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As a true entrepreneur, I love starting new businesses. This means that I'll dedicate a certain amount of time to starting and growing a new venture, then I'll hand it off to someone to manage, so I'm FREE to start a new company. At one of my companies, I challenged myself to stay for only one year. I told everyone on the team that I had 365 days left of work and that everything that needed my personal touch needed to be created and handed off within that year. This mindset of "numbering my days" working in the business helped me tremendously in creating systems and processes, hiring the right talent, and creating the financial mechanisms to support the company on my departure. Knowing that I would be leaving also helped my team think differently about their own positions and the value they would need to be when I'm gone. If we want to be true entrepreneurs, create jobs for others, and be free to innovate and grow our businesses, we have to take on the attitude of "my days are numbered working inside the business" so that we gain the wisdom and knowledge needed to make this happen. If we don't number the days we're working in our businesses, then we stay stuck in the day-to-day grind of the business, never freeing ourselves for true entrepreneurship. The Bible says "So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom." (Psalm 90:12) Moses, the author of Psalm 90, asks God for wisdom to account for our time. It's important to value the moments and days He has given us. By valuing and dedicating today and every day to the Lord, we gain the wisdom to live sensibly and with a purpose, one day at a time. As a Godpreneur, you should seek divine wisdom for the best way to manage your business throughout each day, considering that your days are numbered. If you considered every business venture launched as something valuable God has temporarily entrusted to you, you would faithfully dispense your moments in ways that honor Him. Each business day is important, and the time you have working in your business must be well spent. Maybe, right now, you're the chef in your kitchen, and God has an opportunity to expand your business, but you're busy cooking. By "numbering your days" as the chef, you are changing your mindset to begin praying for and training a new chef to replace you so God can use you in new ways. This is the power of "numbering your days." All of us entrepreneurs have a time determined by God with our businesses. We can do something to operate them BETTER - hiring employees and implementing new software, for example, that frees us up to innovate and serve our clients better. We must always remember how precious our time in our business is and seek our Creator to operate wisely. Today, I leave the invitation for you to find ways to number your days. Prayer for Today Lord God, You are Almighty and have the world in Your hands. We know that You have given us entrepreneurs the precious gift of owning a business, leading others, and solving problems in the marketplace - and that each day is important. We want to use the time that You give us in the best way, in Your way. Teach us to number our days so we may get a heart of wisdom. In the name of Jesus, amen.

Today I want to talk to you about taking the limits off of God in your business. Christian entrepreneurs: quit tying God’s hands and take the limits off of what he can do along your entrepreneurial journey. Your current circumstances are not too big for God. The thing you're dealing with, God has seen it before. There’s no recession that God hasn't brought us out of. There’s not a business partnership that he can’t restore. There’s not a contract he can’t give favor to. However, you have to trust him and take the limits off of him. Limits are things that are bound or restrained or confined. A machine that can only produce 100 widgets in a day has reached its limit. A person that can only make 100 phone calls in a day has reached his limit. However, I want to tell you that there’s no limit to what God can do in your business. People and things have limits, but God doesn't. He’s able to do whatever you need him to do in your company. Whatever problems you face in sales, marketing, human resources, operations, or finance, he knows the solution to that problem. The Bible says Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. (Ephesians 3:20 NLT) There is no limit in God when it comes to any industry, any marketplace, or any facet of business management. Think about the biggest problem you're dealing with right now. Think about the biggest opportunity you have in front of you. You don't see a way, but God is able to do whatever you need him to do. There’s nothing too hard for God, but you have to take the limits off of him; that's when miracles can take place. If you made God first in your business, and you trust him, then take the limits off of him and expect great awesome things to happen in your entrepreneurial life. Here are 5 Ways that business owners limit God on their entrepreneurial journeys. WORRYING LIMITS OUR GOD God doesn’t give you what you want; he gives you what you believe. The "how-to" is none of your business. How God is going to fill up your event is not your business. You keep getting in the way of the blessing because you're worried about the "how-to" part of it. Show me a Bible verse where God says to go figure it out. He doesn’t ask you to "how-to" anything. You just need to focus on reading the Word and applying it to all areas of your business. When you do this, the holy spirit can inspire marketing ideas. When you take this approach, the Lord can bring opportunities that you weren't expecting. You know why? Because he promised to never leave or forsake us. God always comes through. SMALL THINKING LIMITS OUR GOD The Bible says Again and again they put God to the test; they vexed the Holy One of Israel. They did not remember his power— the day he redeemed them from the oppressor, (Psalms 78:41‭-‬42 NIV) Do you see what's happening here? They limited the holy one of Israel. Now how is it possible that we can limit God? Isn’t God limitless? Isn’t God bigger than we ever could think or imagine? Doesn’t he want to do exceedingly and abundantly all above and beyond all that we can ask or think? Absolutely! God is bigger than your wildest business dreams, yet we limit him. All of us put limits on God. We might have an idea of what God is capable of. We may have a box that God fits into. We have a part of our business plan where Jesus fits nicely. However, we have to get rid of a small God in our business. We have to let go of a small Jesus on our entrepreneurial walk. We have to stop worshiping a small savior. He is the conquering King. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He is bigger for your business than you ever believed. He is more in your marketplace than you ever imagined. OUR LIMITED ABILITIES LIMIT GOD God is able to do so many things in our businesses but we limit him because our faith is a factor of what we are able to see and do, not what God is able to do. We limit him because of our natural human experience and abilities. We limit the holy one of Israel, however, God is unlimited. In Matthew, chapter 9, Jesus was being followed by two blind men. They came to him and Jesus asked them, “Do you believe that I’m able to do this?” The blind men said "yes," and they could see again. Now, notice that Jesus said "do you believe I'm able to do this," and not "do you believe you can see again?" This is important because if we're going to take the limits off of God, we have to give 100% credit, authority, and ability to God who is able to do what we can't humanly do on our own. Do you believe Jesus is able to do that thing you're praying for in your business? I hope you say, "YES!" Our faith is not in our faith, our faith is in him. It’s not your faith, it's who you have your faith in. NEGATIVE SELF-TALK LIMITS OUR GOD A lot of times, entrepreneurs are limiting their business success in what they say about themselves: being down on themselves about finances, feeling like you’re not good enough, like you're less successful than others. This voice can come to us in a lot of different ways. The world is going to tell you what business you can’t start. Satan is going to tell you what course you aren't qualified to create. Even your own family will tell you what plans won't prosper. Christian entrepreneurs: you don’t also need to be in agreement with those voices! Instead, you need to agree with what God says about you. If God approves you, then approve yourself. If God chose you for entrepreneurship, then choose yourself. If God believes in you and your product or service, then you should believe in yourself. I had to learn to stop the negative voices and start to recognize, "I’m still a work in progress. My entrepreneurial journey is the Lord's, and I am staying the course." So often, we look at the mess our business is in and we don’t look at the progress. David had a different kind of voice. He said: With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall. (Psalms 18:29 NIV) Did you see that? David is saying that because of God, he can do it. We need to take on the same kind of phrasing in our business lives. This same kind of belief system; because of God I can. Not: I can’t. I’ll never be enough. I’m not smart enough. I don't have the money. My contract got rejected. My event flopped. I had a bad business partner, Alex. No! David didn’t do that. David said, “because of God, I can." Even your spouse may say stuff to you to try to limit you, but don’t limit yourself. You got enough against you in the marketplace for you to be against yourself. If God is for you and your business, then why would you want to be against yourself? Take off the limits of what other people try to put on your entrepreneurial life. They say you can’t do it, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t do it. They didn’t create you. You see, God will take the unique things about you and use them to promote you and elevate you in your respective industry. Sometimes, the same leadership quality you don’t like about yourself is the same thing God wants to use to show you greatness and promotion. What's our job? To stop being mad about ourselves and putting ourselves down; to stop being so hard on ourselves. Quit telling yourself all the reasons you can’t accomplish that dream business God put on your heart. Stop focusing on the employee you don’t have or the contract you didn’t get. RELYING ON YOURSELF LIMITS GOD Business success is not going to happen just by your ability, your talents, your connections; it’s going to happen by the spirit of the living God. He’s breathing life into your business right now. His favor is surrounding your entrepreneurial journey in a greater way. There are business breakthroughs already in route: new contracts, new employees, and new partnerships. The right marketplace opportunities are already headed your way. However, don’t talk yourself out of it. Receive the blessing, now! Take the limits off of God and take the limits off of yourself. Christian entrepreneurs, I believe we have an advantage over normal business owners. You see, most people have a fatalistic mindset - that means that they think things just randomly happen, things are what they are, situations are fatalistic, there’s nothing you can do about it, and there isn't a God that's going to come down and magically help you, so just deal with what you have. However, us Godpreneurs, we know this is absolutely untrue. We believe God has a perfect plan for our business life here. We trust that God has good thoughts for us and His plans for our entrepreneurial life are awesome! This mindset is what gives God-first business owners the step-ahead in the marketplace. Every one of us business owners has something special that God wants to accomplish through us in our respective industries, however most people are ignorant of this and they have bought into the lie of this world that there’s nothing special about them. Every one of us is special. Every one of you is unique. Every one of you can do or create something that others can't. God has a purpose for your entrepreneurial life and most are limiting what God can do because they just aren’t challenging themselves. God made you for something great in the marketplace. God has taken ordinary business owners (what the world calls entrepreneurs) and, time after time, has transformed them into Godpreneurs and has used us to touch other people and change things in our industries. When you put God first in business, I guarantee you He will transform your life.

In the business of branding, there are lots of steps to completing a job.  There are many places the project can go wrong.  There are a lot of areas where the customer can be displeased.  When you’re dealing with someone’s identity, a lot is at stake and you have to make sure the job is done perfectly. I spent a lot of time on my systems and processes.  I wrote out training manuals, and scripts for customer service, and invested in making sure my team knew how to complete jobs. One day, I get a call from a client towards the end of the project and it was to tell me about the horrifying experience she had had with my company.  I was devastated, angry, frustrated, and determined to fix it.  I made some drastic changes including letting go of some people. The point of being an entrepreneur is to be able to build a business the way we would run it, put the right people in place that will duplicate our ways, and hopefully be able to walk away and have a steady profit coming into our bank accounts each month.  When we come in, it should be to check in, put out fires, and contribute more ideas that could help turn a better profit for yourself. But what happens when we come back and the system is bad?  The people we left in place aren’t doing their job and the product or service we thought our customers were receiving is not something we would approve of? Nehemiah experienced the same thing when he returned to Jerusalem after 12 years (I don’t suggest leaving your business for 12 years….or even 12 months….maybe 12 days MAX).  When he returned, the city had fallen back into sin.  The Sabbath wasn’t being honored and systems and processes weren’t being followed according to the law of the book.  Needless to say, Nehemiah was upset and acted harshly to fix things. Nehemiah 13:19-22 reads When evening shadows fell on the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I ordered the doors to be shut and not opened until the Sabbath was over. I stationed some of my own men at the gates so that no load could be brought in on the Sabbath day. Once or twice the merchants and sellers of all kinds of goods spent the night outside Jerusalem. But I warned them and said, “Why do you spend the night by the wall? If you do this again, I will arrest you.” From that time on they no longer came on the Sabbath. Then I commanded the Levites to purify themselves and go and guard the gates in order to keep the Sabbath day holy. Remember me for this also, my God, and show mercy to me according to your great love. Can you see how disobeying God’s laws, even in the simplest ways, will eventually lead to committing a full-blown offense? It’s the same in our businesses.  You’ve spent all of this time creating a God-first business, why wouldn’t your team continue to do ‘business by the book’? The sins of entrepreneurship can easily come back into play:  pride, envy, greed, sloth. My recommendation is have a systematic weekly meeting to check in with your team and make sure systems and processes are being followed make sure that you keep your relationship with God intact, always reading in the mornings and praying for your business, clients, employees, vendors, and contractors make harsh changes when you feel the spirit leading you We Godpreneurs have a blessing to be able to carry out businesses for God.  But like Jerusalem, they can fall if unattended.  And like our own spiritual walk, it can fall if unattended. My prayer is that building a God-first business helps you grow more spiritually than as an entrepreneur. 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. #BibleStudy #nehimiah #restartyourbusiness

I felt great joy when I finally paid off my personal and business credit cards. The joy wasn’t the act of paying it off, but instead, came from looking back at all God had done to get me to that point. The joy came after covenants, thanksgiving, commitments, and dedications I had made to the process of restoring my finances. What a feeling! I felt the same joy as I completed the rebuilding of my branding agency. I now have a clear direction, I’m focused, the team is with me, and we’re all on the same page. Also, we’re profitable!! That’s a great feeling! This is the joy we can all have and continue to carry on forever after restarting our businesses, God's way. It's not the end of problems; problems come with the entrepreneurial journey. However, restarting things because God says so is the beginning of joy in your business, regardless of the circumstances surrounding the do-over. If God was able to restart your business once, he can do it again, and we need to remember that! Nehemiah 12:43 says "And on that day they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing because God had given them great joy. The women and children also rejoiced. The sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away." God’s restoration of the ruined walls of the city, and God’s restoration of the hearts of his people, brought an indescribable joy. The people showed a renewed interest in the Word of God and his commands, and the desire to follow God’s Word. Their celebratory worship was truly a fellowship between God and man. It began with the prayer of one man, Nehemiah, and ended with the prayers of hundreds of families. When you and your business have been restored to right standing with God and seek fellowship with him, everything changes and joy enters our personal lives and entrepreneurial careers. Such expression of wholeness can permeate through your entire organization and reach far into the future of your business ventures. Attempting to start great businesses for God often starts with a small step of faith and the knowledge that God is with us, Godpreneurs, always. The text says God had given them great joy. Do you feel the joy? You deserve it! 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. #GainConfidence #FindingMyPurpose

In a previous post, I spoke about the powerful nature of a song I dedicated to my wife, and how listening to a song you’ve dedicated to someone can bring you to tears of either anger or bliss. As an entrepreneur, I need my mind focused on as much of the RIGHT NOW as possible. I don’t want it running too far ahead, and I don’t want it lingering behind. I also want my mind in as much positivity as possible. I have to curb my enthusiasm to watch the news, surround myself with positive people, and….here’s one you probably have never heard….listen to POSITIVE music. What do I mean by positive music? I have songs I turn to when I’m upset, depressed, sick of it all, and wanting to escape my reality. Music I loved in high school, a different relationship in my life, a different season I was far from God. I’ll start listening to music that has nothing to do with where I want to go in life. It’s like a drug. Here’s the trick I’ve learned that I implement every morning while playing making coffee and before I begin blogging. I created a playlist of awesome Christian lyric songs that keep me in a state of THANKSGIVING. If I’m constantly being reminded to give thanks to God, my mind is ready to receive the opportunities He has for me and it keeps my eyes looking straight ahead, keeping the course. We all have tools to take us back to depressing times. It can be music, food, alcohol, drugs, other people, or maybe an old stomping ground. But God wants us to stay in a mode of THANKSGIVING so we can keep moving forward. Nehemiah 12:31 says "I had the leaders of Judah go up on top of the wall. I also assigned two large choirs to give thanks. One was to proceed on top of the wall to the right, toward the Dung Gate." You know the songs that remind you of God, and what he’s done for you - songs that literally bring you to your knees. In that moment of glorious surrender, God meets you, and positivity and thanksgiving enter your body. What if every morning we had 2 or 3 songs we played that lined up our hearts and got us ready for the day? What about playing a couple in the car, on the way to work. Let’s make it a habit to give thanks to God through song. 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. #ArticulatingMyIdeas #DifferentiatingMyself

There’s a song I dedicated to my wife before we were married.  It’s a beautiful song that captured my emotions at the time I dedicated it. Later on, I took her to the concert and the band played "our song."  That song eventually became our wedding song. I also played our song on the car ride home from the hospital with our new baby boy.  It brought us both to tears. What's the song? It's called "Two is Better Than One" by Boys Like Girls. I love the song because it's a reminder of my commitment to her. Sometimes I’ll play it when I’m mad at her because I know it brings my heart back in alignment. Dedicating that song to her was powerful and has helped me in good times and bad. I think we all know the power of dedication because we’ve experienced this in the past. Whether it was a dedication to your wife or a song dedicated to someone that hurt you, hearing the song brings up strong emotions for us. We have the ability to have similar emotions in our businesses by dedicating our businesses to God.  We dedicate things so that we create a bond between the two subjects. How amazing would it be to dedicate your business to God so that there is an eternal bond and a higher sense of purpose and passion as you continue building? The Bible shows us what that looks like as we read the final chapters of Nehemiah. Nehemiah 12:27-30 reads "At the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, the Levites were sought out from where they lived and were brought to Jerusalem to celebrate joyfully the dedication with songs of thanksgiving and with the music of cymbals, harps and lyres. The musicians also were brought together from the region around Jerusalem—from the villages of the Netophathites, from Beth Gilgal, and from the area of Geba and Azmaveth, for the musicians had built villages for themselves around Jerusalem. When the priests and Levites had purified themselves ceremonially, they purified the people, the gates and the wall." What´s going to happen now when people walk past the wall of Jerusalem? They will think of the time they dedicated it to God and the songs of praise and thanksgiving.  It will be a good memory impressed in their minds. Dedicating your business to God will add protection and align your heart with God’s.  It will give you a crutch to lean on during bad times. Similarly, it will give you a podium to speak from during the good times. When we dedicate something to God, we give it all to him. We hold nothing back. It is given in full and joyful surrender. It is all for God’s pleasure, all for his use, all for his glory. God’s desire is for us Godpreneurs to be like him…holy! (1 Peter 1.14-16). If we want to restore our businesses, we must first ask God to help us walk in holiness. Then, we will become “living stones being used to build a spiritual house” (1 Peter 2.5). How would you plan a dedication of your business to God? What elements would be included? What would such a celebration look like? A PRAYER OF BUSINESS DEDICATION God, we want to uplift your name among the people. Help us to dedicate ourselves and our businesses for your glory. Give us the encouragement we need, and remind us that you are always with us. I'm praying for you, too! All my best, Alex Miranda Get to know me at www.alexmiranda22.com Want to learn the book of Nehemiah from an Entrepreneur's point of view? In this business Bible study, we parallel Nehemiah's rebuilding of the wall to your journey in rebuilding your business. Check it out here: 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! Also, coaches and Christian business leaders, you can use, edit, and repurpose the teachings for your own tribe! Check it out. #EnhanceFocus #IncreaseEnergy

The scariest part of Restarting my business was doing it alone with my assistant.  We were the first ‘wall builders’. Then, I had to strategically convince others to join this amazing team of two that promises to change the world. I did all of this with debt piling up and no guaranteed clients. I was relying on my faith that God would provide and that it was His will that I start the business. Serving God in entrepreneurship takes much courage. Yet, we do so because, as Christians, we know the cause is just and that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek to serve him. People generally fall into two groups: people who volunteer to attempt the difficult tasks for God, and people who applaud those who do. To which group do you belong? I thank God every day for blessing me with team members that pioneer new ventures with me. How do I find and recruit other God-first people to come work with me? I let God bring them into my life. I primarily start recruiting through my network of friends at church. God shows us in Nehemiah 11 how the leaders rebuilding the city re-populated Jerusalem the same way. Nehemiah 11:1-3 says "Now the leaders of the people settled in Jerusalem. The rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of every ten of them to live in Jerusalem, the holy city, while the remaining nine were to stay in their own towns. The people commended all who volunteered to live in Jerusalem.  These are the provincial leaders who settled in Jerusalem (now some Israelites, priests, Levites, temple servants and descendants of Solomon’s servants lived in the towns of Judah, each on their own property in the various towns," Nehemiah and the people restored the city wall. Now they needed people who would live in that city and defend it, if necessary. Jerusalem, despite its new fortification, was still a dangerous place to live. the city was still prone to attack from neighboring factions. Nehemiah decided the nation’s leaders and their families would live there, and to give the remaining spaces to people who volunteered or those who drew lots. You have a network of people around you, too.  Most won’t fit into your business.  But if you pray for God to reveal each person, they will begin to surround your business.  As long as your antennas are up, you’ll seize the opportunity when it comes. We are loved by God.  We are to prosper and succeed.  God will reward us for the risks we took as pioneers to restart and rebuild.  If we stay in the spirit and always come to God for our next steps, he will be faithful to bring us the right people to continue to build our businesses. 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 #SharpenLeadership

In 2010, I prayed for God to help me find an office space for my company to move into. I was running the business out of my living room and I felt it was time to take a bold step of faith and move into an official location for my agency. I specifically remember praying for and circling around a certain warehouse district that was close to my house. As you might guess, the Lord heard my prayers and brought me into a new season with a beautiful new office. I was so grateful to God that I decided to dedicate my office to God and his work. I made a covenant with God to use my office for whatever he needed. Since 2010, my office has hosted worship nights, volunteer outreach meetups, Bible studies, counseling sessions, worship band practices, and more! My office has even served as my church's official administrative office because we didn't have a building. All of us Godpreneurs have an opportunity to make a covenant between our businesses and the work God is doing here. We're part of his plan, and committing our resources to his purpose is what he's looking to do along our entrepreneurial journey. Why is this important? When we make a covenant with God, it makes us accountable to him as our CEO.  We essentially surrender our (sometimes sinful) hearts to God. I’m not saying we all need to open up our offices to the church. I'm not saying you need to stop everything you're doing to serve God's people only. For many entrepreneurs, the business doesn't have an exact correlation between what the church is doing and the services we provide. However, if it is not our services, we can make a covenant in other ways.  We can tithe, we can serve, we can volunteer resources. There are a lot of ways to commit our businesses to God. The important part is to make some kind of commitment that makes your heart feel good. The book of Nehemiah shows us how to restart our businesses by showing us what it is to make a covenant with God. Nehemiah 10:39 says "The people of Israel, including the Levites, are to bring their contributions of grain, new wine and olive oil to the storerooms, where the articles for the sanctuary and for the ministering priests, the gatekeepers and the musicians are also kept. “We will not neglect the house of our God.” After living in exile from Jerusalem, the people of Israel were able to rebuild the walls and move back into their city. Once they resettled in the city, they needed to get back to the basics so that they wouldn't fall back into sin and end up right back in exile. One way was declaring and engaging themselves in the work of God. They made a covenant that they would take care of the house of God and not neglect or forsake it, and instead contribute the necessary provisions to support it. Although the Israelites had paid great taxes to the kings of Persia and had much hardship put upon them, they would not make that an excuse for not paying their tithes; but would render to God the things that were his, as well as to Cesar the things that were his. Making a covenant is a big deal. Making one with God is the biggest deal you’ll make for your business. Pray for where God wants you to make a covenant.  Is it a promise to only hire believers in your business? Is it a commitment to provide your trucks to be used by the church?  Are you going to separate 10% of your company profits to help your church with its new building project? All of us Kingdom-driven business owners must do what we can in works of piety and charity, notwithstanding the taxes we pay to the government; and cheerfully perform our duty to God amidst our business burdens, which will be the surest way to ease and liberty in God’s due time. My covenant is to always make my office a satellite location for my church to do its work. Imagine if Christian entrepreneurs worldwide could find a way to make a covenant with God. Pray for yours. 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. #ArticulatingMyIdeas #FindingMyPurpose

My branding agency is committed to one thing:  helping companies reveal their true God-given identity and bringing that vision to life. We don't do public relations, advertising, or digital marketing. We only do....branding. However, this clarity in my service offering wasn’t always there. I used to dabble in a bunch of different agency services.  Whatever my clients needed, I would tell them I could do it, and we'd launch a new service offering. The problem with this model is that you're always having to learn a new service offering in a new industry. It takes any momentum and stops it in its tracks in order to shift in a new direction. My lack of commitment to one industry, one service, one plan, one purpose, and one vision ultimately hurt my company and I lost credibility with my employees and my clients. We entrepreneurs have a tendency to switch gears too fast. And when the money isn’t right, we even tend to switch directions too fast. But God’s example to us is one of faithfulness and commitment to one thing:  our God is love. No matter how far we deviate from the plans, he is love. No matter how bad we screw things up, he is love. It’s that commitment to ONE THING that makes God so great in our lives and in our businesses. In the final chapters of Nehemiah, we see people that are being redeemed. Remembering their past is hurtful but it's strengthening their faith because it's reminding them that God is love and is for them and their success. Nehemiah 9:26-27 “But they were disobedient and rebelled against you; they turned their backs on your law. They killed your prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to you; they committed awful blasphemies. So you delivered them into the hands of their enemies, who oppressed them. But when they were oppressed they cried out to you. From heaven you heard them, and in your great compassion you gave them deliverers, who rescued them from the hand of their enemies." God is the ultimate example of sticking to one thing and doing it better than anyone.  And this motivated the Israelites into a new season. You can motivate your followers in the same way.  It’s going to take a commitment on your part to be one way, move in one direction, with one purpose. Imagine a marketplace where love ruled entrepreneurs and their commitment to their products and services were focused.  We’d all be experiencing better goods, and we’d all be giving the best, which is what God intended. #ShareYourTestimony #SharpenLeadership

Table of contents Introduction What is meditation? Gyms Train the Body, Meditation Trains the Mind The more you focus on connecting with God, the more pleasurable it becomes. Meditation is the Key to Growing Your Business, God's Way. Christian entrepreneurs operate businesses in an uncertain world. We choose to struggle to survive on our own or partner with God on a faith-filled adventure of uncertainty and dependency on His word. Without a practical way of connecting with God, we're prone to fear and stress. Thankfully, God designed us with a desire for worship and connecting to Himself, our creator. Meditation helps us entrepreneurs connect with God, which, by his grace, calms our busy brains for less anxiety and more enjoyment in life - the promise of heaven on earth. Too good to be true? Nope! Both science and the Bible agree that meditation rewires and transforms our brains – for the better. INTRODUCTION I've heard that meditation is great. Still, as a Christian entrepreneur, I had two struggles: 1) I didn't want to be influenced by new-age spiritual philosophy, and 2) I didn't have hours every day to sit down in total silence. So, I began to explore the science behind meditation and what the Bible says about meditation. I discovered that I didn't have to compromise my Christian beliefs and become a monk searching for nirvana to reap the benefits of meditation. The most significant discovery I made in my studies of meditation is that I had already been practicing a form of meditation by reading devotionals in the mornings. Don't devotionals provide us Christians with a great solution to many modern problems like stress and anxiety? Well, that's the exact science behind meditation! What is Meditation? First, what is meditation? My idea of meditation was some Chinese philosophy of breathing exercises or some Hindu and Buddhist practice of repeating mantras. However, when I studied the Bible, I noticed that meditation is contemplative prayer - a personal dialogue with God we have throughout the day. The Bible says Oh, the joys of those who …. delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do. (Psalms 1:1‭-‬3 NLT) For us Christian entrepreneurs, meditation is a mental exercise to break into the fruit-bearing season of prosperity that God has promised for us. And the most efficient form of meditation for us is to have a structured way of becoming aware of and reflecting on the things God wants to reveal to us for our businesses through His word. For us, an excellent meditation practice is reading the word, reflecting on it, sharing it with people we interact with that day, and practicing it in our day-to-day business operations. Meditation for Christian business owners is the process of identifying a problem we're experiencing, deliberately focusing on specific Bible verses or stories, and reflecting on their meaning in the context of the love of God and His desire for us to overcome that problem and live in the freedom of Christ. The funny part that I'm writing about meditation is that I had a problem: I felt I didn't know how to meditate I went to God and the Word with my problem God revealed verses and insight into meditation I discovered that the way I was approaching my problem of meditation is, in and of itself, the art of Christian meditation 🤣 I can't help but laugh out loud at how amazing God is to those that love Him and serve Him! This is how I've been solving my business problems since 2014. It's how I've come up with over 700 blog posts and 50+ business Bible studies. I've been meditating all along! Gyms Train the Body, Meditation Trains the Mind We all know the health benefits of physical training; doctors constantly encourage us to take up jogging, swimming, or weight lifting. And while physical fitness is good, the Bible says that godliness is of greater gain (1 Timothy 4:8). How do we work on our godliness? Meditation. Meditation Trains our brains to be more attentive to the things God wants us to work on. Our mental health and well-being are exercised through meditating on God and His word. The Bible says My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh. (Proverbs 4:20-22 ESV) Through neuroplasticity, scientists have proven that the brain can be reshaped. Think of the brain as a muscle that can be worked out and responds to training the same way our biceps grow when we do curls 💪. In my Godpreneur Method Challenge, I teach about a meditative practice that I've been doing for years. It's a method I've used to give my brain a workout, and it's a practice I believe every Christian entrepreneur should be doing daily, Monday through Friday. First, I have my quiet spot. I'm sitting in it right now as I write this blog post. With my coffee in hand, it's about 5:30 am; the house is silent, and I'm ready to connect with God for my morning business meeting. Next, I focus on a problem that I'm experiencing in business. It could be an external problem (an issue with my business partner), an internal problem (I want to be more on time for my meetings), or a philosophical issue (why is your calling from God so important). Finally, I'll begin researching what the Bible says about that problem. God is always giving us grace in areas of our lives so that we can approach these issues with awareness and faithfulness that He will see us through to the completion of that problem. This is how I've solved every problem in business I've experienced since I started this meditative practice in 2014. At first, you might be overwhelmed by the number of problems you want to bring to the Lord. Why aren't my clients paying on time? How could my business partner do this to me? When will this prospect buy my service? Why am I so stressed and anxious all the time? How can I experience a breakthrough in my marriage while running my business? And so on. God designed us with a survival mechanism. He wired our brains to identify problems. Meditation is how we work through those problems to find solutions to keep on living the life he created for us - heaven on earth. The more you practice the Godpreneur Method of meditation, the easier it becomes to calm your mind by solving one problem at a time. With a daily habit of working out your brain, your problems will come and go quickly, showing that your brain is working in the right direction. The more you focus on connecting with God, the more pleasurable it becomes. There is nothing more enjoyable to me than waking up early to write a blog post for Daily Godpreneur. Think about it: I get to identify a problem I'm experiencing in business, spend time with God researching what His word has to say about it, share that solution with others, and apply it to my business to overcome the issue. Come on…is that not what our Christian journey is all about? And I've been able to master this habit to a point where I feel LOST in my day if I haven't connected with God in the morning. Ok, fine…it makes sense that a dedicated Christian business blogger would have a transformed business from routine meditation – but what about the rest of us? The good news is that you don’t need to go and start a blog and amass a following to reap the benefits of meditation. I've had members of my Godpreneur Academy start as beginners in developing the habit of daily morning devotionals. After just two months, they reported feeling less stressed in their businesses and with much more clarity in their calling. When your brain knows that it has a plan for solving problems in business, it doesn't stress as much. Think about it…you're not as stressed about something once you know the solution, right? Once you train your brain that the solution to all business problems is in God's word, you naturally become less stressed. The daily meditative practice of the Godpreneur Method doesn’t just reduce stress, though – it can also make business more enjoyable! The more you focus on the task of waking up and connecting with God to solve issues in your business, the more pleasurable the process becomes. The problem with most Christians that do morning devotionals is that they are just trying to rush through them to check them off their list for the day. This is like eating an apple quickly just to finish the apple. But if you stopped to focus on the apple while you eat it, the more intense the experience will feel. You’ll notice every aspect of the apple – from its waxy, smooth appearance to the sound it makes as you bite into it to its texture, taste, and smell. Is your mouth salivating right now? That's the power of focusing your mind. Instead of quickly through your morning devotional, the meditative nature of the Godpreneur Method trains your mind in this kind of hyperawareness, which causes the brain to work out. This, in turn, makes waking up to connect with God more enjoyable! When we're focused on solving business problems with God in our morning meetings with him, the activity of problem-solving becomes more stimulating and enjoyable. Remember, the best-tasting apple is the one you’re thinking about! 🤤🍎 Meditation is the Key to Growing Your Business, God's Way. A bank loan I'm waiting for makes me fret about the future. A project my company messed up on makes me linger in the past. I worry about tasks I've forgotten about, and I anxiously await the starting date of a new employee I hired. Entrepreneurship makes it hard for us to be present at the moment - let alone enjoy it. Our minds are distracted, busy, and filled with uncontrolled thoughts. That's exactly where the enemy wants us: stressed out. Worse of all, we miss out on the things God wants us to experience that makes business ownership special and fun. However, it doesn't have to be like this. God sent us the holy spirit as a practical tool to disconnect our minds from past and future thoughts to connect with the present moment that we're designed to live in. The holy spirit helps us replace our anxiety-ridden past and present thoughts with the Bible's peace-giving past and present promises. The Bible says But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. (John 14:26 ESV) We also read Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. (2 Corinthians 3:17 ESV) The holy spirit is God's tool to free our minds. We accomplish this by remembering (meditating on) God's word. The key point I'm trying to make is that meditation is the key for entrepreneurs to connect with the holy spirit and live freely in God's gift of the present moment. Becoming more connected to your holy spirit and the "heaven on earth" that Jesus promises won't happen overnight. But training your mind to be present with the holy spirit is possible - and the Godpreneur Method of meditation will train you on time, consistency, and practice. Staying in the moment and knowing what "one thing" God wants you to focus on right now, can be challenging even on the least stressful days, but here's a challenge that’ll help ground you in the now. It's called the Godpreneur Method Challenge. It's a 5-day challenge to show you the exact process I follow Monday through Friday that allows me to stay present and focused on the one thing God wants me to be working on. Every day I'll start you off on how I prepare for my morning ritual, including prayer, worship, and breathing exercises. Then, I'll show you how to identify an area of improvement God wants you to make in your business. Once you're clear on what you intend to work on, I'll guide you on how to identify the solution through Bible study. Finally, I'll open up my playbook on how I apply the solution to my business while also turning the lesson into teaching for others around me. How does that sound to you? How different would your business life be if you developed a daily meditation habit? Would your relationships be different? Would you feel more significance, meaning, and purpose in the work you do? How would the trajectory of your entrepreneurial journey change? What impact would it have on you strategically, personally, and financially? Don't judge this as a sales pitch. Stay present with your holy spirit. Does your spirit tell you that this is an area of your life where you need help? The whole point I'm trying to make is for you to fully engage with the opportunity that's in front of you as it truly exists without preconceived thoughts. Once you finish the challenge, you'll be equipped with a tool that you'll use for the rest of your entrepreneurial career. And the more you practice the techniques; the more God will become part of every area of improvement in your life. That’s a sign that your brain is being transformed (Romans 12:2)! And the more you give into this process, the more peaceful, relaxed, and content you’ll become in your business life, regardless of what's happening around you (Philippians 4:11-13). If that's a challenge you're interested in taking, comment below, and I'll send you a link. #DifferentiatingMyself #EnhanceFocus #TrustOnGod

Milestones are times in my business life when something significant changes. I have a Google Doc of milestones in my business where God HOOKED IT UP! Whenever there’s a moment where I’m like “Dude, this is a miracle, only God could have orchestrated this”, then I write it down on my list. At least once a week (usually Mondays) I’m reading that list to myself. It reminds me that God is amazing!  It gives me a chance to celebrate what He’s done in my business, and positions my mindset to receive more blessings. God works in our businesses even before we realize it.  He’s the reason for every victory, whether we give him credit or not.  The problem is that we entrepreneurs are such forward-thinking visionaries that sometimes we don’t look back to the past to celebrate.  Sometimes we’re so focused on the FUTURE that we miss the opportunity TODAY to celebrate God for what he’s done. The people of Israel had also stopped celebrating God and it cost them the city of Jerusalem. Then, Nehemiah came back to rebuild the wall and bring back the worship of God. When the wall was finished, they celebrate who God is and what he did in the past. Nehemiah 9:6-7 says "You alone are the Lord . You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.  “You are the Lord God, who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and named him Abraham." This verse teaches that whatever ability they had to rebuild that wall, they served and glorify God according to the utmost of it. The priests were leading the people to glorify God so that they would be kept humble, thankful, and watchful to not fall back into the sin they had just gotten out of. Hopefully, you're at a place where you've rebuilt your business God's way and you're in a new place along your entrepreneurial journey. If God is first in your business, should be feeling really good about your operations, the people you’ve invited into your wall, and your ability to lead them to new heights. Celebrate this milestone and remind your staff to also celebrate! Send out an email this morning to your team…a celebration email. I do this at the start of each month. Set a recurring calendar reminder to do this. Whenever God has done something amazing in your business, have a Google Doc list where you’re keeping track of this. Each month, send some victories to your people and let them celebrate with you. If we can become Godpreneurs that celebrate all the amazing things that God has done, I believe we are setting our hearts in the right spiritual vibrations to continue to receive all that God has promised for our businesses.  Amen! 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. #WhatBusinessIShouldStart #FindMyCalling

Before I became born again, I discovered a spiritual world that wanted me to WIN, be rich, and have abundance. It was called "The Law of Attraction," and I learned it from a book called The Secret. I was so fascinated with the concept that I bought the DVD, purchased books for my staff, and began sharing the enlightening idea with my friends. I couldn’t contain myself from sharing it with everyone I encountered. It was like I had discovered the secret of life! However, one friend stopped me when I tried to share it with him. He said, ‘Alex, that’s great!  But do you know who is the power behind this law of attraction?’. My friend explained that this "power" is God, and God is the one that wants me to succeed. My friend said that I’m on the right track, but I’m missing one key component: give credit where credit is due. See, I was on the right track in terms of a "power in the universe" that wanted to provide for me, but I didn't recognize God as that source. My friend was helping me realize that I wasn't alone in this world. We entrepreneurs tend to want to do this world on our own.  Even the best Christians can stray away when we forget that God is the power and force behind our business.  We come to God when our companies are struggling. Then, when the business starts doing great, we spend Sundays on the boat that we purchased from the successful business God helped us create.  We forget God. We fail to give credit to where credit is due. Nehemiah and his leaders have a solution for this, and as you can suspect, it’s centered around giving credit to God. Nehemiah 9:5 says "And the Levites—Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah and Pethahiah—said: “Stand up and praise the Lord your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting. ” “Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise." After Nehemia led the charge to rebuild the walls at Jerusalem, the leaders read the word of God. They gathered together for an incredible service of worship. “Stand up and bless God,” and they start praising him. God is the only God, the Creator of heaven and earth. He is the creator of your business. He is worthy of the praise from you and your entire team. When you give credit to God for the business's successes, it’s powerful because it keeps your mind focused in a positive direction. I’ve been close to over-drafting my business bank account, and the only thing that kept me from depression and suicidal thoughts is praising God for who he is!  And guess what? A check would appear, or a lead will call with payment to get started on a project. Out of NOWHERE, someone will call to buy my product. Coincidence? No.  This is how God works. As long as we Godpreneurs give credit to where credit is due, we are putting our hearts in a place to be used by God in a greater way in our marketplaces. God wants this for us if our minds and hearts are always aligned in giving Him credit. 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. #EnhanceFocus #FindMyCalling

Table of contents Introduction Why Christian CEOs Should Care About Building a Personal Brand Personal Branding and God-First Leadership A Personal Brand is a Relationship Ecosystem What’s a God-First Personal Brand? Discover Your 'Born to Do' Uniqueness How to Start Developing Your God-First Personal Brand What Problem Do You Solve in the Marketplace Fully Address the Problem The Born to Do Method The 6 Questions of the Born to Do Method Questions 1 and 2: What Problem Do You Solve and What Are You Passionate About? Questions 3 and 4: What's Your Past Education and What Experiences Have Shaped You? Questions 5 and 6: What Do People Want to Buy, and What Do You Love Selling? Bring Your Brand to Life Introduction Did you build a God-first business? Did you bring Christian values into the business's systems, processes, methodologies, and operations? Then you might want to consider building a personal brand around the successful business you've created. God wants to use leaders like you to influence others. Let's explore what successful Christian CEOs need to know about building a God-First personal brand. In this post, I share why even the busiest CEOs should care about building a personal brand, using the Born to Do Method to develop your own personal brand, and more! Why Christian CEOs Should Care About Building a Personal Brand People do business with people, not companies. They do business with the visionary CEO they like, know, and trust. God designed it this way because He desires relationships built on trust and mutual connections. This keeps the good guys moving up, and the bad guys get eliminated. It's in our DNA to fellowship and connect with others because God wants to use us to be His witness to others. This is why human connection creates customer loyalty and employee endearment beyond any relationship a company could ever reach. We're designed to have strong bonds with one another. Notice that the big God-first companies have personalities that drive that brand's mission. Wendy's had Dave Thomas, Walmart had Sam Walton, and Chick-fil-A had S. Truett Cathy. In your company, that persona is you. And God wants to use your public persona (or personal brand) to share how His influence in your life was the secret sauce to your company's growth and success. Personal Branding and God-First Leadership God put people in leadership positions to influence their follower's thinking. This is the most fundamental and enduring purpose behind being in a successful leadership position. The Bible says Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of the fifties, and of tens. (Exodus 18:21) For thousands of years, God-fearing people have been entrusted with leading. They would be men of good sense and that understood business. Back in those days, leading was delegated by kings and rulers. These days, avenues exist for anyone led by the holy spirit to do personal branding, giving God an outlet to influence people’s thinking through us. We can influence employees, clients, prospects, vendors, contractors, stakeholders, partners, and even competitors in our marketplaces! Our personal brand is a tremendous asset that God uses to grow our companies both publicly and internally as successful CEOs. Even a podcast, which is typically externally focused, can influence a company's internal culture. Imagine employees that don't regularly encounter the CEO now listening to their leader on a podcast, watching a video series, reading their book or blog posts. You may never meet your employees at the cash register, but they find out exactly what you believe in through your personal brand. Whether you have thousands of employees or only a handful of clients, God wants you to share your inspired thoughts in public. If not you, who? You were the one given the unique methodology. People will listen and find value in what God wants to say and do through you. This human connectable importance is what God longs for. The blessing comes as more opportunities for your company. That's a fact! As the owner, founder, and CEO of a successful Kingdom-first venture, God wants to use your personal brand to activate, utilize, and maximize every available asset you allow to advance His purposes through your company's mission. Able A Personal Brand is a Relationship Ecosystem Nothing can replace having coffee one-on-one with someone and getting to know them. However, with all of the digital assets available to us, we have an amazing opportunity to create one-way human interactions that can be multiplied and scaled. The Bible says And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. (Mark 16:15) When you see people starting a speaking career, it's because they have a calling inside to share with the world. Those speakers share such great stories that we feel like we intimately know them. They share their "real" struggles and victories over podcasts and blog posts. And although we've never met these guys, we know an incredible amount of information about them. We feel a bond with them. And then we become evangelists of that person's message...a message that took them deciding to start personally branding themselves so that God could use them to spread the Word. You're building a relationship ecosystem when you start sharing your message across various platforms. It's about building an engine that operates 24/7 across different media and environments. Every part of your personal brand that you develop is tied to the overall goal of inspiring others with what God has uniquely shown you. You're creating touchpoints and opportunities for someone to get to like, know, and trust you. Only then will they be able to learn from you and be activated by you. God's plan for spreading the Gospel is to use your multiplied influence through purpose-focused personal branding. It's time now to respond to the call and take advantage of the tools available for us! What’s a God-First Personal Brand? Your personal brand is a relationship with you, separately from your company. It's God using His likeness through you to advance His purposes. The process of personal branding involves uncovering the uniqueness God created through you, building a reputation on the things He wants you to want to be known for, and then allowing yourself to be known for them. Ultimately, the goal is to create something that conveys a message God wants to share with the world and recognize the opportunity to be rewarded financially, strategically, and personally. Discover Your 'Born to Do' Uniqueness The key to God-First personal branding is that you have to uncover what God put you here uniquely to do and then serve others through it. The Bible says As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: (1 Peter 4:10) Your uniqueness is a gift from God to be used to serve others in some way, shape, or form. How to Start Developing Your God-First Personal Brand Personal branding starts first by defining your message, your marketplace, and the media you'll use to share it all. First, what's your message? The role of someone who does branding is to be able to pull your message and story out. See, branding people who understand their role as a conduit between God and you will be able to get a "feeling" of what your message will be. This is why you struggle to find your message if you go at it alone. Next, it's time to define a very specific marketplace. God doesn't want us to think that the entire world is our marketplace. There are 8 billion people in this world, and God will use other people like you to share a message within their marketplace. You need to focus on your own tribe, your own specific geographic area, demographic, or industry. The final step is to define the media and modalities by which you'll share your personal brand message. There are many methods, modes, and media to choose from when building a personal brand. You don't have to create online courses or go on a speaking tour if that's not your cup of tea. Maybe you want to lead a mastermind group, launch a membership program, and offer 3-month coaching and consulting service based on your methodology. Others might want to lead an event or even become a vlogger (video bloggers). God wants to use your personal brand in the way in which you've been uniquely capacitated to spread awareness. Whatever the method, it will be how you love (or will love) to communicate. Trust God in this process. SIDE NOTE: Sometimes, starting with the end in mind will help. For example, if you want to attract more mortgage brokers to work at your brokerage, you reverse engineer your personal brand to meet that goal. Similarly, suppose you know you want to expand your franchise operations to 1,000 stores. In that case, you know your personal brand's media and message have to be positioned in a way to develop relationships with franchisees to be in a position to buy their stores out when they are ready to sell. What Problem Do You Solve in the Marketplace When John the Baptist and Jesus began their ministries in the world, they were solving a problem. The problem was Roman oppression. The solution was to repent and turn to God. At that moment in time, that was a well-received message because it really helped people cope with the issues going on around them. Notice that, first, John had to recognize a problem and have the heart to want to help others solve it. Then, his ministry began. First, the beginning of your personal brand is answering with one or two words: What problem does God want to solve through me? My one word is purpose. I help people discover their purpose because it's a big problem if people can't feel meaning and significance in what they are doing here on earth. It causes a lot of stress and anxiety when we don't know what we're supposed to be doing. I've written an entire book called Discovering Your Calling as an Entrepreneur. It's all about stepping into your purposed-focused calling. When you discover one word, it's something you can quickly write an entire book on. Your one word is your identity through Christ and solidifies your spiritual existence in the business world. At this point, I hope you're convinced that your personal brand is not some superficial vanity public relations tool to exploit more sales. This is the life purpose we're talking about here. This is your secret to living your best life and running a God-First company, and God wants you to be excited to share it! This is your calling. It is why you were put on this earth! When the problem God wants to solve through you becomes evident, your message, marketplace, media, and monetization strategy will all line up. Fully Address the Problem In my book Discovering Your Calling as an Entrepreneur, I define the problem of not knowing your purpose in business, and I focus all of my marketing around that problem. If entrepreneurs don't know their purpose, they end up launching businesses they shouldn't be in, or the business is out of alignment, and they end up quitting to move to the next shiny object they can put their hope able. Why my book is a good example is because it solves the problem of purposelessness. People buy solutions to their problems. And they buy into people who can guide them to solving their problems. Your ability to recognize their problem, empathize with it, and present a clear path to victory will determine if the person will choose you as the best solution. The Born to Do Method One of the most significant questions someone will ask themselves is: what on earth am I here for? The symptoms of this question lead us to ask what problem we solve and what we're going to dedicate the rest of our lives. These questions can be hard to articulate and turn into a business or personal brand; however, it's the work that needs to be done BEFORE beginning any journey to branding. This is why I developed the Born to Do Method in my branding agency. It's a framework built on six questions that help uncover the entrepreneur's personal brand - the message they are born to share with the world, along with the services and products to complement the message. It's a methodology that focuses exclusively on what God uniquely called that individual to do. And as we evaluate the responses with our clients, themes will overlap, and certain cornerstones will be set in the foundation to build the brand. The methodology is about determining how God makes you truly unique and irreplaceable. Once you know that the God of the universe wants a one-on-one relationship with you and your business, you realize that building a personal brand is the way God breaks you free from the ordinary life the world has to offer and separates you from the noise and influence of the marketplace. Your personal brand helps you understand that you have no competition because no other person is like you. God needs you to be different so that you're in a space all your own so that your tribal following can easily recognize you. The 6 Questions of the Born to Do Method The best part about personal branding is that it only involves the CEO. There's no back and forth with partners; no need to bring the marketing team in with focus groups. All we have to do is find out the "magic" that makes you special and unique. What did God create you to do that no one else can do? The 'Born to Do Method' is a metaphor for an individual's calling from before birth. If someone is born to do something, this person was pre-thought of with a plan to do something for its creator: God. Christian or not, I bring this up to my clients, and it's my little way of evangelizing while also driving the point that branding is a spiritual, one-on-one process with your creator, so let's take this seriously. The 6 Questions are paired up into three sets. One question deals with who you were designed to be; the other deals with how you should serve others. Ironically, personal branding is not about you: it's about God and His purpose through you to serve others. The problem with some personal brands promoting riches, fame, and influence is that they are slaves to what the world needs them to be. That's why famous people constantly hate their life, burn out, and get sick of what they're doing because it's out of balance with how God designed personal influence to be. On the flip side, if you're only focused on who God made you be and the things you want to do, you run the risk of launching products and services that nobody cares about or needs. This would then fail the very element of personal branding God needs to do through you to influence others. This is why the Born to Do Method seeks to balance how God shaped you with what the world needs to hear and receive from you for God-focused problems to be solved. Personal branding done correctly seeks to define the intersection where who the world needs you to be…. and who God designed you to be. Godpreneurs have a calling over our business lives, and our personal brands operate in a space closest to our calling. Questions 1 and 2: What Problem Do You Solve and What Are You Passionate About? The first pair of questions in the 'Born to Do Method' balances what you're passionate about with what problems you can solve. First, we must recognize that our holy spirit produces a feeling called passion. I feel that goosebumps are the holy spirit connecting with God to physically show us that we're on the right track with something. Then, we pair that passion up with something the world needs - a real problem to solve that we can monetize. For me, I know people need logos and websites. Without it, most can't operate their business. And since logos and websites are the expressions of one calling, and my passion is to help someone find their calling, I'm operating in my zone of genius by providing personal branding services to successful Godpreneurs. I like to ask my clients what they could talk about all day, for free, and be jacked up about! This usually pulls some good information out of them. You have various experiences and skills, as well as passions and interests. Without a roadmap, it can be a struggle to decide which way to go. Use Trello to make a list of all of these things and sort them by what you're ok at and what you are uniquely gifted at. SIDE NOTE: You'll notice that some things that you consider yourself excellent at are something you need to let go of and delegate to someone else in your organization so you can stay in your unique abilities. I asked my clients another approach to this question is if they had automatic money coming in from a trust fund. The only stipulation is that they have to be at a company and position that they love doing. What would that job or company be like? Money isn't a factor; only your joy and happiness are. Questions 3 and 4: What's Your Past Education and What Experiences Have Shaped You? The first set of questions dealt with your passions and problems you love solving. The next set addresses what you're gaining knowledge and experience in. First, your past education, combined with what you are continuing your education in will shed light on what you were born to do. Everything you've read, observed, and heard, as well as your formal education and seminars you've attended, are likely things that fascinate and intrigue you. I believe that God has placed things in your past and present as guides to your future. There's always a reason or significance in your interests. Subconsciously or consciously, hobbies or jobs we pursue point us towards our calling. Next, the Born to Do Method digs through your past experiences to uncover things you've accomplished and credentials that give you credibility to talk about a topic - the focus of your personal brand message. If you're going to guide others, you have to have walked the walk for others to trust you as their guide. God uses our personal testimony as the gateway into deeper relationships in the service to others. A testimony gives you the right to talk about the topic because you’ve actually done the work and seen results from it. Once this next set of questions are answered, my company explores the accomplishments and results in these areas. In combination with the first pair of questions, we're beginning to connect things, and the picture of your personal brand calling is starting to show. Every past experience related to what you love to study is evidence and an indication of how God designed you and who you're meant to serve. For many of the CEOs I work with, God wants them to serve as the person they used to be. Because you understand what the person is going through mentally, you can empathize best. Empathy is an essential component in people trusting you and thus gaining a following. For me, I heavily research, study, and get training in helping people find their purpose, their calling in life. That, combined with my experience in helping launch hundreds of brands for entrepreneurs, makes me a perfect guide for helping Godpreneurs bring their calling to life. Questions 5 and 6: What Do People Want to Buy, and What Do You Love Selling? Now it's time to focus on the economic side of your personal brand. The last two questions take your uniqueness and put a monetization strategy behind it. You've discovered the problem God wants you to solve and what you're passionate about. Now it's time to look at which way people would like to buy from you. Creating a business model around your personal brand can be tricky because there are so many options. You can run a membership site, well video courses, do masterminds, and even host events. For me, my target market wants to launch its Christian personal brand. Financially, they want to add a revenue stream. They want to feel fulfilled in their life by pursuing their God-ordained calling. Strategically, they want to continue growing their successful existing business. Remember that this question focuses on what people WANT, not their needs. What people need, we will address in the next question. That's where we put a monetization strategy behind what they want. But first, you have to be clear on the fact that people want something beyond your services. You have to find out what your audience WANTS in their life financially, strategically, and personally. Now that you're clear on what people want, now let's give them a service that brings it all together, from A to Z. The sixth and final question of the Born to Do Method is asking yourself what business you want to be in. This is where you take all the ways you make money to create a viable business considering all the previous questions: passions, skill sets, experiences, problems you solve, and the current market needs. For me, I'm in the publishing business. My Christian entrepreneur audience needs help taking their message to the world. First, they buy branding services. So, I have branding packages to help them bring their vision to life. We help create their signature system, their signature talk, the book, the courses...the works! Then, qualified personal brand clients move into my publishing platforms of Daily Godpreneur and the Godpreneur Academy. That's where we have a stage for them to connect to Christian entrepreneurs who will discover them and buy their signature system. As a publishing company, we find talent and bring their products to the marketplace to buy and make royalties on the sales. The five keys to a successful Christian personal brand business model are that it can be performed digitally, there's a recurring revenue component, it can run while you sleep, and it's scalable, meaning that it has a system and process that can be duplicated. Your goal is to design a system with as many of these five business model components as possible. Bring Your Brand to Life When deciding to bring your Christian personal brand to life, you can start it off on your own, or hire a firm like mine (Creative Complex) to do it with you. For the DIY people, we have a course called How to Build Your Christian Personal Brand on the Godpreneur Academy to help guide you on launching. For entrepreneurs running successful businesses, it's more efficient for you to use a firm like mine to continue growing your business while launching this next component of your life. The four major phases of working with us are 1) discovering your calling, 2) launching the personal brand, 3) publishing your methodology on our platform, and 4) coaching, guidance, and mentorship in speaking and writing so you can be more influential. Whether you're the DIY type or a branding agency type, we have events, live virtual training, and webinars. We work exclusively with Christian personal brands through the agency and operate primarily through one-on-one interaction with a brand strategist who talks to clients and encourages them along the journey. #PersonalBranding #BrandStrategist #BuildMyPersonalBrand #DifferentiatingMyself

My wife and I used to get into small spats that would turn into big arguments that would evolve into all out wars. To show my toughness, I’d become the opposite of a loving husband. I'd become a hate-filled war monger. In these times of hatred, I stopped being the husband God called me to be. I'd stop helping around the house I'd put in more hours on the business so I can get home late I'd spend more time at CrossFit I'd go to a friend's house at night I would do all of this so that I could stay away from her. Consequently, my business would suffer for days and weeks in these times where I'd walk away from my marriage. It was a terrible cycle and part of a deep, dark time of depression in my life. I hated it. As an entrepreneur, this is dangerous territory and I’ll tell you why. The problem is that our minds become so consumed with fighting the war that we can’t possibly have all the energy needed for us to lead the disciplinary life required of us in our businesses. Our prayer life goes down. Our morning readings stop. We're filled with so much negativity and hate that it becomes difficult to see the opportunities God is placing before us in the business. Married Godpreneurs…this is how SIN works! For me, sin crept in through my marriage. For you, it could be drugs, alcohol, adultery, pornography, illegal's business activities, or any myriad of sins that break up our relationship with God. We all battle sin. So how do we get back on track? How do we get back in line with God’s plan for our lives? In the book of Nehemiah, after the wall was completed, after the wall was working, after the people had heard and obeyed God’s Word, and after the Holy Spirit was doing a significant work in the lives of people – the people were changing and they started acting differently. Nehemiah 9:1-3 says "On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and putting dust on their heads. Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the sins of their ancestors. They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping the Lord their God." What a scene of dramatic, humble repentance. The the people were hearing God’s word and it was changing them. We see here three things the Israelites did. they confessed their sins and the sins of their ancestors they continued reading God’s word they worshiped Because I knew that my marriage had a huge impact on the mental game I needed to succeed in my business, I started to find the ways I could get out of the depressing hole I would get myself into.  It all started with confession - honestly coming to God and saying, I know what I’m doing is wrong, and I don’t want to do it anymore. Repentance gives way to a renewed relationship and the pursuit of holiness. You must confess, repent, and move forward….for the sake of your business, your family, and your relationship with God. This is why we entrepreneurs need to carve out time every morning to spend time with God. We can confess, repent, pray, and worship all in this time so we can align our minds with the new opportunities God has for us today. 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. #MarriedEntrepreneurs #StrengthenIntegrity

I believe all of us Godpreneurs were given dreams by God for the purpose of accomplishing those dreams and bringing those visions to life. I don’t know what that dream is that you have for your business. I don´t care how far-fetched that crazy product or service idea might appear to be. I don't care how disappointing it might have been as you’ve worked toward that dream, but here’s what I know: that dream that you're holding in your mind is possible. In the Old Testament, we read Joel 2:28 says “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions." Christian entrepreneurs, we have been given the gift of the holy spirit. It means we are constantly downloading and receiving dreams and visions. And, sometimes we can’t see how we'll accomplish that dream, but what we do know is that it's possible to have a dream and run toward it as we work on it day in and day out in our businesses. However, most entrepreneurs don’t work on their dreams. Why? For many years I didn’t. One is because of fear - the fear of failure. What if things don’t work out. And, the fear of success - what if I do succeed and I can’t handle it? The other thing that happened is some entrepreneurs get comfortable. They have a good thing going. The family business is stable, why rock the boat. They stop learning and growing. They stop working on themselves. They stop stretching. They stop pushing themselves. And there's another group of entrepreneurs that I want to talk to. You guys that had a dream, pressed play on it, invested all your time and resources, you followed God's prompting and, yet, the business failed and took you down with it. You've ended up becoming very cynical about entrepreneurship, and you throw in the towel on yourself and on your families and on your dreams. For others listening, you don’t feel worthy. This happens to a lot of 9-5 workers with a dream of entrepreneurship, but not willing to take the risk. You keep thinking about pressing play, but because you don't have a college education, because I don't believe in yourself, because you allow other people's opinion of you to control your destiny, you don't act on your ideas. Can I share with you that passion for something will outwork and win out over knowledge, skills, talent, natural talent, natural gifts every single time.