The Christian Network Marketer's Podcast

When you think of courage, you often think about slaying giants, like David killing Goliath.  But David didn’t start with the Goliaths of the world. He started by protecting his flock from lions and bears.

Most of us today are not sent out to kill Goliath, or lions, or bears, but we all have challenges that we need courage to face.  Today, I have an interview with one of our community members, Eric, who shares with us how God is working in the business he and his wife are running and how God has given him courage.

The following is just a highlight to the conversation.  I encourage you to listen or watch the entire interview below.

Then join our free Facebook group to continue the conversation and share with our community how God is working in your business.

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Tasha:  I know your big thing is courage.  Can you talk about how God has given you courage in your network marketing business?

Eric:  People hear stories like David slaying the giant, Goliath.  But you have to remember that David did a lot of smaller things before that helped him build up his courage.  That’s the same approach that I have with my business: you make or break it with courage on a daily basis.

Do I always live a courageous life?  Absolutely not.

Do I always choose the faith over fear?  No, sometimes I give in to the fear.

That is why my podcast is called the Courage Cast because I am trying to explore this idea of courage every single day.  I think it is a daily walk that we have to face the decision; there is always a fork in the road:  Am I going to go for courage? Or am I going to go for fear? And it may not be a very big decision; sometimes it is a very small thing.  

Every day in our business we face rejection, and we have to believe what it takes, we have to choose confidence, or retreat and watch Netflix. The temptation to retreat grows the more successful you become, but the way we rise up is through habits, boring disciplines, which is not easy because of choices that need to be made.

Tasha:  What I hear you saying is business is made up of small moments that make the difference of being successful and not.

There is the idea that you need to be inauthentic to be successful in network marketing, or some of the…“ick”.  But what I hear you saying is that to be successful means to draw on courage in the small things, which is incredibly biblical where God calls us to be courageous and faithful with the small things.

What do you think of that synopsis?

Eric:  I am right there with you with the idea of becoming your best self and choosing your best self.  There is a certain choice you need to make as far as who is going to show up today in your playing field is really important.  For me, part of the person I think of is who God says I am. Who does God say I am? If I can latch on to the identity He has given me, which is someone who is chosen, loved beyond belief, when you can latch on to just a little bit of that feeling and that choice, it makes it a lot easier to ask for the things you know you need to ask for when it comes up.  And it comes from a sincere place.

A lot of times people are taught methods on how to do things, but it doesn’t come across as sincere because they don’t believe it, they don’t have the confidence to believe it.  It does take practice.

Tasha:  That’s awesome.

Do you have any last thoughts to share with our audience?

Eric:  Who I am In Christ is a free book that talks about struggling with identity, fear, who you are in Christ.  It takes scripture turned around so it can be edifying for you.

And the last thing I thought is to take scripture and speak it outloud.  Talk to your problems about God instead of talking to God about your problems.  We should talk to God about our problems, but we should also talk to our problems about God.

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Thank you again for reading today’s highlight from my interview with Eric.  Remember to check out the entire interview below, and to join our Facebook group to continue the conversation.

P.S. The book Eric mentions, Who I Am In Christ, is a free book that you can get by emailing the author at [email protected], and she will send you a copy at her cost. Or you can download the PDF version below!

Today I am going to share with you how God has been working in my business.  For those of you new to the Christian Network Marketer’s Community, I run a sales and leadership coaching business.  I started what I thought would be a part-time, one-on-one coaching practice, exploded into full-time work for many people, and we have served over 7000 clients over the past couple of years.  So God’s blessing has certainly been upon us.

But it hasn’t come without some struggles as well.  In the last 6 months or so, I have been kicked in the teeth a lot.  Most mornings (since some mornings can get a little crazy) I wake up and ask God for 3 things:

-Wisdom

-Clarity

-Divine appointments

When my business was growing like wildfire, I wasn’t asking for those same things.  Isn’t it funny how we don’t make those same prayers in the good times?

I think we need to spend more time asking “Why not?” since it doesn’t serve us to ask, “Am I good at this?”  Or, “Should I do this?” Or, “Why?”

God is in the business of “Why not?”

Please listen or watch to hear about the fruits of my prayers for these three things and how God has been working in my business.

After that you can head over to our Facebook group to find out more about how to serve God in your business.

Thank you for connecting with us today!

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.  I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

John 10:10 (ESV)

Often we follow God in the areas of our lives where we want to follow God in and hold back other areas.  And then sometimes God works out for us a way to come into agreement with him in all areas.

Today, I have a conversation with Kami Schaal and how she came to come into agreement with God through a difficult time.  

Here are some of my takeaways from the conversation:

1. The imagery of our lives being like a tapestry having to be turned over blew my mind.
2. We start to reach our goals when we stop looking so much at the goals. Instead we reach goals when we are in service to our family, customers, builders, and community.
3. We can’t sit in our house and pray for God to save us. We need to move into action.

You can watch the entire interview through the video below, or you can listen to the podcast of the conversation.

Here are some of my takeaways from the conversation

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Kami:  Most of us can identify with the “life in abundance” part of that verse, but struggle with the first part of the verse, the thief part.  

The thief came in the form of someone offering to help us with our teenage son, who has special needs.  He used the fears surrounding the long term care of our son and the financial burden that goes along with that to manipulate and steal from us.  

It was the most devastating experience of our lives.  Fortunately, it has a happy ending that does include some undercover FBI work from my husband.  However, we had put our trust in him, and it was hard for me to put my ego aside and admit that I put my trust in him.

But God led me through, not just in terms of protection (Psalms 91 was huge for me during that time and was all I could depend on during that time), but God showed me that I had not come to agreement with Him for all the things in my life.  Our son has been sick for most of his life, and I handed my son over to God – full trust – but, you know what I kept back?  I kept back my finances. I would cast my cares to God, but I would pull them back wanting to control them.

God really showed me that I needed to stop trusting myself and trying to control the outcomes for my son.  He wanted me to come into agreement with Him about our finances, and He literally said, “You need to do this business.”

I still said to God, “WHAT?!?  You’re crazy! I’m not a business person; I’m a nurse; I’m not an entrepreneur; I don’t know anything about this.”  He just said, “You need to do this. You need to get into action and make a change. Kami, no one is going to come and save you.”

And I think what He meant by “nobody” was a person.

Tasha:  Oh…wow.

Kami:  I was looking for a miracle from the sky, that person to land in my lap and make everything better.  He was telling me to save myself, BUT not about me.  It was about me getting in agreement with Him so that His miracles could unfold, because nothing is possible without Him.  And I needed to trust that, so we started our business.

It has been incredible to see.  There have been highs and lows, for sure, over the past three years, but He continues to show me if I step out and trust and do what He is purposing me to do in that day, in the moment, that that is where He is going to shine and all the glory will be given to Him.  It was obvious it was Him and not me.

T:  I took so many notes….what really stood out to me of what you said is “Nobody is going to come and save you.”  I think that’s so interesting.

One of my favorite authors is Mark Batterson, and he talks about praying like it depends on God, and working like it depends on you.  And what I hear is like, “Hey, girl, let’s go.”

K:  I feel like God saying, “Look you can’t just sit in your house and think, ‘Ok God, where are you?  I prayed. I read my Bible verses for the day.’” Those are all good things, but then you actually have to step into whatever that God has for you.

My sister reminds me of something she experienced with God.  She originally felt that God gives you a path, and He’ll make your path straight.  But she found, and I find it true in my life as well, that it is more like stepping stones.  He gives you a stone, and you have to take a leap of faith and step. But then He’s not going to give you another stepping stone until it’s time.

T:  Come on, God!  Just lay out all the stones like in Lego:  Flash where they laid out the whole path.

K:  It’s so true, and I do remind myself in times of difficulty, “This is the stepping stone that I am on.  There are lessons to learn here. God is not ready to lay that out for me yet, because, either, to believe it, or to get in agreement with Him.”  And you can look at that in terms of rank, or anything else, but it means I am meant to be here right now.

It doesn’t mean I am not doing the things, but I am learning the lessons in the process and He is refining me so that I am ready to step on that next stepping stone.

Thank you for reading this highlight of the my interview with Kami. You can watch the entire interview below.

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment or posting in our free Facebook group!

“There is nothing great that we can do in isolation, but so many of us try and do that.  Asking for help doesn’t mean you are desperate.”

Do you have trouble asking other people for help?  Are you afraid that it will make you look desperate?  What if you used all the strength that was available to you?  What would your business look like?

Today I want to give you some help in asking for help in your life and your business.  It is hard to admit we need help, but effective leaders develop and utilize the people around them through healthy alliances.

Watch this video to hear the areas regarding getting help with your business.  Then head over to our Facebook group to find out more about how to serve God in your business.

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“Effective leaders use all their strength by recognizing, developing and utilizing the people around them.  They know how to develop healthy alliances both with those on their on team and those on other teams.”

Asking for help can be tough to do.  Not because people are not willing to help us, but because we don’t want to admit that we can’t do it.

Today I want to talk to you about strength.

My mean coach, Heather (mean not included), made me pick a word for the year to focus on in my business.  I didn’t want to, but I chose Alliance.

There is nothing great that we can do in isolation, but so many of us try and do that.  Asking for help doesn’t mean you are desperate.

5 areas in regards to asking for help with your business

1. Get smart business coaching.
   Yes, I run a coaching business, and I also have a coach for myself and I pay for coaching for my team as well.  This is because I understand how important coaching, how important it is to have someone with wisdom to reach out to in a pinch.
   
   
2. Household help
   You may want to run a 6-figure business, and homeschool your 6 kids, and do the laundry and the dishes, and the cooking, and the cleaning, and on….and on…and on.  Get some simple household help, because what you are trying to do may be inhuman.
   
   
3. Project help from a specialist
   Consider getting the help of a specialist for projects one-time that you know how to do, kind of know how to do, or don’t really know how to do it, get the help of a specialist instead of struggling through the learning curve on your own.
   
   
4. Connections
   Let people know what you are doing and be specific, not in a desperate way.  But if you are trying to help people with your business and the product you sell, it is good to let people know that you are trying to help people.
   
   
5. What if you just asked God?
   Just ask God to open your eyes so that you would see the help that you are looking for and in need of.  God knows what we need better than we do, so what if we just asked every day, “God will you help with what I’m trying to do, in accordance with your will, will you help me?”
   
   Now, when God answers our prayers and puts someone in our path and offers to help us, we can’t be so stubborn or egotistical to say, “No, I got this.”  We need to accept the help and accept the gift from God.

Those are my thoughts on strength, and I’ll leave you with this questions:  

-Are we using all of our strength?

-What if we did?

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment or posting in our free Facebook group!

We’ve talked about whether or not it is ok to pray for your business, or if it is ok to have wealth.  Today Tasha is going to talk to Breanne about asking for the will of God in your business. These are just some of the highlights of the interview with Breanne.  We encourage you to listen to the podcast, or watch the interview from the video below.

Something that Breanne points out early on sometimes it is hard to step out of what is going on in your life to see how God is working.

Breanne talks about how she prays for God to put in place people that she can help, and she prays for God’s will to align with hers.  And if her will is not in time with His, her prayer is that He shifts her desires towards His. However, that sometimes means learning His will the Hard Way.  Even during a hard time, though, Breanne could see God’s glory through her own life and some of those people around her.

This led to a shift in thinking about her business as a person-focused business, rather than a money-focused business.

Breanne recognizes that it is easy to call what happens in life as a coincidence, or to take pride as accomplishments we have done, but when we depend on Him to show us where to go, and we keep stepping, we can look back and see what He is doing.  Breanne and her family feel from God that they are one puzzle piece in God’s bigger plan, and He has an even bigger plan in mind than what He has already shown them.

A last nugget of wisdom from Breanne:

A lot of our success in our business is seeing opportunities and taking action on them.  Not being bogged down by fear or “what ifs?” He will give us opportunities if we ask for them, so we can’t turn our backs on those opportunities when they come up.

Thank you for reading this post.  If you want to see more about what the Christian Network Marketer’s Community is all about, please go to our Facebook page.