Lesson 5: Leveraging Your Uniqueness
When it comes to selling, facts sell, stories sell. Stories make people feel things if they're told right.
Write down at least 10 things you love: quirks, passions, hobbies, guilty pleasures, hidden talents, secret obsessions. Maybe you’re like me and love zombie movies or Game Of Thrones. Perhaps you love cheese, animals, silent films or collecting trains. These seemingly trivial details can make a real difference for your business, help you separate yourself in a sea of sameys, and help you you genuinely bond with your customers.
1: Food (Creation & Experience)-Especially colorful, exotic, interesting foods. I love to prepare it, cook it, and eat it. I love simple foods and fancy foods but most of all, it has to be good. Good. Clean. Food. Food that feels like it's giving me life and loving me.
2: Animals (Models for a good life)- I love to watch animals, pet animals, and learn from them. I feel as if they teach me about my unique attributes and that I can see a smaller model of the world and behavior by studying a small sample of animals. I find they fun, sweet, tender, sensitive, and compassionate. I mostly like animals with fur or feathers but I'm not opposed to fish, reptiles, or even insects. I just find creatures other than me very fascinating.
3: Nature (Marvels of God)- I love to be outdoors. I love the smells, the colors, the patterns, the beauty of life happening everywhere and in everything. I love to look at the symbiotic relationships that exist between different things out in nature. I love to ponder on the goodness and the complete understanding that God has, that allowed him to create such a completely detailed, completely functional, completely renewing, and completely perfect system for all things. From the top of the sky to the inside of the Earth, it is all beautiful and glorious and wonderful to me. It takes my breath away sometimes. It opens my heart and helps me understand God's love better. I've been overwhelmed with gratitude to the point of tears when I am allowed to behold the beauties of this Earth.
4: Scripture Study (Connection to God)- I've come to love studying almost every subject, but studying scriptures has really become one of the things I love to do. I feel so close to the Lord now and I am able to interpret what I'm reading a little better than before. I just feel so nourished and fed by the word. I would rather relish the scriptures than watch most TV shows.
5: Strategic Board Games (Hero Time)- I've come to love playing a few games with Jeremy. Part of it is the company and part of it is the challenge and the ability I have to save the world and be a hero. I love being a hero. I think it's because I'm really a righteous warrior. I believe that I am like a lioness inside my heart. I just love to overcome tough stuff with my man and save the world or save the mission or become hero's. I also love trying to find the most efficient way or the best way and to be able to do that on a smaller level than real life.
6: Service (Happy Endings, Happy Transformations)- I think this links with being a hero. I love to help people with their struggles and/or make their lives better. I don't really want to take the credit, but I do like to see lives improved, hearts on the mend, things better managed, etc... I just love a happy ending, especially if I can see the before and after. I love to be in a position to see and experience the transformation, It's beautiful for me to see lives changed for the better and love improved.
7: Small Projects- I love to start and finish things. I'm always so excited to see what my mind can create and succeed at. I love the ability to knock something down and put a new something in or start with raw material and create three dimensional items. I love the way I feel when I complete something that I had never completed before.
8: Trying new things
9: Learning new things
10: Challenging myself
Guilty Pleasures
1-Sweet chocolate protein balls, lots and lots of them
2-dark chocolate
3-chili cheese dogs
4-trying new foods
5-overstocking my fridge with vegetables
6-farmer's markets
7-sacrificing myself for my friends/family
8-trying to do it all before lunch
9-massage chairs
10-how to cake it
11-papa's cupcakeria
12-eating lunch out in the sunshine
13-taking an hour to prepare a meal for myself
14-facebook
15-piano practice
15-bird watching
16-virgin pina coladas
17-talking loud and long
18-giving unsolicited advice
19-yoga
20-Day long board games
21-puppies and kittens
My strengths according to friends and family:
You have a calming effect. You make people feel safe and confident!
You are super perceptive and great at giving advice and insightful recommendations!!
You are a very positive person and look for the best in people and situations. You are very giving and kind. I can see how much you love your kids and that they like to be with you. You help me want to be a better person
I think your unique superpower is tenacity, followed in a close second by kindness. I like spending time with you because I think you have a compassionate view of the world. I particularly enjoy discussing cooking and recipes with you, and learning from you what you're working on next in your life.
My strengths according to the strengthsfinder test:
Three action steps I can take to infuse myself more in my business and live in my strengths.
1) In my writing be me, calm, safe, accepting of myself, and real. Stop trying to follow all of the formulas and rules.
2) Be more motivational, use my strength as activator to get more people to check out what I have.
3) Go through my course and maximize it's potential, after I'm finished with my mini course, of course.
What’s your core business story? How did you get started? Why do you do what you do?
A few years ago I started a business I didn't want to start because I was told by the Spirit that I should start it. So, I did. I was humming along, trying to maximize it when the Spirit led me in a different direction, a completely different direction. I was told to close that business (one that I'd truly grown to love) and start an online course business. I asked what about and I heard it as clear as day, to help people feel hope, peace, and love and to bring light into this darkening world. After several days of pondering, fasting, praying, second guessing, and going back and forth, I did as I was told. I closed my business and began writing an online course. A course I thought that would only take me 60 days. Ha Ha Ha, that was funny! Actually, in retrospect, writing it did probably take me 60, they were not consecutive days though, they were days smattered over months of self sabotage and self defeating behaviors that I got to overcome and training upon training upon study upon training. I truly began to transform as soon as I closed one door and opened the other. This transformation was pretty and ugly and so very sloppy, I felt like a newborn foal trying to stand. Well, after so much trial and error and false starts, the course is written. Is it perfect? No, but it's done and in this case, done is better than perfect. From there, I realized I needed to have an over arching business. The course couldn't be my business, just a piece of it, so I've been working at creating a collective of stories, kind of like a religious Chicken Soup for the Soul type thing. I spent months fiddling around with word press and web design and have finally settled on a simple, clean blog. The course has a link there. I want to grow my audience, offer plenty of free content, provide maximum value, and sell my paid for content. I truly feel blessed to be able to work on these projects from home and to be able to serve the Lord in so many ways. When I look back, I see so many rabbit trails and so many short sighted decisions, but I also see how the Lord has woven everything together into a beautiful tapestry. I love him and his work and I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
What’s your core business story? How did you get started? Why do you do what you do?
Well, years ago I decided that my highest priority was to love God with all of my heart, might, mind, and strength, and to love others as myself. As this became a part of me, I wanted with all of my heart to be obedient to Him and to have the Spirit with me always. As I've striven for this, I've found that He leads me on paths I would not choose to go and that He has much more in store for my life, than I do. 3 years ago I was running a food service business. I would go to people's homes to prepare food for them. I loved it and enjoyed the idea of growing it. I was planning to hire several people to do the same thing and learn to manage them. To create a franchise, like Merry Maids. In order to do this, I decided to watch a webinar that taught a person how to create an online course. As I watched, I was so inspired, I thought, this is it! This is how I am going to train my new hires and onboard them into the program. I purchased the course building course and started creating a training protocol for my future chefs. As I began, I would find the Lord showing me that He had other plans in mind for me. He wanted to use this opportunity for more. He wanted me to teach people how to find peace, love, and joy. Not just people, but members of the church. I was taken aback. I mean, who was I? Why should I? I am just a convert living a little life over here in Utah trying to be a mother and wife and looking for a fun way to serve. But as clear as the sun on a summer's day, I was told that I had heard correctly, the Lord had a more important work for me to do. He asked me to close my business and begin immediately. My mouth gaped, I hemmed and hawed. I stalled. I tried so hard to make excuses and to do what I wanted but every door closed in front of me. I repented, closed shop, and began. I had to work through a lot of personal weakness and human frailty. I had to work through some deep emotional issues. I had to overcome feelings that had been holding me down, but I did through the grace of Jesus Christ. I did create the course and I don't mind saying, it's great. It will change lives. After that, the Lord has told me I needed to get it into the hands of the people. People will buy it if they can see it, so it's time to build an audience, it's time to really serve people by sharing what's been on my heart.
Short Version:
Well, I love the Lord with all of my heart and when he told me, point blank, that I needed to help people find peace, joy, and love in this darkening world, I obeyed. The tool he wanted me to use was an online class format and so I began. Now I am writing blog posts and inspiring others all over the place.
Shortish Version:
Something you should know about me, I love the Lord, I love people, and I love to serve. About three years ago I received revelation that told me to close a business I thrived in that allowed me to serve families every day. The Lord asked me to do something new so I could serve and help more people in an even more important work. After some hemming and hawing, I did it and opened shop as an online course creator. I found myself writing, recording, and editing curriculum through the Spirit. I found myself writing a workbook and publishing it. I found myself starting to believe this would make an impact. I know now, as long as I can get it out there, it will.
Stories that were turning points in my life:
#1) When I heard the Spirit say I shouldn't marry my husband, and then I did.
I got married young. My husband and I were only 19 when we got married. We met when we were 19. I knew I'd found someone who was like me but not like me, all at the same time. He felt like home. When I think about us at this time, I think of the way I felt, I felt like I could curl up and take a rest and be safe forever in his arms. He was and still is, the sweetest, kindest, most interesting person that I've known. I think we were close in the premortal realm because the first time I looked into his eyes, I knew him. Like, knew him knew him. I knew he was me and I was him. That we were one. I saw us together in the future in the blink or flash of an eye. He was instantly my new best friend and I could tell he felt the exact same way about me. So, from there things moved quickly. We started dating, moved in together, spent every minute together we could, talked to each other all of the time, and pretty much committed ourselves to one another on every level, engagement came and marriage was just around the corner. When I look at it now, I can see God's hands bringing us together. We were great friends with so many people at that time. His best friend who had gotten married at 18 and who had married his 16 year old girlfriend. Another one of his good friends who I originally had set my sights on, but he had warned me about. Another friend that I'd gone to college with and roomed with in the same apartment complex as him. Another one of his friends who we ended up sharing an apartment with and a couple of other people, in an out. All of these people were strong influences in our lives and we knew it, but we also knew we were supposed to be together. If Jeremy had asked me to marry him the second time we met (the time he remembers) I would have said yes because I had seen a premonition, a flash of a happy life with him. In the premonition we're walking and smiling and holding hands. It's right. Anyway, never had a doubt about marrying him crossed my mind until... We were at our apartment, before we were married, I think it was after I'd moved in. Jeremy was in our bedroom playing a computer game and I was in the living room babysitting our roommate's daughter. She and I were playing when she walked away, down the hall, into our room. Jeremy was in the middle of something and said something harsh to her. It was the first time I had heard him be harsh. The little girl didn't stop and he got more frustrated. I went in to pick her up and bring her back out to the living room and while I was walking down the hall, I heard the Spirit whisper, don't marry him. He doesn't know how to treat children. He's not for you. I brushed it aside and forgot all about it. We got married and though we have been happy, that memory catches me off guard sometimes. He has been an excellent father to our children but he doesn't love children in general. He is rarely harsh and is always very repentant. I can see now that that was a warning for something though. Selfishness. He has been selfish and he often desires to do his own thing and not be bothered. He's happy to do his things he wants to do with others but he doesn't love to do other people's things. He also has a right way perception in his head that makes it difficult for him to accept other people's ways. All in all, I'm so glad I married him and I still believe this is what God wants for me. He wants me to find joy. When I was going to type that, I realized that that's not right, God gave me what I wanted for me and what I needed. I chose the comfortable things about him but I also get the challenges he poses to me. He and I don't see eye to eye on religion and he and I have had to work on unconditional love around that topic but it's grown us both and I have no doubt in my mind that God brought us together. I'm so happy to be walking this path with Jeremy, he completes me and his stubbornness has taught me patience the same way my free spirit has taught him to enjoy life a bit more.
#2) When I saw us standing in the temple mirror together.
Jeremy and I haven't been sealed because Jeremy hasn't been through the temple to receive his own endowment. This has been a sorrow to my heart, considering I have and I know that he's put unneeded restrictions on his blessings. He basically lives the higher law but hasn't made the covenants so God can not shower him with blessings and increase and understanding, so he's left watching me and Orion and seems content to live below his station. Anyway, it's long been a desire of my heart to be sealed to my man. I love him wholely and completely and I want nothing more than to live with him and grow up with him for the rest of eternity. I have prayed, fasted, testified, referred, and shared the gospel with him basically our whole marriage. He has quietly and kindly ignored me (or so it seems). Anyway, one day while pondering him and what I could do or say next to lead him home, I stood up and was walking out of the celestial room. I looked into the mirror on my way out and stopped and looked at myself in my temple clothes. As I looked, right behind me, over my shoulder, stood Jeremy, smiling in his temple clothes. I turned around but he wasn't there, I looked back and there he was. In that moment I knew that the Lord was working on it. I moved from faith to knowledge. There is no more doubt in my mind about Jeremy's return to the church and the house of the Lord. It's been signed, sealed, and delivered.
#3) When I learned to forgive Greg for his humanity.
#4) When I learned that others cause pain because they've been hurt. The story of the men who mutilated the dog. One day I was on Facebook scrolling through, my heart full of love because I had just finished working on a blog post or a FB post for my Developing a Christ Centered Life group when I hit a very disturbing post. In the post, it showed a picture of a mutilated cat and the men who were showing off what they had done. They had done horrendous things to this innocent creature and I immediately felt sorrow for this poor creature and the pain it had to endure before it eventually died. I was overcome with emotion. I closed my computer and said a prayer and left to go pick up the kids from school. As I was driving, I was sitting quietly, thinking and before I knew it tears were pouring out of my eyes. My breath would catch. I sobbed and sobbed and sobbed for the life of this animal and then for the punishment of these men. I thought to myself, why would people do such a thing to an innocent creature. Why would they be proud of this accomplishment? How would they feel standing before God for this act of torture? I sobbed for them, for their souls, for their deeds, for the tragedy that occurred in this poor animal's life. I then thought about my savior and what he endured for me. I then thought more about why these men did this and the answer came. Hurt people, hurt people. In that moment, I realized that the only way a person could do something so tragic is if they themselves had been hurt and not healed. I then sobbed all over again for them and wondered what their lives were like, what their childhood's were like, what their parents and examples were like. I prayed for them and forgave them and thanked Heavenly Father for his Son Jesus Christ who allows these men to be redeemed if they seek redemption. Who allows his tormenters to be redeemed if they seek redemption. Who allows me to be redeemed, if I seek redemption. I felt a little bit more in the know about agency that day. I could understand how hard it must be for God to see this happen over and over again. I pray that cycles like these, cycles of pain, will be broken.
#5) When I first found and began becoming spiritually centered.
I started delivering pizzas when I was 27 and had three kids and a big pile of debt. I had accrued most of the debt. I had a car that I'd borrowed money on and then totalled. I had a credit card that I'd borrowed money on to build a business-a business I no longer wanted to do. A car payment on a van that I needed to haul my family. A student loan that I borrowed for to get a degree I hadn't used in 3 or 4 years. I felt like a failure and a mess and completely responsible for our debt-because I was. Anyway, my mother-in-law Lonnie had given me a cd set years before, entitled, "Becoming Spiritually Centered" I'd never had time to listen to it so I set it on my bookshelf saying, I'll get to that some day. Delivering pizzas is a lot of alone time with a cd player. I started by listening to audio books, then moved to the radio, and finally, I started looking at stuff I could listen to that would help me. I ran across this cd set from my MIL and I gave it a try. I remember putting the first cd in the player as I left the store and wondering what was going to be so cool about what this old guy was going to say. It never occured to me that he was going to give me exactly what the title described. He was going to teach me how to be spiritually centered. The more I listened to, the more I connected and before I knew it, it was all I would listen to. I went home and practiced what I was being taught and figured out how to be spiritually centered. It gave me the understanding that, though I had gotten us into debt, and I had done some stupid things, I was not a stupid person, God still loved me and wanted me to move forward. It was awesome! Pizza Deliveries gave me the time to practice listening to the spirit, praying, and showing gratitute.
#6) When I went in to repent to the bishop the first time after being married. Letting go of the sins of fornication, pornography, masturbation, and replacing them with joy and peace and confidence.
I got into pornography when I was young. Probably 9 or 10. My cousin Jenny came over to our house and showed me a magazine that Greg had that had people (what I later learned) having sex. There were body parts beautifully displayed and connecting with each other. I didn't exactly understand why Jenny was intrigued by it but after she left, I would go into Greg's room when he wasn't home and try to figure it out. It didn't take long before my body started to react to the messages I was sending it and I began masturbating. I didn't know that each time I did this secret porn looking and masturbation that I was pulling down my worth as a woman or a daughter of God. I just thought it felt fun and good and relaxing and I felt sexy. The older I got, the more frequent the occurrences and I found that I was having to masturbate to go to sleep or take a nap. I guess my body needed that release to relax. We joined the church when I was 10 and I was baptized and washed clean of all of my sins. I think after that point, I understood that what I was doing was wrong and I began to feel the Spirit or my conscience begging me to stop. I would stop here and there and then find myself caught up in it again. I never repented to the bishop and found myself drawn to sexy things and sex. I lied in my recommend interviews and went to the temple unworthily, feeling the weight of that. The devil got into my head and let me know that I wasn't worthy to marry a man in the temple so I should probably just give up that dream. I didn't marry in the temple or even feel worthy because of my unrepentant sin. I ended up having sex before marriage because sex was so common to me. I ended up staying away from the church because of my guilt of sex before marriage, lying to my family, friends, and bishop, and God. I felt the Lord call me back though, and when I returned, I felt his arms open wide. People were so accepting, loving, patient, and kind. I felt like I was home again. I went to church regularly and was called into the bishop's office. I was incredibly nervous to go, I thought he was going to punish me or yell at me or tell me I had to repent. Instead, he extended a call to me to be a teacher in Relief Society. I was shocked and amazed. I couldn't believe God wanted me to hold a calling where I taught other people the gospel. Me, who was worthless. I told the bishop I'd like the calling but I needed to repent. I told him all of the heavy things that had been on my heart for so many years. He listened and looked me in the eyes and frankly forgave me. I felt the power of these words down to my core. The spirit told me I was cleansed. The weight lifted from my heart. The pain that I carried was replaced by incomprehensible joy. I was amazed at the Lord's ability to forgive and to take that burden from me see easily. From then on, I've been so grateful, I've tried to show him in every way that I appreciate him and love what he's done for me.
#7) When I quit my job at Metal Arts to stay at home with our kids.
#8) When I went to emotional processing and learned that emotions could be worked through and that they didn't have to define our lives forever. That pain can be released through the atonement of Jesus Christ.
When I was younger I held some anger and resentment toward my step-dad. I didn't know it but it was manifesting itself in all kinds of crazy ways in my life. I was plagued by this resentment and didn't even know it. A friend of mine, April Bonnett was learning about how to let go of past emotions. She brought me to her house and helped me work through it. She had me lie down on her couch and tell her about my mom and step dad. What came out was my frustration that he was always verbally and emotional abusive toward her. I was so mad at him for that and I was trying to save her pain by carrying it for her. I learned that it didn't work that way. I learned that I wasn't using the atonement. I was trying to be her Savior. As soon as I recognized that, I gave the burden to my Savior and he took it from me. I've learned since that these old decisions can cause a lot of blockages and cause us pain but we can move through them through many different ways, typically just by bringing them in the light or by having someone else reframe them.
We highlight different parts of the human experience and through the gifts of the Spirit and our own intelligence we do our best to make sense of it all. In the scriptures, we're taught that to God, all things are spiritual and yet, here we are with a limited physical body and mind.and through our lives, we do our best to figure out what that means.
Write down at least 10 things you love: quirks, passions, hobbies, guilty pleasures, hidden talents, secret obsessions. Maybe you’re like me and love zombie movies or Game Of Thrones. Perhaps you love cheese, animals, silent films or collecting trains. These seemingly trivial details can make a real difference for your business, help you separate yourself in a sea of sameys, and help you you genuinely bond with your customers.
1: Food (Creation & Experience)-Especially colorful, exotic, interesting foods. I love to prepare it, cook it, and eat it. I love simple foods and fancy foods but most of all, it has to be good. Good. Clean. Food. Food that feels like it's giving me life and loving me.
2: Animals (Models for a good life)- I love to watch animals, pet animals, and learn from them. I feel as if they teach me about my unique attributes and that I can see a smaller model of the world and behavior by studying a small sample of animals. I find they fun, sweet, tender, sensitive, and compassionate. I mostly like animals with fur or feathers but I'm not opposed to fish, reptiles, or even insects. I just find creatures other than me very fascinating.
3: Nature (Marvels of God)- I love to be outdoors. I love the smells, the colors, the patterns, the beauty of life happening everywhere and in everything. I love to look at the symbiotic relationships that exist between different things out in nature. I love to ponder on the goodness and the complete understanding that God has, that allowed him to create such a completely detailed, completely functional, completely renewing, and completely perfect system for all things. From the top of the sky to the inside of the Earth, it is all beautiful and glorious and wonderful to me. It takes my breath away sometimes. It opens my heart and helps me understand God's love better. I've been overwhelmed with gratitude to the point of tears when I am allowed to behold the beauties of this Earth.
4: Scripture Study (Connection to God)- I've come to love studying almost every subject, but studying scriptures has really become one of the things I love to do. I feel so close to the Lord now and I am able to interpret what I'm reading a little better than before. I just feel so nourished and fed by the word. I would rather relish the scriptures than watch most TV shows.
5: Strategic Board Games (Hero Time)- I've come to love playing a few games with Jeremy. Part of it is the company and part of it is the challenge and the ability I have to save the world and be a hero. I love being a hero. I think it's because I'm really a righteous warrior. I believe that I am like a lioness inside my heart. I just love to overcome tough stuff with my man and save the world or save the mission or become hero's. I also love trying to find the most efficient way or the best way and to be able to do that on a smaller level than real life.
6: Service (Happy Endings, Happy Transformations)- I think this links with being a hero. I love to help people with their struggles and/or make their lives better. I don't really want to take the credit, but I do like to see lives improved, hearts on the mend, things better managed, etc... I just love a happy ending, especially if I can see the before and after. I love to be in a position to see and experience the transformation, It's beautiful for me to see lives changed for the better and love improved.
7: Small Projects- I love to start and finish things. I'm always so excited to see what my mind can create and succeed at. I love the ability to knock something down and put a new something in or start with raw material and create three dimensional items. I love the way I feel when I complete something that I had never completed before.
8: Trying new things
9: Learning new things
10: Challenging myself
Guilty Pleasures
1-Sweet chocolate protein balls, lots and lots of them
2-dark chocolate
3-chili cheese dogs
4-trying new foods
5-overstocking my fridge with vegetables
6-farmer's markets
7-sacrificing myself for my friends/family
8-trying to do it all before lunch
9-massage chairs
10-how to cake it
11-papa's cupcakeria
12-eating lunch out in the sunshine
13-taking an hour to prepare a meal for myself
14-facebook
15-piano practice
15-bird watching
16-virgin pina coladas
17-talking loud and long
18-giving unsolicited advice
19-yoga
20-Day long board games
21-puppies and kittens
My strengths according to friends and family:
You have a calming effect. You make people feel safe and confident!
You are super perceptive and great at giving advice and insightful recommendations!!
You are a very positive person and look for the best in people and situations. You are very giving and kind. I can see how much you love your kids and that they like to be with you. You help me want to be a better person
I think your unique superpower is tenacity, followed in a close second by kindness. I like spending time with you because I think you have a compassionate view of the world. I particularly enjoy discussing cooking and recipes with you, and learning from you what you're working on next in your life.
You have such a unique personality and energy about you. You are positive, you put of happy positive energy, you have a softness about you that is comforting and soothing, you are incredibly in tune and completely ready to surrender and do God’s Will even when it doesn’t line up with your well laid out plans. You are a deep thinker and you are great at sharing your feelings and putting things into words. There is a slowness and calm about your energy even when you are moving and working quickly. you are super detailed and strategic. You have a gift for making things happen and figuring things out. You aren’t afraid to try new things. Other words that come to mind….courageous, determined, committed, mindful, connected, great communicator AND listener…
You are very kind and service oriented, you think about others so much.
You are a learner, always wanting to learn and grow.
You are good at seeing the potential in others and are good at helping to motivate them.
Integrity (like few have) I've noticed that you are true to yourself-you keep commitments to yourself, to to ohers, and to God. You set goals and stay disciplined to achieve great things.
You are comfortable with yourself, and accept others for who they are, creating a safe environment where people can be themselves, and also feel motivated to become better. I felt that by talking with you and reading the things you wrote. You are inspiring!
You show up for others-I guess I would say this trait is charity/loyalty. hearing about your nephews and your love for them and week they spend with you annually and the way you invest in them. You genuinely love those around you.
Being thoughtful and charitable to others.
Working hard on your goals.
Reaching for the stars. Not letting fear or lack of experience hold you back. You are willing to learn and try new things.
My superpowers according to my friends
Calming, Safe, Confident, Learner, Courageous, Determined, Hard Worker, Thoughtful, Charitable, Charity, Loyal, Comfortable with Self, Accepting, Motivational, Goal Setter, Disciplined, Integrity, Kind, Service Oriented, Positive, Soft, In Tune with the Spirit, Surrender will to God, Concise, Commited, Mindful, Communicative, Listener, Perceptive, Give great advice,
My strengths according to the strengthsfinder test:
Three action steps I can take to infuse myself more in my business and live in my strengths.
1) In my writing be me, calm, safe, accepting of myself, and real. Stop trying to follow all of the formulas and rules.
2) Be more motivational, use my strength as activator to get more people to check out what I have.
3) Go through my course and maximize it's potential, after I'm finished with my mini course, of course.
What’s your core business story? How did you get started? Why do you do what you do?
A few years ago I started a business I didn't want to start because I was told by the Spirit that I should start it. So, I did. I was humming along, trying to maximize it when the Spirit led me in a different direction, a completely different direction. I was told to close that business (one that I'd truly grown to love) and start an online course business. I asked what about and I heard it as clear as day, to help people feel hope, peace, and love and to bring light into this darkening world. After several days of pondering, fasting, praying, second guessing, and going back and forth, I did as I was told. I closed my business and began writing an online course. A course I thought that would only take me 60 days. Ha Ha Ha, that was funny! Actually, in retrospect, writing it did probably take me 60, they were not consecutive days though, they were days smattered over months of self sabotage and self defeating behaviors that I got to overcome and training upon training upon study upon training. I truly began to transform as soon as I closed one door and opened the other. This transformation was pretty and ugly and so very sloppy, I felt like a newborn foal trying to stand. Well, after so much trial and error and false starts, the course is written. Is it perfect? No, but it's done and in this case, done is better than perfect. From there, I realized I needed to have an over arching business. The course couldn't be my business, just a piece of it, so I've been working at creating a collective of stories, kind of like a religious Chicken Soup for the Soul type thing. I spent months fiddling around with word press and web design and have finally settled on a simple, clean blog. The course has a link there. I want to grow my audience, offer plenty of free content, provide maximum value, and sell my paid for content. I truly feel blessed to be able to work on these projects from home and to be able to serve the Lord in so many ways. When I look back, I see so many rabbit trails and so many short sighted decisions, but I also see how the Lord has woven everything together into a beautiful tapestry. I love him and his work and I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
What’s your core business story? How did you get started? Why do you do what you do?
Well, years ago I decided that my highest priority was to love God with all of my heart, might, mind, and strength, and to love others as myself. As this became a part of me, I wanted with all of my heart to be obedient to Him and to have the Spirit with me always. As I've striven for this, I've found that He leads me on paths I would not choose to go and that He has much more in store for my life, than I do. 3 years ago I was running a food service business. I would go to people's homes to prepare food for them. I loved it and enjoyed the idea of growing it. I was planning to hire several people to do the same thing and learn to manage them. To create a franchise, like Merry Maids. In order to do this, I decided to watch a webinar that taught a person how to create an online course. As I watched, I was so inspired, I thought, this is it! This is how I am going to train my new hires and onboard them into the program. I purchased the course building course and started creating a training protocol for my future chefs. As I began, I would find the Lord showing me that He had other plans in mind for me. He wanted to use this opportunity for more. He wanted me to teach people how to find peace, love, and joy. Not just people, but members of the church. I was taken aback. I mean, who was I? Why should I? I am just a convert living a little life over here in Utah trying to be a mother and wife and looking for a fun way to serve. But as clear as the sun on a summer's day, I was told that I had heard correctly, the Lord had a more important work for me to do. He asked me to close my business and begin immediately. My mouth gaped, I hemmed and hawed. I stalled. I tried so hard to make excuses and to do what I wanted but every door closed in front of me. I repented, closed shop, and began. I had to work through a lot of personal weakness and human frailty. I had to work through some deep emotional issues. I had to overcome feelings that had been holding me down, but I did through the grace of Jesus Christ. I did create the course and I don't mind saying, it's great. It will change lives. After that, the Lord has told me I needed to get it into the hands of the people. People will buy it if they can see it, so it's time to build an audience, it's time to really serve people by sharing what's been on my heart.
Short Version:
Well, I love the Lord with all of my heart and when he told me, point blank, that I needed to help people find peace, joy, and love in this darkening world, I obeyed. The tool he wanted me to use was an online class format and so I began. Now I am writing blog posts and inspiring others all over the place.
Shortish Version:
Something you should know about me, I love the Lord, I love people, and I love to serve. About three years ago I received revelation that told me to close a business I thrived in that allowed me to serve families every day. The Lord asked me to do something new so I could serve and help more people in an even more important work. After some hemming and hawing, I did it and opened shop as an online course creator. I found myself writing, recording, and editing curriculum through the Spirit. I found myself writing a workbook and publishing it. I found myself starting to believe this would make an impact. I know now, as long as I can get it out there, it will.
Stories that were turning points in my life:
#1) When I heard the Spirit say I shouldn't marry my husband, and then I did.
I got married young. My husband and I were only 19 when we got married. We met when we were 19. I knew I'd found someone who was like me but not like me, all at the same time. He felt like home. When I think about us at this time, I think of the way I felt, I felt like I could curl up and take a rest and be safe forever in his arms. He was and still is, the sweetest, kindest, most interesting person that I've known. I think we were close in the premortal realm because the first time I looked into his eyes, I knew him. Like, knew him knew him. I knew he was me and I was him. That we were one. I saw us together in the future in the blink or flash of an eye. He was instantly my new best friend and I could tell he felt the exact same way about me. So, from there things moved quickly. We started dating, moved in together, spent every minute together we could, talked to each other all of the time, and pretty much committed ourselves to one another on every level, engagement came and marriage was just around the corner. When I look at it now, I can see God's hands bringing us together. We were great friends with so many people at that time. His best friend who had gotten married at 18 and who had married his 16 year old girlfriend. Another one of his good friends who I originally had set my sights on, but he had warned me about. Another friend that I'd gone to college with and roomed with in the same apartment complex as him. Another one of his friends who we ended up sharing an apartment with and a couple of other people, in an out. All of these people were strong influences in our lives and we knew it, but we also knew we were supposed to be together. If Jeremy had asked me to marry him the second time we met (the time he remembers) I would have said yes because I had seen a premonition, a flash of a happy life with him. In the premonition we're walking and smiling and holding hands. It's right. Anyway, never had a doubt about marrying him crossed my mind until... We were at our apartment, before we were married, I think it was after I'd moved in. Jeremy was in our bedroom playing a computer game and I was in the living room babysitting our roommate's daughter. She and I were playing when she walked away, down the hall, into our room. Jeremy was in the middle of something and said something harsh to her. It was the first time I had heard him be harsh. The little girl didn't stop and he got more frustrated. I went in to pick her up and bring her back out to the living room and while I was walking down the hall, I heard the Spirit whisper, don't marry him. He doesn't know how to treat children. He's not for you. I brushed it aside and forgot all about it. We got married and though we have been happy, that memory catches me off guard sometimes. He has been an excellent father to our children but he doesn't love children in general. He is rarely harsh and is always very repentant. I can see now that that was a warning for something though. Selfishness. He has been selfish and he often desires to do his own thing and not be bothered. He's happy to do his things he wants to do with others but he doesn't love to do other people's things. He also has a right way perception in his head that makes it difficult for him to accept other people's ways. All in all, I'm so glad I married him and I still believe this is what God wants for me. He wants me to find joy. When I was going to type that, I realized that that's not right, God gave me what I wanted for me and what I needed. I chose the comfortable things about him but I also get the challenges he poses to me. He and I don't see eye to eye on religion and he and I have had to work on unconditional love around that topic but it's grown us both and I have no doubt in my mind that God brought us together. I'm so happy to be walking this path with Jeremy, he completes me and his stubbornness has taught me patience the same way my free spirit has taught him to enjoy life a bit more.
#2) When I saw us standing in the temple mirror together.
Jeremy and I haven't been sealed because Jeremy hasn't been through the temple to receive his own endowment. This has been a sorrow to my heart, considering I have and I know that he's put unneeded restrictions on his blessings. He basically lives the higher law but hasn't made the covenants so God can not shower him with blessings and increase and understanding, so he's left watching me and Orion and seems content to live below his station. Anyway, it's long been a desire of my heart to be sealed to my man. I love him wholely and completely and I want nothing more than to live with him and grow up with him for the rest of eternity. I have prayed, fasted, testified, referred, and shared the gospel with him basically our whole marriage. He has quietly and kindly ignored me (or so it seems). Anyway, one day while pondering him and what I could do or say next to lead him home, I stood up and was walking out of the celestial room. I looked into the mirror on my way out and stopped and looked at myself in my temple clothes. As I looked, right behind me, over my shoulder, stood Jeremy, smiling in his temple clothes. I turned around but he wasn't there, I looked back and there he was. In that moment I knew that the Lord was working on it. I moved from faith to knowledge. There is no more doubt in my mind about Jeremy's return to the church and the house of the Lord. It's been signed, sealed, and delivered.
#3) When I learned to forgive Greg for his humanity.
#4) When I learned that others cause pain because they've been hurt. The story of the men who mutilated the dog. One day I was on Facebook scrolling through, my heart full of love because I had just finished working on a blog post or a FB post for my Developing a Christ Centered Life group when I hit a very disturbing post. In the post, it showed a picture of a mutilated cat and the men who were showing off what they had done. They had done horrendous things to this innocent creature and I immediately felt sorrow for this poor creature and the pain it had to endure before it eventually died. I was overcome with emotion. I closed my computer and said a prayer and left to go pick up the kids from school. As I was driving, I was sitting quietly, thinking and before I knew it tears were pouring out of my eyes. My breath would catch. I sobbed and sobbed and sobbed for the life of this animal and then for the punishment of these men. I thought to myself, why would people do such a thing to an innocent creature. Why would they be proud of this accomplishment? How would they feel standing before God for this act of torture? I sobbed for them, for their souls, for their deeds, for the tragedy that occurred in this poor animal's life. I then thought about my savior and what he endured for me. I then thought more about why these men did this and the answer came. Hurt people, hurt people. In that moment, I realized that the only way a person could do something so tragic is if they themselves had been hurt and not healed. I then sobbed all over again for them and wondered what their lives were like, what their childhood's were like, what their parents and examples were like. I prayed for them and forgave them and thanked Heavenly Father for his Son Jesus Christ who allows these men to be redeemed if they seek redemption. Who allows his tormenters to be redeemed if they seek redemption. Who allows me to be redeemed, if I seek redemption. I felt a little bit more in the know about agency that day. I could understand how hard it must be for God to see this happen over and over again. I pray that cycles like these, cycles of pain, will be broken.
#5) When I first found and began becoming spiritually centered.
I started delivering pizzas when I was 27 and had three kids and a big pile of debt. I had accrued most of the debt. I had a car that I'd borrowed money on and then totalled. I had a credit card that I'd borrowed money on to build a business-a business I no longer wanted to do. A car payment on a van that I needed to haul my family. A student loan that I borrowed for to get a degree I hadn't used in 3 or 4 years. I felt like a failure and a mess and completely responsible for our debt-because I was. Anyway, my mother-in-law Lonnie had given me a cd set years before, entitled, "Becoming Spiritually Centered" I'd never had time to listen to it so I set it on my bookshelf saying, I'll get to that some day. Delivering pizzas is a lot of alone time with a cd player. I started by listening to audio books, then moved to the radio, and finally, I started looking at stuff I could listen to that would help me. I ran across this cd set from my MIL and I gave it a try. I remember putting the first cd in the player as I left the store and wondering what was going to be so cool about what this old guy was going to say. It never occured to me that he was going to give me exactly what the title described. He was going to teach me how to be spiritually centered. The more I listened to, the more I connected and before I knew it, it was all I would listen to. I went home and practiced what I was being taught and figured out how to be spiritually centered. It gave me the understanding that, though I had gotten us into debt, and I had done some stupid things, I was not a stupid person, God still loved me and wanted me to move forward. It was awesome! Pizza Deliveries gave me the time to practice listening to the spirit, praying, and showing gratitute.
#6) When I went in to repent to the bishop the first time after being married. Letting go of the sins of fornication, pornography, masturbation, and replacing them with joy and peace and confidence.
I got into pornography when I was young. Probably 9 or 10. My cousin Jenny came over to our house and showed me a magazine that Greg had that had people (what I later learned) having sex. There were body parts beautifully displayed and connecting with each other. I didn't exactly understand why Jenny was intrigued by it but after she left, I would go into Greg's room when he wasn't home and try to figure it out. It didn't take long before my body started to react to the messages I was sending it and I began masturbating. I didn't know that each time I did this secret porn looking and masturbation that I was pulling down my worth as a woman or a daughter of God. I just thought it felt fun and good and relaxing and I felt sexy. The older I got, the more frequent the occurrences and I found that I was having to masturbate to go to sleep or take a nap. I guess my body needed that release to relax. We joined the church when I was 10 and I was baptized and washed clean of all of my sins. I think after that point, I understood that what I was doing was wrong and I began to feel the Spirit or my conscience begging me to stop. I would stop here and there and then find myself caught up in it again. I never repented to the bishop and found myself drawn to sexy things and sex. I lied in my recommend interviews and went to the temple unworthily, feeling the weight of that. The devil got into my head and let me know that I wasn't worthy to marry a man in the temple so I should probably just give up that dream. I didn't marry in the temple or even feel worthy because of my unrepentant sin. I ended up having sex before marriage because sex was so common to me. I ended up staying away from the church because of my guilt of sex before marriage, lying to my family, friends, and bishop, and God. I felt the Lord call me back though, and when I returned, I felt his arms open wide. People were so accepting, loving, patient, and kind. I felt like I was home again. I went to church regularly and was called into the bishop's office. I was incredibly nervous to go, I thought he was going to punish me or yell at me or tell me I had to repent. Instead, he extended a call to me to be a teacher in Relief Society. I was shocked and amazed. I couldn't believe God wanted me to hold a calling where I taught other people the gospel. Me, who was worthless. I told the bishop I'd like the calling but I needed to repent. I told him all of the heavy things that had been on my heart for so many years. He listened and looked me in the eyes and frankly forgave me. I felt the power of these words down to my core. The spirit told me I was cleansed. The weight lifted from my heart. The pain that I carried was replaced by incomprehensible joy. I was amazed at the Lord's ability to forgive and to take that burden from me see easily. From then on, I've been so grateful, I've tried to show him in every way that I appreciate him and love what he's done for me.
#7) When I quit my job at Metal Arts to stay at home with our kids.
#8) When I went to emotional processing and learned that emotions could be worked through and that they didn't have to define our lives forever. That pain can be released through the atonement of Jesus Christ.
When I was younger I held some anger and resentment toward my step-dad. I didn't know it but it was manifesting itself in all kinds of crazy ways in my life. I was plagued by this resentment and didn't even know it. A friend of mine, April Bonnett was learning about how to let go of past emotions. She brought me to her house and helped me work through it. She had me lie down on her couch and tell her about my mom and step dad. What came out was my frustration that he was always verbally and emotional abusive toward her. I was so mad at him for that and I was trying to save her pain by carrying it for her. I learned that it didn't work that way. I learned that I wasn't using the atonement. I was trying to be her Savior. As soon as I recognized that, I gave the burden to my Savior and he took it from me. I've learned since that these old decisions can cause a lot of blockages and cause us pain but we can move through them through many different ways, typically just by bringing them in the light or by having someone else reframe them.
We highlight different parts of the human experience and through the gifts of the Spirit and our own intelligence we do our best to make sense of it all. In the scriptures, we're taught that to God, all things are spiritual and yet, here we are with a limited physical body and mind.and through our lives, we do our best to figure out what that means.
Comments
Post a Comment