Search results for "LEADERSHIP"

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10 NIV) You were born and handcrafted to serve the marketplace, and God’s gifted you with something others don’t have. Your “toolkit” is what you should reflect on today. These gifts and talents point the way to your exact business. For example What are your top talents? What do people come to you for advice for? What comes easy to you, but others struggle with? What could you do blindfolded? What spiritual gift has God put inside of you? There are many tests out in the marketplace that help us discover more about ourselves in this area. There is a StrengthsFinder assessment to identify “Strengths/Talents,” and that’s available at gifts.churchgrowth.org. This one will help find your spiritual gifts. I developed the www.GodpreneurTest.com which will reveal both your strengths and weaknesses. God placed gifts and talents inside of us for our business’s success; He knit us from other mother’s womb (Psalms 139:13). Knowing what our talents are equipped us to launch businesses more in line with our calling and helps us lead purpose-focused brands into the marketplace. It’s not about what we do; it’s about who we are in Christ. There’s a big difference! Godpreneur Rule – Godpreneurs uncover who we are first so we can then know what we were born to do. #BusinessBibleStudy #FindMyCalling #GodpreneurAcademy The Business God Created You To Start Have you ever wondered why you received the talents and gifts you have been given? We, as entrepreneurs, were born to do. Heard of the Godpreneur Academy? Grow Your Business, God’s Way! Bible-Based Video Courses for Entrepreneurs Putting God First In their Businesses Click here to create a Free Account

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:1‭-‬2 NIV) If you want to fulfill your longing to lead a purposes-focused business and feel meaning in your marketplace, you have to be leading a “Born to Do” business, and the only way to truly experience this is by letting go of the past and running towards your destiny. Easier said than done, I know. Here’s the strategy that I found works, and I hope it works for you too. Uncover – ask God to show you anything in your business past that could have hurt you and needs healing. Discover – Let God help you forgive that person or situation so that He can reveal to you how he’s going to use that situation for your good moving forward! Recover – now it’s your turn to reclaim what’s been yours all along. Through the memorization of promise-related Bible verses, God will take your burdens and release you into your calling because scripture will replace your hurt with hope! We can’t move forward if we’re stuck in the past. Period. It’s physically impossible. And it will continue to make us sick with worry. The bible says "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life." (Proverbs 13:12 NIV) The enemy doesn’t want you to move into your calling because it would glorify God too much because we’d become a tree of life in the marketplace! What we were born to do would bring heaven to earth, killing the enemies plans! We Godpreneurs can’t change the past, but the future of our businesses is a blank canvas that God wants to co-create with us. Let go, and let God! #BusinessBibleStudy #FindMyCalling #GodpreneurAcademy The Business God Created You To Start Have you ever wondered why you received the talents and gifts you have been given? We, as entrepreneurs, were born to do. Heard of the Godpreneur Academy? Grow Your Business, God’s Way! Bible-Based Video Courses for Entrepreneurs Putting God First In their Businesses Click here to create a Free Account

Have you ever had an incident in your business that makes you want to throw in the towel, fire everyone, quit everything, and start over from scratch? For me, it happens more often than I’d like. And in the past, I’ve taken all of the above actions and started over. It happened to me when I was doing marketing for nightclubs. I had an incident with a client. I took it as a sign from God that He didn’t want me serving the nightlife industry, so I started my business over. It also happened when a client of mine wasn’t getting the service I thought my employees were providing. I kept trying to correct the issue, and my team kept producing bad results. This time I didn’t fire my employees, the client fired ME! We lost the contract. On the pilgrimage of launching and growing our businesses, God is looking to transform us and make us more like His son, Jesus. And God will cause certain indicates to happen that I call the “turning point.” This is the fork in the road, drawn by God so that we can change the direction of our business towards where He wants us to be going. I gave you only two examples of incidents in my business, but God in His creativity can use an infinite number of incidents and situation that can radically change us, cause an imbalance in our thoughts, and provoke us in such a way that will rock the foundations of our businesses. On our pilgrimage, God wants us to choose Him over our comfort. Jesus says in the bible "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own". (Matthew 6:33‭-‬34 NIV) Sometimes, the incident you’ll go through in your business will be negative, like mine. Sometimes it can be positive, like a great conference you attend with a mind-blowing message that has you come back fired up for a new direction. Negative or positive, on our pilgrimage of creating a God-First business, God will use a turning point situation to call us closer to Him and to increase our dependence on Him… if we choose the right path at the fork in the road. What’s the right choice? Easy. THE HARDER PATH! I always smile when I tell this to clients. You don’t get a great body by eating Sweets and sitting on the couch. That’s easy to do. You only grow by choosing the path you’ve taken less. We all need an incident to happen in our business, so we are forced to make a change. That situation will come on its own, on God’s timing. We don’t choose the incident; the incident chooses us. We can’t force it; it will happen. And it will happen OFTEN! We must begin to expect it to happen, and be like Paul when he says “for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.” (Philippians 4:11) Maybe this blog post is finding you at a place where you haven’t given your business fully to God. Like me, maybe you’ve been serving industries that don’t honor God. Or, maybe you’re doing something you weren’t born to do, and your actual calling is in a different business, industry, or service offering. When we’ve decided to put God First in our business, we started a Pilgrimage to draw closer to God and become like Christ. The current business we’re in is comfortable, but we need to be ready to throw off that comfy plan to follow God’s higher calling. This is how our businesses positively advance in the God-First direction! Will it hurt? Maybe. Will it be uncomfortable. Yes. Will we be naked and vulnerable? Temporarily. But this is where God makes the impossible possible in our business, and God will take you to new levels of contentment. God wants to provide all of us Godpreneurs provision for our businesses beyond our wildest dreams if we appreciate the turning point situations and choose to get out of our comfort zones while on our pilgrimage to experience the breakthrough. #BusinessBibleStudy #FindMyCalling #WhatBusinessIShouldStart The Business God Created You To Start Have you ever wondered why you received the talents and gifts you have been given? We, as entrepreneurs, were born to do. Heard of the Godpreneur Academy? Grow Your Business, God’s Way! Bible-Based Video Courses for Entrepreneurs Putting God First In their Businesses Click here to create a Free Account

In July of 2014, I installed an ‘INTRANET’ at my company. An intranet is a private network within my company. Only employees and contractors are allowed in. In this intranet, I talked about the mission, vision, and goals of the company.  We displayed growth stats, had courses my team could take, and dialog amongst each other.  It was also a mini social network of our own. Why would I build an intranet for my company? The primary reason was that I wanted us all to be on the same page moving into the future. I realized that the visions God gave me, he didn't give to the team. I’m supposed to interpret them and relay the message at the right time, in the right way. The second reason I built the intranet was to arm and equip my team with the knowledge, training, and resources to move into the future. This future would include battles…battles of distraction, competition, letdowns, employee turnover, and all other sorts of bumps that entrepreneurs experience. We, as business owners, are in charge of our team. It’s not about YOU anymore.  This is about your team. We will find ourselves in times of attack by the enemy, and thus our employees will too. Our first line of defense is prayer, of course. And when we're done praying, it's time we equip our team to defend and succeed! In the book of Nehemiah, we read that he's on a mission to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. We see a leader that knows how to equip his team, knows the importance of what this does mentally to His team and doesn’t just rely on his initial prayers. In Nehemiah 4:16-18, God’s word says: "From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor. The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked. But the man who sounded the trumpet stayed with me". God wants you to succeed. He is for your business! He’s looking for leaders that will equip their teams. If you’ll focus on covering your team in prayer, training them for success, and equipping them for battle, your business will be impenetrable to the forces that don’t want it to exist. Imagine a world where every company was led by a Godpreneur - an entrepreneur under the full authority and direction of God. I pray we all can become the Godpreneurs God has created us to be. #GainConfidence #WorkLifeBalance #AgencyOwners All my best, Alex Miranda Get to know me at www.alexmiranda22.com P.S. I did a Business bible study called 40 Days to Restarting Your Business, God's Way. Check it out: 40 DAYS TO RESTARTING YOUR BUSINESS, GOD'S WAY A business Bible study to help you rethink, reinvent, and restart your business, but this time, God's Way! We parallel Nehemiah's rebuilding of the wall to your journey in rebuilding your business. Also, coaches and Christian business leaders, you can use, edit, and repurpose the teachings for your own tribe! Check it out.

I received a nasty phone call from a client that wasn’t too happy about the progress my team was making on a project we were doing. There was yelling, screaming, name-calling, and blaming, followed by a barrage of insults and unsolicited advice on how my company should operate. Years ago, I would have fired right back and laid it on this client even harder than what was done to me. I’ve been chewed up and spit out before, so I know where this could have led. I’ve fired this client on the spot in similar spats and not thought twice about it – poof, be gone from my life. But I’m different now. I’ve learned the art of diffusing a situation and winning the client’s heart right back to me so we can course-correct and finish the project out with grace. We’ve all experienced terrible tirades from callous clients. Whether it was our fault or theirs, when expectations aren’t met, or some outside factors come into play, people stop being kind, and the relationship is threatened. At this point, we have a choice of mirroring the client’s feelings and engaging in the negativity or taking the higher road and diffusing the situation to come to a peaceable resolution. We know God would want us to take the higher road, but easier said than done. How can we change our ways when we’ve always been used to arguing back, flaring our temper, and defending ourselves to the point of destroying client relationships? The answer is in the most famous preaching ever given on the planet. Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount lays out the eight beatitudes, which are qualities of the people that enjoy special favor from God. The third beatitude is Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. (Matthew 5:5 NIV) Many people think meek means weak. Yes, they rhyme, but that are opposites. Meekness means power under control. Jesus even described himself as “meek and lowly,” but Jesus was the most influential and powerful man to walk the earth. If you’re looking to achieve greatness in your business, learning meekness will be critical for your success. When you are a meek entrepreneur, you have come to serve, not to be served. Therefore, you hold back asserting yourself for your benefit, but instead, display self-control that benefits everyone involved. The next time a client or situation makes your blood boil, and you feel the anger or frustration rising in you, remember the meekness captured by Psalm 37:1-11, which starts our with, “Do not fret because of the wicked,” and concludes with “the meek shall inherit the land.” In business, you have relationships with partners, employees, vendors, contractors, shareholders, clients, prospects, and competitors. At every point in our day, someone can threaten our ‘good mood,’ and from one second to the next, we could turn the world on fire. However, Jesus is guiding you to do as He did and curb your urge to use power to avenge the wrongs done against you or to build your image and instead use whatever power you have to serve and build others up. What does this look like in our businesses? For me, it has saved many business relationships, and even made them stronger! What could have ended up with a burned bridge built our relationship and landed me an even bigger contract and more referrals from the client I described at the beginning. See, because I kept my composure through all the insults, the client ended up telling me that he had a very long day, frustrated with so many other things in other areas of his business, that I was the one he took out his anger on. He apologized for his words and thanked me for keeping my cool. He commended me for keeping my composure and told me ‘that Christianity stuff is working for you.’ That’s what it’s all about! We Godpreneurs are God’s witness here on earth of what a relationship Christ can do for our personal development. Meekness is evangelism in business. Sure, it can be extremely challenging to give up our power to God’s agenda, especially in business. In a cut-throat environment where financial profit is god, it seems to be the self-promoting aggressive entrepreneurs who get ahead more often than not. However, anyone who looks out only for their interest loses out in the end. People who are thirsty for power are often lonely people, lacking in meaningful relationships. These people may have accumulated materialistic things and achieved monetary success; they will eventually find out that the world controls them. On the other hand, Jesus promises that the meek Godpreneur “will inherit the earth.” Jesus came to bring Heaven to earth, and when we display meekness, we’re doing our part to create this new heaven and a new earth in our respective marketplaces. Imagine if we all submitted our business power to God. Imagine heaven all around you – in every meeting, every relationship, every transaction. When we become meek, Godpreneurs, we receive God’s grace and all the good things we desire that otherwise might elude us. How are you going to use meekness today? I pray you’ll submit your power to God and let Him lead you to exercise control as Jesus did – for the sake of others. #BusinessBibleStudy #SharpenLeadership Jesus’s 8 Steps For Achieving Greatness in Business Achieving greatness starts when we learn about humble dependence on God and trust that He will always bring new resources into our business. Heard of the Godpreneur Academy? Grow Your Business, God’s Way! Bible-Based Video Courses for Entrepreneurs Putting God First In their Businesses Click here to create a Free Account

When my business is doing great, I’m like ‘Yes God, you are amazing! Thank you! You’re rewarding me and pouring your blessings!’ When my business is down, I’m like ‘What did I do God? I’ll never do that thing again, I promise! Please stop punishing me!…’ I tend to see God the same way my parents raised me; Good gets rewarded and bad gets the belt. What goes around, comes around. I know I’m not alone. I think we all think this in business. A downturn in the financials has us thinking about where we went wrong. A customer service complaint has us dwelling on the past mistakes we might have made. The problem with what-goes-around-comes-back-around thinking is that it constantly has us walking on eggshells. Analyzing past actions to course-correct in the future is amazing, but analyzing the past to beat yourself up is exactly what the enemy came to do. To live in guilt will destroy the visions God gave us and put up walls of fear that will keep us from living the ‘risk it all’ lifestyle that an entrepreneur must endure. God gave us Paul in the book of Acts as an example of a man that knows his past but only focuses on his future. He’s not walking around shamed by the things of his past but instead focuses on the hope of the visions come to life of his future. In Acts 27 and 28, we see Paul get caught in a huge rainstorm on his way to Rome. There were 276 men on board this ship and Paul somehow finds a way to make this an opportunity to show everyone who God is. All men on board were prisoners and the guards in charge of them. All of them should have died, but Paul had a vision he shared, so their lives were spared. Everyone at home hearing about a shipwreck would have been like ‘they deserved to die for the actions that got them to jail’ but what goes around didn’t come around. God was good. While shipwrecked on an island, they were building a fire, and a venomous snake bit Paul. The natives on the island immediately said ‘this guy must be a murderer, he’ll be dead in minutes for the crimes he committed. But Paul shook the snake off and was never ill. In fact, with that same hand, he healed the father of the chief of the island. You see, the world has us thinking that what goes around comes around. But this simply isn’t true…not under God’s economy…not under God’s business plans. Instead, if you stay focused on your gifts and talents, and keep believing you are on a mission for Christ, then you will be able to shake off the seemingly life-threatening setbacks that befuddle us and chain us to guilt that we were already forgiven of. Godpreneur Rule #60: Godpreneurs learn from their mistakes, but don’t live in their mistakes. #GodpreneurAcademy #BecomeDisciplined #EnhanceFocus

Are you feeling discouraged that business isn’t going the way you wanted? Has your business turned into BUSYness, and you’re overwhelmed? You’ve assembled your team, you have a plan, but the enemy keeps attacking from different angles. He’s got your team discouraged, and the once excitement in Restarting the business has now turned to them being afraid. If this continues like this, the business will likely fail and everyone is looking for a new job. But that’s not the plan God has for you. God has plans for you to prosper and grow! In the Bible, the book of Nehemiah gives us entrepreneurs an amazing example of how to lead through a rebuilding project. At the beginning of the project, there is encouragement, excitement, team building, and overall great spirits for what God was doing. However, in Nehemiah 4, we see discouragement settle into what was once an exciting revitalization of the rebuilding of the wall. Nehemiah 4:10-11 says "Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, “The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall.”  Also our enemies said, “Before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them and will kill them and put an end to the work.” Nehemiah's project is being threatened by exhaustion, discouragement, and an overwhelming feeling that this is "project impossible." And to make matters worst, fear has crept into their minds. Sound familiar? You’re not alone in your struggle. This is every entrepreneur's rollercoaster ride when rebuilding, and relaunching a business.  You’re always in one of 3 places: in the middle of a trial, coming out of one, or going into one. Right now you’re in the thick of it. Successfully Restarting a business - God's Way - means you'll be honoring God more in the marketplace, and that’s not something the enemy will allow easily. We need to hold on to God's promises. We need to not give in and not give up. We need to pray up and press on! Victory is ours because God said so! All my best, Alex Miranda Get to know me at www.alexmiranda22.com P.S. I did a Business bible study called 40 Days to Restarting Your Business, God's Way. Check it out: 40 DAYS TO RESTARTING YOUR BUSINESS, GOD'S WAY A business Bible study to help you rethink, reinvent, and restart your business, but this time, God's Way! We parallel Nehemiah's rebuilding of the wall to your journey in rebuilding your business. Also, coaches and Christian business leaders, you can use, edit, and repurpose the teachings for your own tribe! Check it out.

One day, I had a new plan for rebuilding my company. I prayed about it, and now it was time to take action. I gathered up the people closest to me and formed a new team that would help accomplish the vision. What’s my vision? In a sense, it was the same as Nehemiah’s when he had the vision to rebuild the wall - I wanted to see my company rebuilt! Why?  Because God made me passionate about making sure people are living in the identity and purpose they were born for. I had a dream, a vision, a plan, and an unwavering commitment to seeing it through because this plan was coming from God. We’ve been praying and planning and plotting, now it’s time to set this business in motion. Nehemiah had a plan and there was no question that he believed it would succeed. Nehemiah 2:17-18 says "Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace.” I also told them about the gracious hand of my God on me and what the king had said to me. They replied, “Let us start rebuilding.” So they began this good work." I love his commitment to the cause.  Here we find a man on a mission! Does your business feel like you’re on a mission from God to make it happen, or you’re just on a mission (Miami lingo for things not going as planned)? You need to gather the troops, unfold the plan, and get to work!  If they see that you’ve been called to do this, and if God has placed them there for you, they will give you a vote of confidence. If we’re all press play on the plans God has for us in living the identity and purpose we were born for, we as entrepreneurs will see more joy and happiness from what we do and there is nothing that will stop us. Get going with the plan! All my best, Alex Miranda Get to know me at www.alexmiranda22.com P.S. I did a Business bible study called 40 Days to Restarting Your Business, God's Way. Check it out: 40 DAYS TO RESTARTING YOUR BUSINESS, GOD'S WAY A business Bible study to help you rethink, reinvent, and restart your business, but this time, God's Way! We parallel Nehemiah's rebuilding of the wall to your journey in rebuilding your business. Also, coaches and Christian business leaders, you can use, edit, and repurpose the teachings for your own tribe! Check it out. #WheretoStartFirst #FindMyCalling

At the end of 2014, I decided that I was going to go in a radically different direction with my business. I knew God wanted so much more for my business. I knew the company had a bigger purpose…and I was on a mission to discover it. I was led to read the book of Nehemiah in the Bible. It led me down the path of Restarting my business from the ground up. I spent all of 2015 rebuilding my company, Creative Complex. Towards the end of 2015, my church started a series on the book of Joshua from the Bible. At service, God spoke to me through the pastor that it was time for me to take what’s been built and go to market with it. It was time to conquer my niche, make a name for my company, expand my market, and step into the promises I KNOW God has for me and my business.  We entrepreneurs can spend a lot of time building our businesses. God has sustained us, but we know we’re meant for so much more. But we are cautious. We’ve been burnt in the past.  We’ve been down this road.  We’ve tried and failed in the past.  The road ahead is difficult, we know it. Maybe you’re a 9-5 employee and you’ve spent a lot of time writing your business plan, coming up with your invention, building your app, but you’re not sure when to pull the trigger to start the business. Maybe you started your business and have been cautiously growing, but you know you haven’t given it your all-out potential. Maybe you’re like me. You’re on version 4.0 of your business. You’ve learned a lot through this 10-year roller coaster ride. You’ve restructured the business, put God first, and now it’s time to grow. This can be a scary point for any entrepreneur. The risk is high. But I’ve discovered the blueprint to grow my business and conquer my market, God’s way. It’s the roadmap to success for any business looking to enter into financial freedom…the land of milk and honey for all entrepreneurs. The book of Joshua 1:1-5 starts out: "After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord , the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, “Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory." The first thing we see is that God will call you when it’s your time. I remember there being times when I was Restarting my business that I wanted to get out and start growing the business, but I didn’t feel it was the right time. I was waiting on God to let me know when. The second thing we see is that God keeps his promises. You may have started and failed a couple of times, but you know that you are supposed to make this work.  You know God has plans for you to prosper.  He’ll keep those plans. Third, we see that God is very specific in his visions for you, and they are BIG. I have a whole document written out of all the places I want my business to go. My visions are huge, but so is this land of Cannan that God is commanding Joshua to enter.  This is a land that covers 210 miles long and 120 miles wide. God has set everything up for a day like today. You’re ready. You’ve spent enough time building up the dream in your mind. If we trust that God has commanded us for a day like today. He’s asking you to rise up and take what is yours. #FindMyCalling #TargetMarketAndNiche

The business partnerships I’ve been in are hard. Looking back now, I can see that a lot of the problems stemmed me coming into the venture full of pride of ownership and pride of the gifting and/or financial contribution I was bringing to the table. So when things didn’t go right, my pride would puff up and I would begin to criticize, point fingers, play the blame game, and deflect the conflict back at my partners. Oh, and forget about me ever saying “I’m sorry.” (laughing out loud). Now I’m different. I’m a Godpreneur in various business Partnerships with other Christians and non-Christians. I’ve learned that apology is the cure for pride. Apologizing to our business partners is hard work. Saying I’m sorry and changing our business behaviors is even harder, and what makes it so hard for us is pride. Being in a partnership always to some degree involves each person fighting for control. It’s like being in the longest game of tug of war where the only way to stop struggling is for someone to fall. When our behaviors in the business partnership are driven by pride, we want to win every argument about money, always be right about a client. If we see difficulties in the operations is our partner’s fault, we bring up our partner’s admitted shortcomings of the past, and explain away or deny our own sins and weaknesses that we brought into the partnership. We need to change our mindset entirely on this partnership dilemma. Partnerships can be the very thing that God’s put into our lives to continue to mold and shape us into the likeness of Christ, thus becoming the best Godpreneurs possible. We need other people’s input and critique to know how we sound, how we look, how our actions affect other people in the business. In humility, we need to realize that we aren’t quite as brilliant and tough as we think we are. The Bible says: “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you” (Romans 12:3). When your business partner has an issue with something you did or didn’t do, develop the habit of stopping for a moment and asking yourself “How did I contribute to this issue?” The golden nuggets you’ll discover will propel you and your business to heights you could have never imagined. Then, just say “I’m sorry, you’re right, I could have done XYZ different, and I’m taking responsibility for that.” Easier said than done, but imagine if we all operated from this mindset of self-reflection and personal responsibility? Wow! Godpreneur Rule: Godpreneurs say I’m sorry and take responsibility to grow in our partnerships. #BusinessBibleStudy #SharpenLeadership #BusinessPartnerships Finding Purpose In Your Business Partnership Instead of reading the blog posts, take the video course!  I personally teach you the method.  You get: Workbook 3-Video Teachings Access to dozens of courses in the Godpreneur Academy! Heard of the Godpreneur Academy? Grow Your Business, God’s Way! Bible-Based Video Courses for Entrepreneurs Putting God First In their Businesses Click here to create a Free Account

I was very selfish in the first 5 years of my partnership. It was truly all about me and how I could benefit from the company. I used my Ivy League status, my interpersonal skills, and my sales ability to bully my way through decisions in the company. I cared about my partners, but to the extent in which it helped me. I loved my bros, but I loved myself more. I remember one of my partners reminding me constantly of my selfishness, but I didn’t see it. I thought I was the nicest guy ever…that’s what my mom told me! Although our partnership is over now, I wonder if things would be different had I known the things I know today. You see, what I’ve learned is that we are naturally selfish. We’re born selfish. It’s our instinct of survival to think of ourselves first. We all enter partnerships with a ‘what’s in it for me’ mentality. If we’re honest with each other, we all suffer from this selfish condition (if you don’t anymore, kudos!).  So how do we identify and remove this selfishness? What I’ve learned now that I wish I knew before is that there are 8 keys to removing selfishness and we can find them in the bible in Philippians 2:1-8. "If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care — then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human !  Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion." The keys are this: Agree with each other Love each other Be deep-spirited friends Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. This isn’t a call for you to lay down your visions, not lead, let yourself be abused, or not defend what you feel strongly about. The irony is that if you can follow the steps above, you’ll actually become even more powerful and influential in your partnership. You’ll be able to win your partners over to your vision much easier.  They will know your heart and trust you more. If all of us can be Christ in our partnerships, we’re truly living out the gospel in our businesses. #BusinessPartnerships #SharpenLeadership #GainConfidence

In 2008, just 3 years after starting my partnership, I began my spiritual revolution.  I grew up Catholic, and after confirmation I really didn’t have much interest in church. Like most boys growing up in Miami, the girls and nightclubs are more tantalizing to our souls. But in 2008 a friend of mine invited me to a Christian non-denominational church and I was hooked! I started growing in my relationship with God. My heart was changing, my thoughts were changing, and the way I viewed people and my business were changing. I’d like to tell you that my partners were happy for me and everything was peaches and cream, but nothing could be further from the truth. Because I was walking in one direction and the other was walking opposite, making business decisions became challenging. I was serving a new CEO above me that wanted things to be different. To please my partners, I sacrificed my new thoughts in hopes of keeping the peace and moving forward. I convinced myself that when its business, God is out, but for my personal life, I was going to grow with God. Essentially, I was living a double life. Sometimes in partnerships we’re put into situations where one person is a believer and the other isn’t.  Or maybe it’s two Christians, but one isn’t walking as close to God as the other. We begin to experience moral and ethical problems.  Business is like a marriage, and being married to someone that’s reading a different book can be challenging! So where do we go from here? Certainly we don’t just bow out and give up the business, right? We can’t just sacrifice all we’ve done to create the business, correct? God’s ways are different, contrariant in nature. The opposite is true. In fact, God wants you to get deeper into the business partnership, but He wants it done out of sacrifice to Him. Romans 12:2 says "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." This verse is TOP 5 verses of the Bible that I hold on to and live by every day.  Wherever we are at in our lives, God wants us to think like him and sacrifice the old ways in which we thought. The relational problems that arise from my business partnerships used to deeply trouble me until I wrapped my head around the concept of sacrificing everything I used to think in order to think like Jesus would. This helped me to see my partners not as ‘opposite’ of me, but as brothers that I love. You can choose to focus on your partners and the problems, or you can choose to focus on sacrificing your thoughts and replacing them with God’s thoughts. Let love shine through from God to your business, your partnership, your clients, your services, and your employees. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, genuine love is all about giving of oneself. However, the pattern of capitalism in the business world is selfish. If we’re conformed to it, we might try “sacrificing” to gain something, be it happiness, acclaim, self-worth, or in my case keeping peace with my partners. But true sacrifice involves giving up selfish desire for selfless love. Sacrifice in business requires balancing our hopes of success and wealth with the understanding that those hopes are not the focus. True sacrifice involves a greater goal than we gain personally or relationally. As Jesus’ life demonstrates, sacrificing must be about living to serve God, even as we seek to serve our business partners and others for him. #WorkLifeBalance #SharpenLeadership #BusinessPartnership

From elementary school, I can always remember being in some kind of leadership position. Oftentimes, I think this can lead to leadership fatigue, pride, and a slow-down in our true potential We can find rest from our own feelings of leadership responsibility if we can understand that Jesus came (Acts 2:32‭-‬33 NIV) When Jesus ascended into heaven, it started his leadership role as king over every

Have you ever heard someone say “I was born to do this!”? Why is it that some people have a knack for crunching numbers and others have a talent of throwing footballs? Here is the good news: be encouraged that God equips us specifically to do the things He has called us to do! That is the beauty of gifts and talents – they enable us to be the entrepreneurs God intended. Of course, the reverse is also true – when we try to start a business other than what God has enabled us to do, we fall outside His entrepreneurial design for us and we are destined to fall short. As Christian entrepreneurs, we should spend our lives discovering and using our spiritual gifts and business talents. This pursuit is essential if we are to accomplish God’s entrepreneurial purpose for us, because we can’t do anything for Him without the gifts He gave us. With those gifts, however, we can accomplish a lot in our businesses. I, Alex Miranda, have a spiritual gift of prophesy, exhortation and teaching to help entrepreneurs uncover their God-given gifts, cultivate them and help them put them to work, for the glory of the Lord. Actively finding out your gifts and talents will be the single most important thing you’ll do in your entrepreneurial career. Next most important is putting them to use. If you need help finding yours, please take my Entrepreneurial Vision Experience course. #EnhanceFocus #FindingMyPurpose

We all have a “dream client” that we wish every client was like. It’s not that this client paid you the most, it’s that they were impacted and changed the most by the product or service we created. How can we bring more of these good-feeling situations into our businesses? We must decide on a niche. The best branding projects I’ve been involved in were the ones where I helped an entrepreneur discover what they were born to do, bring it to life, and help them tell the world about it. I’ve guided thousands of entrepreneurs on the journey of launching a business, but the best ones are when the entrepreneur feels a “calling” to create the product or service they envisioned. So how do I attract more and more “dream clients” to allow me into their business plans? All of us entrepreneurs are built by the same creator of the universe. And by design, God created us to come back and connect with Him regularly. This action of coming to God often is integral to the development of our entrepreneurial journey. I personally believe this “daily huddle” with God is where we business owners uncover and discover our niche. The desire for quality time with God, our CEO, is how we were built so we could receive His loving care and divine direction for our entrepreneurial calling. God built us GODPRENEURS to be restored by Him so He could reveal His ideas more to us. The bible says “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Getaway with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” (Matthew 11:28‭-‬30 MSG) Rest is what prepares the mind for the revelation. You’ll be able to decide on a niche more clearly when you are living freely and lightly. When you discover how to connect with God regularly, you live in a condition of abundance. You’ll be getting filled up, so you can turn around and fill others up. You’ll see that the people that start buying your products and services will all contribute to confirming your joy and happiness in a very specific niche. And when you’re feeling more of your joy, more often throughout the day, you’re able to have a better quality of life at the office, at home, and in your community. You’re able to give because you first received it. You’re able to love and serve on those who you were meant to do business with. You’re able to do what you were born to do. I have my personal brand, Daily Godpreneur, and I constantly come back to God and allow Him to guide my writings and teachings. In turn, I believe He brings me the people I’m supposed to do business with! He also inspires my marketing and advertising so I can attract even more followers. If we neglect the daily task of coming to our CEO (God) for our discovery prayer time, we’re missing out on His revelation. If we fail to learn how to meet with God in prayer and meditation, we operate in a condition of depletion and start to depend on our own energy source. And as a form of survival, we’ll try to take from everyone, rather than overflow onto a specific group of people – the ones God called us to serve. What’s Next? Make a list of everything you LOVE doing and are UNIQUELY gifted at doing. Avoid things you’re good at or obligations just because you wear that hat in the business. Keep it to your UNIQUE ABILITIES. List things that you would do even if you weren’t paid to do it. What moves your heart, calms your heart, or makes it beat faster because you’re excited to do that service or provide that product? What services do you provide that restores you, excites you, or connects you to God? What do you do at work that, after finishing, you think you yourself “Wow, that was a spiritual experience!” Once you have your list, narrow it down to the ONE PROBLEM you would do for the rest of your life. That’s your niche. #BuildMyPersonalBrand Deciding On A Niche In 4 Steps to Deciding on a Niche for your Business, join Alex Miranda as he guides you to launch a brand with intention and purpose and decide on a niche already. Heard of the Godpreneur Academy? Grow Your Business, God’s Way! Bible-Based Video Courses for Entrepreneurs Putting God First In their Businesses Click here to create a Free Account