of this community with the code "createdforthis".

Lilah's transparency on life, mental health, faith and so much more makes this an episode you don't want to miss.

Her official bio: Alongside her husband, Lilah Higgins is the co-founder of TheForge, a leadership training community for faith-driven business owners. She also designs and coaches seasoned business owners through her brand agency, The Higgins Creative.

Taking her fine art training & strategic mind into the online space, she helps all her clients and students brand cohesively and effectively across platforms, bringing them the confidence they need to make an impact, preach the word, and walk out their callings in every facet of their lives.

Looking for ways to be more productive? These are some of my top three tips that you can implement right now:

1. Limit your social media time. Let's talk about the mindset of social media. Why do we go on social media? For me, when I'm bored, when I don't have anything in my hands to do, or if I'm avoiding doing things then I'll go on social media. I've trained my brain to think that if I don't have something going on, or even if I do, that I need to be going on social media consistently. That's called addiction and that's not being productive.

We're trying to live other people's lives through social media which causes so much discontentment with our own lives. I'm not saying that all social media is bad, I get a lot of clients through social media. We wouldn't say to get clients in Facebook groups if it wasn't effective. If you're looking for ways to help, there are numerous apps you can get. Feed eradicator is one that I've heard of.

Instagram has a way to check and see your usage. Under your activity, it will tell you the amount of time you spend on Instagram per day. You have to think about how much time you're spending interacting purposefully instead of just scrolling.

2. The Pomodoro Method. This is the idea that you can focus on something for about 20 minutes and after that, your productivity goes down. So you work for 20-30 minutes and then you take a break for 10 minutes. You do this cyclically.

I taught this to my 17-year-old sister who is working on her homework and finishing up high school. She's been having a hard time finishing her work and being productive. She came back to me when she had tried this method and she was amazed at home much she was able to get done. There are apps you can use to do this, go to (affiliate link) Amazon and get a timer or use your phone timer.

This is so helpful for so many clients and what I use for my coworking events. You can get so much done in 20 minutes if you just focus your time.

3. Time Blocking. I love time blocking so much that I added a full sheet for time blocking to my Faith and Focus Planner (currently available on my website). On those sheets, you can plan out your monthly tasks (or weekly if you download the downloadable version I have for you). Within the time blocking sheets, you can go in and mark off certain times so you're just working on that thing during that time. You're focusing your attention on one thing. With multitasking, you're losing time because your brain is having to switch back and forth.

You have to intentionally focus your brain on one thing at a time. I used to think I could multitask and really it's not. Take time to think about what you need to put your time and attention on. I have a video that I share how I use the time batching sheets using that link.

If you'd like accountability in getting things done, you can check out my Accountability Coaching page on my website.

This show's sponsor is my devotional, Created for This. It's a devotional for Christian business owners with topics that we face daily like identity and comparison, mentoring, marriage, singleness, money and other topics. Buy it on my website now.

Biblical rest is more than just sleeping. We as physical beings need that rest. However, we also need Jesus. Bottom line, that is how we are going to find rest.

"You'll never be able to fully rest until you're aligned with God." So what does that mean? Our hearts were made to give God glory.

Matthew 22

Psalm 62:1-2 says,

"Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from him. Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken."

St. Augustine says in his Confessions, "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you."

We need to be taking that time with Jesus to refill our hearts and give the true rest and rejuvenation.

Resting can be enjoying things with other people, fellowshiping, taking walks in His creation, worshiping and praying.

I want to encourage you to rest in God and put on your schedule to take time with God. Make time to read your Bible and pray.

Put in your calendar a day of rest. This is a gift that has been given to us.

Biblical rest devotional series

The Better Together Mastermind - a Christian mastermind to help you grow and thrive in your business as you get things done and make forward progress on your goals. While being intentional about your time working, you'll create time to take breaks and rest.

Janine Esbrand is the founder of LightBOX Coaching, a coaching and consulting company which helps ambitious women thrive in their careers beyond motherhood.

Along with her coaching career, Janine has found a love for helping women stand out using LinkedIn as a way to get clients and make connections. She's sharing her tips with us today and I'm so excited to share this goodness with her.

Janine's holding a LinkedIn Accelerator and I can't recommend her knowledge enough if you're wanting to uplevel your LinkedIn account, check out her accelerator! https://lightboxcoaching.lpages.co/linkedin-accelerator/

Janine studied her LLB law degree at City University in London. She then spent a year in New York where she completed the Mountbatten internship program. Upon her return to the UK, she completed her LPC at BPP law school and went on to qualify as a corporate solicitor at leading UK firm in 2012.

After practicing as a corporate lawyer for 4 years, she moved into a sole legal counsel role at an international fuel company. Alongside her legal career, Janine trained as a career and executive coach and is now a member of the Association for Coaching. Through LightBOX coaching, she provides individual and group coaching services to professional women. When she is not coaching or practicing law, Janine can be found spending time with her husband and 2 young children, playing netball or traveling.

Check out Janine's website, Careers Beyond Motherhood Podcast, Facebook group, LinkedIn or Instagram.

To buy my devotional book for Christian business owners, visit daniellemroberts.com/createdforthis.

Episode 50! This is huge! This is about the one year anniversary too which is so cool. I've been so blessed to bring you so much great content over the last year.

I'm Danielle Roberts, an accountability coach and an essential oil educator.

As I've interviewed all these women, I've noticed a pretty substantial theme. My devotional book and my podcast are both named Created for This. Have you ever wondered what you were created for? We just published a few episodes on God's will and so often I think we wonder "what was I created for?"

It's important to remember that we are created for God's glory. We were created to give him glory. I think it's important to live out how we can give God glory. In everything we do, we are created to give him glory, not because of what we've done, but who he is.

The verses I used in this episode:

Psalms 115:1 "Not to us, Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness."

Ephesians 2:10 "For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

1 Corinthians 10:31 "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."

Isaiah 43:7 "Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made."

We have to choose to live for God's glory. We have to live intentionally on a mission for God's glory.

God will be glorified in how to we live, if we are living in a way that honors God. We can do that in so many ways, it doesn't have to be in just one way.

Have you ever wondered what God's will is and how to pray and understand his will? I think most of us have which is why my brother Ben Reedy, a seminary student, and I focus on that this week.

In this episode, we're going to chat about the topic of prayer and God's will. More specifically, we're going to talk about how to pray and move forward after we pray.

I share some of my experiences as I've prayed through life decisions and Ben adds in his biblical outlook on it.

Once you're in motion, God's going to be a lot clearer on the direction that you're going.

We have the freedom to love God and love others and do what we want to do.

Bible verses referenced:

Ecclesiastes 11:1-6

Proverbs 19:21

Proverbs 21:1-3

1 Thes. 4:1-7

1 Peter 2

1 Peter 3

Sign up for the Biblical Rest Devotional Email Series that starts February 19 - As business owners it's so easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle, the business world that engulfs us and pulls at us.

I am going to encourage you to look at what the Bible says about rest and how to start incorporating it into our lives.

Join me now and get four days of email devotionals plus access to Facebook lives for action tips.