God has made a way for all of us to experience and notice Him in our midst, but many miss Him just like many missed that first Christmas. The innkeeper, he wasn't all that bad. His actions could be evaluated as moral, even kind - offering the only place he saw available. His limited vision caused him to tolerate inconvenience, unable to fully embrace and welcome it. Doing so, he missed Christmas, the miracle of Jesus' birth, in his own backyard.

In these weeks leading up to Christmas, we're looking at those who missed Christmas so we can learn how to be a noticer. How can we become aware and spiritually awake so we do not miss the miracles and God's presence in our midst. Today, we're talking about:

• What can we learn from those who missed Christmas?
• Welcoming vs. tolerating inconvenience
• The impact of making room for inconvenience today

C A N D A C E  C O F E R

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We want to slow down to be present this holiday season, but how do we do this with our business? With year-end quickly approaching, we may feel victim to hurry and extended work days. Add the pressure of keeping up with social media and understanding algorithms to the mix and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Thankfully, we get to learn from my friend, Lauren Cunningham, who owns her own social media and marketing agency where she helps other female founders build their businesses online.

Lauren Cunningham is a host, entrepreneur, and founder of So Can I, which is a podcast and community that supports female founders. Each episode covers a different female founder, and Lauren hopes her listeners leave each episode thinking, "if she can do it, so can I." She is passionate about connection, community, and sharing the stories of other women in business. She firmly believes that encouragement is one of the keys to success. Today, we're talking about:

• Creating a social media strategy for your business
• Tips and tricks to make it fun
• Ways to engage your audience with your content

Lauren offers a 30 minute complimentary call to go over pain points and see how she could be of assistance. For us here in The Good Day community, she also provided some tips to make social media fun for the holidays and first of the year:

1. Keep an eye on special sounds and audios that trend during that time. It's such a fun time -- lots of holiday music and sounds will be popular.
   
2. Consider doing something special for the 12 Days of Christmas, which is a good way to create consistency. Keep it light and fun!
   
3. Remember people are likely running 1 million different directions in the month of December. Their attention spans aren't going to be what they would typically be. They are being inundated with links to shop and things to try. I think December is a good time to build brand awareness and have fun with trendy content. Then you can get back to the more educational content in January!
   
4. Find a few accounts you admire in your industry and see how they approach the holidays on social media. It can be so helpful to look at other accounts and see what's working/what is not working for them!

Anita Hinkeldey McVey is a midwest farmer’s daughter who grew up in northwest Iowa on a steady diet of faith, family, and food. Her passion for cooking and gardening inspired her to create a blog, Picnic Life Foodie, where she shares her favorite recipes and the fond memories they bring to mind. With their two sons now “out of the nest”, Anita and her husband, Marty, live on an acreage in central Iowa with a large garden, a fishing pond, and an energetic hunting dog named Stark.

Today, we're talking about:

• Holiday baking and memories

• Unique gift ideas for Christmas

• Thinking of God’s Word as a treasured, well-loved cookbook

Buy a Copy of the Book

C A N D A C E  C O F E R

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Lisa launched her first business in 2023. As founder of Celebrate By Lisa Lou, she believes life is meant to be celebrated! Whether that is wrapping gifts for a party or hosting dinner for friends, Lisa’s main desire is to bring people back together through happy occasions and everyday living. She believes a key component to creating healthy families occurs when meals are shared on a regular basis. Her philosophy: Share a meal, heal a family. Heal a family, heal society. With the belief every family has a story to tell, Lisa Lou reveals tales through beautifully curated tablescapes that are sold in her Houston store and online. What is the unique value proposition of her business? One hundred percent of profits are donated to local children’s charities in the Houston area. 

What she cannot convey through a table design, she expresses in writing. Readers will enjoy blog posts on everything from entertaining tips to modern etiquette, and you can watch her short reels on soft skills on Instagram. You can find her blogs and more about the business @lisalouzook. 

Today, we're talking about:

• How to combat the pressure to do it all during the holidays
• Hospitality vs. entertaining - the pivotal difference
• Navigating empty nest with purpose and perspective

C A N D A C E  C O F E R

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Samantha Decker is an author, speaker, and co-founder of Redbud Content. However, more often these days she wears the hat of wife and mom. Recently, God has been teaching her about what it looks like to slow down, create margin, and exchange her plans for His purposes, which she shares in her debut book, Unhurried, which was published earlier this Spring.

Today, we're talking about:

• How push back on hurry this holiday
• Know when to hurry and how to create room
• Spiritual gifts and what it has to do with all this hurry

C A N D A C E  C O F E R

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Davy Reeks and Diane Stanley are twin sisters who have been gifted with a singing talent from birth. After pursuing their degrees and singing classical and Opera music, they now serve in their churches and also perform regularly with The Singing Princess of San Antonio, and continues to make little kids' dreams come true as Elsa, Anna, Cinderella and Ariel (to name a few). 

Davy sings Soprano and possesses extensive expertise in performing and instructing a wide range of music genres. She has consistently guided students towards success, helping them secure coveted roles with Broadway Tours and with prestigious equity companies such as Music Theater Wichita, The MUNY, Flat Rock Playhouse, and Lyric Theater of Oklahoma. Throughout her career, she has collaborated with renowned institutions such as San Antonio Opera, San Antonio Symphony, the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, and Light Opera Oklahoma. Most recently, she held the position of Adjunct Voice Professor at Oklahoma City University's esteemed Wanda L. Bass School of Music. She currently serves as Director of Singer’s Workshop at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, TX, and teaches private voice at Lopez Middle School. 

Diane is a voice over artist and vocalist of the San Antonio and Austin surrounding area and has previously served as an elementary music teacher. She currently serves as the Children’s Director at Grace Church New Braunfels. In addition to this, she has performed with the acapella quartet, Southern Stride, an internationally ranked quartet, having received 4th place in the BING Harmony competition in Germany (2018). 

Today, we're talking about:

• Singing as Disney Princesses
• The gift of music and the power of using your voice
• A message for all young girls who love Disney Princesses

C A N D A C E  C O F E R

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Today, we're going behind-the-scenes of some of our favorite concerts and behind the sound. When it comes to music dreams, Nashville is on the minds of many, but one of my good friends I'm proud to say actually did it. He took the leap, made the move, and is living his dream.

Michael Brooks, in less formal terms, is a behind-the-scenes musical ninja. He moved to Nashville to follow his dreams of technical sound production and now gets to tour and serve vocal artists on the road making the songs we love to sing along to at some of our favorite concerts sound even better live.

He's sharing what he's learned along the way and I believe its for all of us, whether we're musically inclined or simply enjoy music. Today, we're talking about:

• Chasing the curiosity to pursue your dreams

C A N D A C E  C O F E R

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Jason White is learning in his thirties how to see failure for what it really is - not the opposite of success but the result of not trying. Many know him as a worship pastor, but are you familiar with his story and the turns which led him to leading worship on Sunday mornings and weeknight youth and all the moments in between? Want to hear more of his passion behind this calling?

When he's not serving his church family as the Worship Pastor at the Edmond location for Crossings Community Church in Oklahoma, you can find him spending time with his wife and their family. Today, we're talking about:

• His journey from accounting to worship pastor
• The power of worship and Spoken Word
• Songwriting, inspired by Scripture
• Overcoming the fear of failure

In today's episode, we reference the song, "You're Still Moving" - click here to give it a listen or stream wherever you listen to music! You'll want this one on repeat, trust me!

C A N D A C E  C O F E R

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Meet TC and Danielle, a married couple who love writing songs and sharing the stories behind them. Their passion is writing tunes that capture the heart of Jesus and reflect His joy and creativity. Right now, they lead worship at two local churches and love hitting the road to share their music wherever they’re welcomed. You can find their music under the name TC & Danielle, and with their worship band, Midtown Worship, wherever you stream your music. 

Today, we're talking about:

• Passion for music (and hats), how it began
• Their love story and calling to pursue music professionally together
• Songwriting and their heart, inspiration, and the truth shared through this gift

C A N D A C E  C O F E R

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When other kids were collecting baseball cards, Wes Kinsler was collecting things he could take apart. This curiosity has endured a lifetime for him and led him to study many innovations and innovators over the years. Today, he's joining us as we dive into a mini series on the power of music to help us see how music and sound were first recorded. We're talking about:

• The history of recorded sound
• The power of curiosity and the innovation which follows
• Being transported back in time through music

In this episode, we speak of the Oklahoma Steam and Gas Engine Show which takes place every first weekend of May in Pawnee, Oklahoma. Would love to see you join us and experience the music we speak of for yourself (...and "a few" steam tractors too). The homemade ice cream alone is reason enough to come!

C A N D A C E  C O F E R

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