Copy of 173 | Freedom in Business: Finding the Goodness in the Hard Things that Will Come
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[00:00:00] Hey friends. Welcome back to the Called to Lead podcast. So I'm excited to continue the series that I've been doing all around Freedom in Your Business. So Freedom is one of our 12 core values for our new direct sales company, restore Collective. But it's also what most of us are looking for in the business model of direct sales, network marketing, or honestly just in life in general. And so this episode I'm going to be talking about. Finding the freedom in the hard things that will inevitably and have probably already come to you in your business and how there's freedom and goodness found even in the little things, the big things, or the really long seasons of your life and business that can sometimes feel really hard.
So, we're gonna dive into this and give you some specific tips on how to shift your perspective on this in today's episode. So let's dive in.
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Okay, so you might not think of freedom, especially the kind of freedom that you are looking for in your direct sales business as being found in the [00:02:00] really hard things that you're gonna go through in your business. Whether it's like the little mistakes that you make, or the little decisions that you wish you hadn't done, or the things you wish you had said, or wish you hadn't said, or the little cares in your brain.
to the big things that happen in your life and your business, or even the long seasons of struggle and suffering. And so we're gonna talk about all of the hard things today and how to overcome them specifically to achieve freedom even in the hard aspects of your business.
So. It's really important to have the right perspective when it comes to these hard seasons or hard days in your life and business. And for me, my life verse, or the specific scripture that has just really helped me to stay grounded in some really tough seasons of my life and business and even tough things that happen day to day, even like yesterday that I'll share with you guys.
That is Romans 8:28, which says that, and we know that the [00:03:00] Lord works all things together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. And so I love this so much because you have been called to a specific purpose. God loves you and he has goodness. Planned for even the hard things in your life or your business, whether that's from your own doing, which certainly I have a lot of that, or from external factors that aren't from him, but that he does allow because he's sovereign over those hard things that ultimately do shape us into who we were created to be.
And going back to the verse, it's all. For the purpose that he created us to do while we're here on this earth. So this is the Called to lead podcast, right? I truly feel that for me personally, that calling specifically in my business or my income generating side of things and the way that I can impact the kingdom,~ uh, of,~ of business~ and,~ and, you know, the business of network marketing, but also the Lord's Kingdom is through this leadership.
Endeavor, [00:04:00] right, what I've been called to do. But if you notice in that verse, it doesn't say that all things are going to be good. It says that all things will work together for our good. And so, you know, it's so easy, especially for someone who maybe isn't a believer or who's a baby believer or, or someone who even.
Maybe is a Christian that feels like things are just gonna go well in their life. Well, I can promise you that also, scripture promises us that in this world we will have trouble. And it's not fun, it's not easy. And sometimes when you're pursuing those purposes and those callings in your life, they can get even harder.
In small ways, in big ways, whether it's you in the temptations and you know, the, the sin, human nature that we all have, or whether, again, it's coming from something that has nothing to do with you, it's more externally focused things. So we're gonna break this down into three things. One is going to be the little things.
And [00:05:00] the way that you can ~overcome those, those the~ find freedom ~and the hard ~in ~that ~the little things. Then we're gonna talk about the big things, which are the things that again, are usually out of your control that just kind of wreak havoc over your life. And then we're gonna talk about the longs.
Things, the long seasons or stretches that you have to have that number one, eternal perspective. But number two, you've gotta have a long-term vision in order to get through it. And you've got to believe that goodness can come from those hard things. So let's start with the first one, which is the little things that are going to come up in your life and your business every day.
And so I'm gonna use an example actually of my own that just happened yesterday and that was I was sending our, our very first recognition email. We call it a restore recap . And right now, in case you missed it, we are in the season of a pre-order soft launch that we have invited our focus group to be a part of.
So. Likely. If you're a listener of this podcast, you may [00:06:00] already be a part of the focus group. If you aren't, I'm gonna need you to go maybe search the hashtag Restore Collective and go find someone on Instagram because you, my friend, can now enroll or purchase. Not all of the products are in stock, some are pre-order, but you can enroll or purchase by using the password from one of our.
~Either, um,~ founding partner mentors, or from anyone that has enrolled on the branch of one of those founding partner mentors. So I'm so excited to officially announce that as the recording of this podcast, we have right at 400 partners and advocates, which blows my mind even in the soft launch, pre-order alone.
And it's about to get real crazy here when we go for our public launch. So if, you know, there's not like a meant to be like ~a,~ a get in, ~you know,~ sense of urgency. Actually, it's the opposite of that. We want this to be an intentional, slow rollout. But if you are a longtime listener of this podcast, or you've ~stu ~stumbled upon this today, I wanna invite you to connect with someone if you feel led to be a part of what we're doing [00:07:00] officially by trying the product or by diving in as an advocate or a partner.
So get with someone,~ um,~ who has decided to join. There's 400 of them, so. Dive in for that today, but yesterday I actually sent our first restore recap, which is gonna be our monthly recap email where I share stats, which if you're a longtime listener of the podcast, you know, I'm a stat nerd and so I'll be sharing the things with the company, but also some recognition.
And so I put together this, this email, and I loved every minute of being able to see the beautiful faces of people who are already off and rolling in their business. And I hit send. And our email software, it's this brand new system, said, Hey, would you like to send this as a text message? And I was like, well, yes, in fact I would.
And we have fancy systems set up to where all of our partners and advocates have been connected to this text system. So I thought, sure, let's do it. So I hit the button, it populated this really cool, what I thought was like a link to the email that I just sent. And it said [00:08:00] something like, restore, recap, blah, blah, blah.
Click here. So I, I hit, I hit, yep, let's send it, let's send it to all of them. And I did it too quickly. And you guys, we sent, and by we, I sent that text message, which had a broken, incorrect link to every single brand new partner and advocate, which is obviously not ideal, but then it gets worse. Guess what I did a couple hours later I was like, oh, I know what's wrong.
I didn't share that was the wrong link. I need to go in and and redo this. And so I sent a Whoopsies text message, same thing, typed it all out, shared the link, what I thought was the link to the email. 'cause I'm used to using Flow Desk. If you know me, I'm a Flow desk junkie and I think it's the best for running your network marketing business.
But we are using a. Different email software for the corporate side because it's much more robust because of these automations that happen with our commission software and our website and all of that good stuff. So anyway, I'm not used to this, but I am, I was used to just sharing a link to the flow desks emails.
Well, apparently that's not how it works on [00:09:00] this platform, because I sent a second text that literally said, whoopsies, here's the correct link. Guess what? It was not the correct link. It worked for me because I was logged in, but if you're not logged into my backend, which none of the people receiving, it would've been, it wasn't gonna work.
And so what could I do in that moment except, but to realize this is a, just chalk it up to what it is, which is a. mistake It's a personal mistake than I can own, but it's one of those little hard things that I can see the freedom and the goodness in if I look hard enough. So you're gonna have little things like that happen to you and by you all throughout your business.
And it's a matter, the solution to it is shifting your perspective. And here's an example. I remember learning from one of my coaches. That I think I've even interviewed on this podcast. ~Um,~ Alex McMillan is his name, so you can search. I think it might have even been on my Stories of Life podcast, but you can search this up, but he taught me that a [00:10:00] mistake.
So this is something that you get wrong like I did yesterday. A mistake isn't a bad thing. All it is is it's a miss. Take. So to use the analogy of like, if you're an archer, right? And like you're stepping up to shoot, you know, a bow and arrow at the bullseye, most of the time you're actually gonna get it wrong, right?
And the only way you're gonna actually get closer and closer and closer to hitting that bullseye is to shoot more and more and more error arows. And so that mistake that I made, now I am. Oh for two and sending out mass text messages to, to our entire field, which I'm gonna put a pause on that until I can maybe.
Figure it out, how to do it well or right or better delegate it to someone who probably should be doing that to begin with. But it's, it's a mistake because it, I missed the mark. Right? But those two times, I guarantee you the next time I'm gonna be able to do it better. Right now, I know that I cannot share a link to the email specifically.
Now [00:11:00] I know that I can't. Just press the button to say, yes, please send this exact same thing in a text message or make assumptions on that. And so I've learned something that's gonna make me better at my job, even if my job is now delegating it to someone who probably would have not made that mistake to begin with.
Right. I. And so the mistake that I made and that I will continue to make as the, you know, founder of this company and that you, my friend, will also make in your business. It's for me and it's going to make me better at everything that I'm doing. And so. Look at the little things that are happening in your life and business.
And my husband, and this kind of works for the big things too, but he, ~he, um,~ loves Jocko Willink. And if you haven't looked this up, and maybe I can link it in the show notes, but he has a video called Good. And when you have these mistakes happen, that's got to be your perspective. And the antidote to finding the freedom in the heart is just to say, you know what?
Good. Good that I sent this message twice to our entire field. [00:12:00] Good. That this person returned her order. Good that this person couldn't get enrolled the way that she wanted to or, or made this mistake because I can promise you I have seen time and time again, and I'm sure you have as well, where the Lord can and will work those small things together for your good and just like you could maybe get.
Stuck in traffic, but that's the kind of thing that could delay you from being a part of a car accident or you know, maybe that is what made you come across as the hot mess mom, that I know most of us are, right. That made the person feel like, oh, okay, I don't have to have this all together in order to do this business.
Whatever it looks like. Those mistakes that you can and will make are the little things that are gonna happen. The hard things in your business, if you shift your perspective and look at them for the good, it can be a game changer at finding freedom in the hard things. So the second thing are not little things.
They are the big things, and sometimes these are things that happen. Like [00:13:00] against your will, and they are really hard. And so a lot of us in the business model of network marketing over the last year in particular have really struggled with some of these big decisions, these big things that were.
Decisions that were made kind of for us, right? I, as you know, if you've followed this podcast for any length of time, was all in with my previous company. Still wish the best for them. Still love them and hope and pray that their change of direction is what? You know, it's gonna be a blessing for, for those that are involved.
But for me, when they decided to go away from the business model of leadership and direct sales, it was heartbreaking. And it was a big thing because not only was it the loss of income for my family, it was the loss of what felt like my purpose, right? Like that was what I felt specifically led by the Lord to go all in on, only to have it.
Taken away against my will. Right? [00:14:00] And even though I knew again simultaneously that it could be both the right decision for the founder of that company to make that decision for her business and for even some of my friends and people that I love dearly for their business, right. I knew it wasn't right for me.
But what I didn't know was how to find freedom in the suck or find freedom in the big, hard thing that I was facing. And so what I did is I just prayed and I was like, Lord, you know, I know that you're gonna work all this together for my good. And I do not see how you're going to do that in this moment.
But I know that you have a plan and I know that I'm looking to you for direction and guidance on that plan, and I just ask that you show me the way. And my friends looking back now, almost a year later. I can absolutely see how the Lord was working. Even that major hard, one of the hardest things, probably the hardest thing I've ever been through in business to be worked together for my good because now I get to do something that's [00:15:00] even bigger, even better than I imagined.
Not just for myself, not just for my family, and guys that might not even reflect in the same level of income. I'm not trying to, I mean, well, Roger and I, let's be real now that we have, do have some income rolling in, it would be nice to get. You know, continue to get paid to get paid a little bit, but I'm not even anticipating trying to make the kind of revenue that I used to make in my network marketing business, because I wanna help you do that.
And I know that by helping you do that, it will be fulfilling for me. It's gonna give me the freedom that I need and it will bring freedom to our family in pursuing that passion and that purpose in something that I couldn't even see coming. Right. And if you've heard my story, this is also a 20 year or no, probably even more.
It's like a 30 year answered prayer for the dreams and desires of having or being an executive in the beauty industry. That was the seed. That's what I went to college for you guys. That's literally what I wanted to do with my life. And now here I am, 20 something years later, getting to do that with my husband, and it's just such a blessing and such a special thing.
And so. [00:16:00] If you have experienced hard things in your life or your business, and if you're not yet through that, that season to see where there's been, goodness that that can come from it. I want to encourage you that it can and it will. And the antidote to this solution is to look at each of these problems or these, this loss of income or the loss of whatever it is that, that, you know, the hard thing in your life as an opportunity.
And truly it is. Like that's what. That decision being made for me, it gave me an opportunity to say, okay, Lord, my life is in your hands. I know that I love to work and I'm not going to just retire. And I know that I'm not, not personally called to be a stay at home mom. So like, what is it that you want me to do?
And it's an, it was an opportunity for me to trust in him first, but it was an opportunity for me to. Essentially do whatever it was that he called me to do. And so look at those hard things, whatever that looks like for you as an opportunity to put your [00:17:00] trust in him, to trust that there will be goodness to come from it.
And just to pursue that next path, knowing that it could be something even bigger than you imagined, or dreamed, or would've longed for, had that hard thing not happened to you or for you. So that's the number two. Number three is when it's the long seasons of hard in your life or your business. And I know that in this season, and I'll share another example of this.
I was actually just talking about this with Lyndsay, one of our founding partner mentors today, that I had this huge realization that almost exactly, let's see, 12, 11 years ago, like. Yeah, almost exactly this month. It was, I remember having this breakthrough moment in church. I was in the toughest season of my entire life.
I was, I was hormonal. I was about a year post baby, post my second baby. ~I was,~ Roger and I were just full transparency, really struggling in our marriage. I felt terrible. I. Looked [00:18:00] pretty rough. I was trying to balance a business, my, my boutique business with, I was president of Savannah Fashion Week and I was like wrestling with the Lord.
If you haven't heard that story, it's a crazy one. Maybe I'll share it another day. But I was just in the depths of despair and the hardest season that I've ever been in my life. And I went to church that week and Pastor Harrison, who I've also interviewed on the podcast, you can search his, ~uh,~ his episode up as well.
That sermon was on the parable of the sower, and I just remember praying. So hard that, Lord, I just wanna be good soil. I wanna be good soil. And it took all the little things, all the hard things, and it gave me one thing to focus on. One thing that the Lord promises us, that if we look to him to do that, that he can transform our hearts and he can make us new.
And so I did give my life to Christ and. You know, I, I handed it all over to him and he's completely transformed, but it was not a quick fix because let me tell you, even a year [00:19:00] later, that next year, which was our 10th wedding anniversary, this coming up week is gonna be our 20th year anniversary. So that was 10 years ago, right?
Roger looked at me and he said, at church, actually, a year later, he said. The next 10 years of our life in our marriage cannot look like the last 10 years. And so he wasn't saying that we weren't gonna have 10 more years, but he was saying that they better things, better change. And I had mistaken my priorities and gotten them way out of whack.
In that season where I was serving in multiple ministries and what I thought was me serving the Lord was really serving other people outside of my family. And I had to shift my perspective to really get things right in order to get back on the right path. And guess what? It took a lot of time and it took 10 years.
To get to this point where not only do I feel like, okay, I think I have good soil, yay, praise God, or I hope I am, and I have to stay in the alignment with the Lord and stay close to the vine, right, in order to be able to do that. But now I don't think it's ironic that when we're starting [00:20:00] this new company.
The industry's term is a field that now we have a field that is ripe for harvest, where we are planting seeds and we are sowing hopefully the goodness and even the hard things, right? And we are pouring into you guys. But guess what? Just like planting a seed or planting a beautiful flower or a fruit or anything in the earth, you're gonna have to grow through the dirt and it's not gonna be a pretty or a light filled experience until you kind of break through that hard ground and get to the surface.
And so when you're in those seasons of suck and the hard things, which a great book,~ um, oh shoot. Oh man.~ What is the name of the book? ~Um, ~grow Growing Slow. Growing slow. Jennifer Duke's Lee Growing slow, I think is what it's called it, when I went through another hard season of loss last, ~uh,~ gosh, in the fall of 2023 when I, I lost, ~uh,~ my, one of my best friends, ~uh,~ one of my leaders and my [00:21:00] hairstylist to breast cancer, to her battle for breast cancer.
It threw me into another season of. Just one of those hard long seasons where I couldn't see, I was, I was submerged in the dirt. And that book Growing Slow, Jennifer Dukes Lee was such a blessing to me. And it, there's a lot of analogies on that. So if you are in one of those seasons of Sucks right now, or where it feels like a long, hard season.
I want you to know that first of all, the most important thing is to have an eternal perspective. That again, in this world we will have trouble, but that the Lord can and will work it all together for good, hopefully here in this life. But we've got to have that, that perspective. I just wrapped up my write the word journal, ~um,~ today, and it was in Revelation that the Lord will wipe away every tear.
He is going to make a new home for us, right? A new Earth and. Hopefully that's, you know, what this looks like at the end of this life. None of us really know, but there's so much out there. Heaven by Randy Alcorn is another really great book you can listen to if you wanna more of an eternal, ~uh,~ [00:22:00] perspective, but when you have that eternal perspective, and then you can also have the perspective that the Lord can and will work this season together for good, that 10 years from now, a year from now.
20 years from now, your life can look different from where it is now, but it's gonna take time. It's gonna be hard, but you can shift that perspective, that long-term vision, and you can get through it. Because especially if you are just getting off the ground and you're in your direct sales business, and if you are a brand new partner, advocate and restore.
We're just getting going guys, and it is a long game. It's a marathon, not a sprint for all of us. Doesn't matter. What your business looks like right now in this season, or if you're listening to this years down the road, as in the podcast, you're getting started in your business and it is a long game and there will be some things that are gonna be hard.
And so just keep that perspective. Hold fast to that truth, have an eternal perspective, and know that the goodness can and will come, especially when you've been called according to your purpose. So my friends, I'm gonna say a prayer [00:23:00] for us. Lord, thank you so much for just showing us that there is so much goodness, even in the hard, even in the suck, and that we can find freedom and even joy and peace despite the little things, the big things and the long seasons of suck in our life and in our business.
And if someone who is listening to this is going through one of those things right now, whether it be a big thing, whether it's just the little things or even like the little, little cares and the anxieties, or the overthinking or the fears. Or the doubt or the uncertainties, whatever those, those hard things that they're going through, little big or long, just help them to shift their perspective to know that you are good, that you are for us, and that.
Things are not always gonna be easy and they, we will have trouble in this life, but that there is freedom found in you and in the goodness to come in this life and beyond. And so just thank you for those listening. Thank you for those who've entrusted us on their journey with Restore and just help us to keep this perspective [00:24:00] moving forward and help us to find freedom in this together.
In Jesus name, amen. All right, friends, thank you so much for listening. I hope you all have a beautiful week and next week we'll have one last episode on finding Freedom in your business. So get excited. Thanks friends.
