Season 2: Episode 17 - Get Out of the Weeds: Wake up. Show up. Step up Into Your Kingdom Business!

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Welcome to the Joy-Inspired Podcast. I'm Mickey Cruz, and I'm thrilled to explore with you what it means to walk in a faith-infused business. This is your space to find powerful tools and insights, to build with resilience and to create impact through your unique purpose, discovering a joy that only God can provide. Together, let's embrace a business journey anchored in faith and empowered by joy. Let's jump in. Well, hello there, amazing peeps. How are you doing today? If you don't know where you're at, you're right here on the Joy Inspired Podcast, where we come up with faith, joy, passion, and purpose. And we incorporate all of those things into our business. Why? Because the joy of the Lord is our strength. And we no longer want to be having our faith over here and our business here. Because that really does cloud our joy when we have all the other things we put in place of what God is doing in our life. So for those of you who are coming back, welcome back. For those of you who are new here, my name is Nikki Cruz, known as the Joy Junkie. And I just love Jesus. He's my jam. But he gives me so much joy. And we're here to talk about building that business that aligns with your faith, that aligns with your values and that God-given purpose that each of us has. But doing it without shrinking back or playing small or burning out. And our guest today is one of those women who doesn't just talk about kingdom entrepreneurship. She walks it. She embodies it and activates it in others. She's a professional speaker, a business leadership, and entrepreneurial, entrepreneurial. See, I get tongue-tied there, strategy coach, and she helps ambitious women rewire doubt and turn it into fierce faith and bold action. And that's all rooted in 2 Timothy 1 verse 7. Friends, get ready. Grab your pen, grab your paper, grab your refreshments, because this conversation is about identity, authority, and becoming unforgettable in the marketplace. Debbie Chen, welcome to the Joy Inspired Podcast. I am so happy to have you here.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

I'm absolutely thrilled. Thank you so much for this opportunity and thank you for creating this platform of joy.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

You know, it's something I learned a while back. It's not worth living without it. And every week, folks, we are sharing some tips and some ways you can have joy in your life and business. Because sometimes we have guests on here, sometimes you just get to hear me yakking about joy. But when we have guests, they're sharing about how they are finding joy in life and business, they share their raw experiences from their heart. And Debbie does exactly that. She is an amazing woman. And the title of today's episode, in case you didn't catch it, is Get Out of the Weeds. From self-doubt to Kingdom Authority. Well, why? Because we all have Kingdom Authority. So Deb, I've heard you share a powerful childhood moment. When somebody tried to rename you, you know, when when we are walking in a name that isn't what God's given us, we don't have authority. Then we're walking in the counterfeit. But that moment planted a seed, but it didn't define you. How do labels, especially early ones, quietly shape women in business today? And if you can share a little bit of that story with us.

SPEAKER_00 4:49

Absolutely, absolutely. So just picture this little fourth grade girl standing on the playground, and all of a sudden the boys are just yelling across a playground. Hey, weeds! Weeds! Yeah, weeds. And I'm thinking, who are they talking to? Am I like covered in weeds? Am I standing in weeds? And and they go, Oh, yeah, you know what? She's got she's got like hair in her armpits, and so we're gonna call her weeds. My heart just dropped. And if the earth could have swallowed me up right then, that would have been great. And all I thought was in that moment was this could be a defining moment. Now, this is you know, I'm looking back at this, and as a fourth grader, this could have been a defining moment where I could either just shrink and run away or cry, or yeah, just shrink, basically, right? Or what I did instead, and I really feel at that time without knowing it, but I really felt like it was a Holy Spirit moment where when every my whole world could have changed, instead, I said, I decided I'm just going to laugh. And I'm gonna laugh with them, and so I told them, Hey, that's a great one. Good job. That was a great, great joke, and that diffused them, and they never brought it up again. And that was truly a defining moment that I look back on, but then there was also years after that that I kind of forgot about that time, where I really had stepped in and defined and said, you know, no, that that's not true what you're saying. That's a label that you want to stick on me, right? And even though I had overcome that and just said, no, I'm just gonna, you know, wipe it off, that years went by where I allowed other people's lies and names stick back on me again and attach themselves to me. And it was finally in the uh later years that I realized, no, what we really need to be doing is grab and recognize what that lie is, that label is, and say, well, well, wait a minute, what does God say I am? Who does he say I am? What is truth? And literally you just cut that out and you replace it with God's word and truth and what he says over you, what are um heaven's names for you, how are you seen in heaven? And and you just keep doing that over and over and over again. And it was very, very intentional for me. And it took two years because that's how many hooks, so to speak, I had to kind of pull out of me. And it also took that time, like what did they say? The the furthest uh way to uh what is that? What is that extortion? Uh the furthest uh distance is from here to here, and that's what it was. It was it took me that long to really understand how God sees me. And when I also learned how to hear his voice on a daily basis or moment by moment basis, I didn't know that. I had been a believer for so many years, but I didn't know that God speaks to us, not just through his word, we know that, but that it's tangible, audible, and that heaven has names for us. And when I started to realize that, no, it wasn't weeds, it was sunflower, it was refresher. Then all of a sudden, all the pieces came together and it made sense of who I am. And also that affects how I carry myself. And so um, just through that transformation, that's what led into me becoming the the business leadership coach that I am, because it um for both faith-forward audiences as well as universal, but God's truth is God's truth, right? Yeah, and God people can be receiving biblical principles without necessarily knowing it, you know, being covert. No, I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

Oh, absolutely, absolutely. We God works on the covert so often. Look at how He did it in scripture. But Dave, you brought up so many powerful things there, and I love how Myron Goldman says, you know, we are often walking around in our identity, not our identity, the lies of the enemy that are out there, and the world puts labels out there, we let them stick. The world doesn't put the labels on us, they put the labels out there, we let them stick. And the difference between a label and a name is a name speaks of who you are, a label speaks of what you're doing, and that is a big thing we misunderstand in the world, and we place our value in the labels, even in the wrong labels that we are carrying, and I think that is so powerful. We get to recognize it, we get to laugh at it. There is so much power in that story, and you cannot be walking in the fullness of joy when you're not being your authentic self. And if you don't know who and whose you are, excuse the cliche, you cannot be doing that. And Deb went from that place of only being a shadow of who she was, she knew the Lord, but she wasn't sharing his voice clearly. And a couple of you might be going, Well, well, how do I hear his voice? Um, how do I replace those lies? Oh, all these questions take a deep breath. We're gonna cover some of them. And there are so many more that might be opening up because the Holy Spirit might be stirring in your heart right now. But something I want to encourage each of you, and I want Debbie to address here is we don't often want to replace those lies with the truth because we're comfortable with the lies, even if they're not good for us. Deb, what happens when we don't throw out the lies and replace them with the truth?

SPEAKER_00 11:40

You know what actually uh just a word picture just came to mind where remember as a kid, mom would sew the label in your shirt, so you knew, or uh you know, let's say teachers or whoever would know that it's your shirt. You knew it was your shirt, but then what happens if you have someone else's label in your shirt? It doesn't belong to you. You're not meant to be wearing that. It's maybe probably most likely not going to even fit well, right? Because it's not your identity. It's not who you are, it's not your shirt, it's not what you're supposed to be wearing. And I I that's part of what happens. And also, I I will admit, well, I haven't admitted this to people in that time when I was just so much, I was just shrinking so much. I was playing so small because I was carrying the wrong identities that I was allowing that still all of those labels to have those hooks in me, that I have not even admitted that I was ashamed, embarrassed, felt less than to be in certain people's company. And the irony is if I ever tell them that, they'd be like, girl, what's wrong with you? Right? And they they would think that's pretty ridiculous. But that that's to the point of, I mean, that's where the enemy wants us. He wants us playing small, he wants us to stay asleep, and he wants us to be in our comfort zones. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 13:08

And what I've learned recently is we talk about what does it mean to obey the Lord? It's not a legalistic, you know, uh checklist that we have to check off. It's actually obedience is being uncomfortable. And it is. And so when we're digging out, I literally think of it as different diseases that we are digging out of ourselves, out of our spirit, out of our mind, our heart, and physically our body, as we know that's our organs even carry all those lies and labels and anger and frustration, you know, all those things in our very body. And and if we don't, we're walking around being diseased by those lies.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

Would you agree? I absolutely agree. And you know, that brings another thing when you a couple of things come to mind, and I do see that exact picture you described of us walking around in somebody else's clothes. Number one, their colors won't necessarily look good on you. So you don't look your best, and you end up starting to perform because you're not walking in your natural glow. So you get to walk in your own identity, and you might think, well, theirs is so much better. It's only better because they're wearing it. When you stand fully in your identity, it is the most beautiful you can ever be. You will never be as beautiful in somebody else's clothes. That was the one thing that that came to mind. But as you talk about those diseases, when we are striving and trying to be who we're not, and we're standing under the lies of the world, you're not good enough. All of those labels, those are the the not labels, the knots. Yes, the knots come from the enemy, the you ares come from God, and the you are we get to look at the positive things that God says about us, yes, yes, and yet we go, but but hang on, I'm not a speaker. How can I say I am a speaker? Because if God has shown that to you, you're just waiting for it to manifest. And I would encourage you to step into your identity by beginning to take the actions of your identity. If you have been physically sick, Dave was talking about it being diseases. Um if you have been physically sick and weak and you decide that that's your identity, you're never going to get up and exercise to get stronger. But if you start believing you're strong enough to go out and play, to do the things you want to do, you're going to start working towards it and taking the action. Because between here and here is action. Your mind thinks, your heart feels. To get the two to come together, you get to take the action. So powerful, so powerful. But it's not until you stand in your identity that you can recognize your purpose, it's not until you start living out your purpose that you can find the joy. And it's not until you're in that place that you can really stand in the authority God's given you. And that's where you start to have the confidence. And you went from that place of healing personally to launching a product in just 90 days. You didn't waste no time, did you? From um RD to upscale boutiques. So tell us a bit about that and what does walking in that authority that you now recognized you have look like in business?

SPEAKER_00 17:31

Yes, yes. So that was literally a wild ride. I really felt like the Lord just poured me into that 90-day period, that the Lord just poured me into a Ferrari, if you will. And I and He just gave me that picture and he said, get ready for the ride. I went, okay. Boom, you know, and it that's what it was. Um, that is a separate business that I have where it was completely Holy Spirit-led, that there was no rush, there was no stress. It was, I developed um some products for humans and for pets, and uh just everything just literally was falling into place. And I kept seeing the Lord come going, yeah, you know, I'm your CEO and look, look what I'm doing. And and it was, it was literally developing it, stepping out, being uncomfortable, right? Getting out of the comfort zone, uh, approaching some boutiques that I felt was a good fit for my product. And they said, absolutely, and I still have friendships with them even today. And and that was an example of where the Lord was a CEO, and I don't mean that in a you know, flipping way, you know, we hear that, but it it was more of it was resting in a peace. Um, it was a uh pausing in his presence, a selah, if you will, a time, that all that happened. I just remember feeling like I'm just kind of sitting back and this is this is all happening, right? And and then to address the the authority, you know, walking in authority is huge because, and I think it's a perfect segue where we're talking about when you know what your identity is, it's similar to um in the old days when the king would send out an ambassador. What would they have? They would have maybe a signet ring, something to show the authority that they're carrying, who they are representing. So he might be, if you will, Joe Chemo, but he's got the king's signet ring on. They know, oh, he's carrying the authority of the king, so we're not going to mess with him. He has the full authority, we're gonna show the same respect, if you will, right? And that was, do you think that that uh messenger, for example, that ambassador would carry himself differently? Yes. He wasn't just Joe Schmo, if you will, but he was representing the king as well as the entire country, kingdom, et cetera. And and that's where, like, especially when I work with my clients, is when you know what you're carrying, you show up differently. And the awesome opportunity as believers is that we literally can walk into a room, an event, and we can change the atmosphere because of who is in us.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

Yes. Oh, I love that. And the other thing is, and I think a lot of people feel, and it's I think the spirit is stirring this question in me, but if I show up in business as a Christian, doors are going to be closed to me. Folks, you cannot leave. That is who you are at the core. You cannot walk around without your core. I sometimes say to people, it's like now you want to walk around with no blood in your body. It's what keeps your body alive and going and it circulates through you. Does it mean, and I know you're probably tired of hearing me say this, does it mean you have to have a Jesus sticker on everything? No, you are the Jesus sticker, you are the light. And if a door is closed to you, maybe it's not one you should have been going through in the first place. Because there are allies and allied relationships. When that ambassador of the king goes out to the next community, people don't let him in. He either decides to go in under instructions from his king, hear me clearly, to conquer that, or knows that that is not where he should be and goes to find the place where he should be. And you know, Deb works powerfully, and this was my next question, which we've kind of gone there by mistake, talking about ministry and marketplace. We are kingdom entrepreneurs. Does it mean everybody talks about and teaches about and their products are all about Jesus? No. But their business is founded with Jesus, is run with Jesus. So talk to us about your thoughts on ministry and marketplace.

SPEAKER_00 22:23

Oh, this is so good. This is so good. I'm so glad you brought that up because one of the things that I've really been thinking about was because a lot of us believers will say, yes, but Jesus went into the temple, and what did he do? He toppled the tables. He you know strewed the money everywhere. Oh, so that must mean that you know we're not supposed to be involved in the marketplace. But if you read scripture even deeper and ask for that discernment, is he was toppling the tables because they were not running kingdom businesses. And so, in a sense, Jesus was disrupting these industries, um, and he was reminding us of that it needs to be a kingdom-based business. And what does that sound? And I know kingdom has kind of that term has been floating around, and a lot of people are not 100% sure what that means, but it's basically our job. Well, back up. How many times has Jesus said in the word, Behold, the kingdom of God is here or is near, either one, right? He says it over and over and over again. Why? Because he was saying, our job right now is to bring the kingdom to earth. We're supposed to bring heaven to earth.

unknown 23:40

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 23:41

And understandably, right, would you agree that a lot of people in the world would never want to step into a church? And here's the thing: I don't blame them. I understand why. But where do they go? The marketplace. Where are they going to encounter Jesus? In the marketplace, right? And again, yeah, you don't have to be all, you know, stickers all over and say, Oh, I love Jesus. You don't have to do that. But when we're doing our business differently, where we are disrupting industries, what does that mean? We are creative, like we were talking about, we want, you should be creating win-win, win, win-win situations. That's kingdom. Another one, bringing value above and beyond, like what Nikki does on a daily basis, is you know, I I feel you, I see you bringing that value upon value upon value. And that's not what the marketplace usually does. So, so it's that concept of people lean in and go, wow, she's bringing a lot of value. She's you know, she's going above and beyond, she's creating these win-win-win situations. What's different about her?

SPEAKER_01 24:56

Yes, right, and I think it's very sad, and I am going to boldly say this. In fact, we've had it in the last couple of podcasts. There are a lot of people saying they are kingdom businesses and using that name as a marketing label, but the fruit is not there. Kingdom means belonging to the kingdom of God and behaving as a citizen of God's kingdom, so representing his values. Now, we can make mistakes, some of us can be fallible. Do not feel like you cannot identify with being a kingdom person because somebody else has done it wrong. And to be very transparent here, God, I said to God, I don't want to use the word kingdom, but then I said the same thing to him when he called me out to be a leader. I said, I'm not a leader, I don't want to be a leader. And he said, You are a leader. I said, I don't want to be like those people who have hurt me when they've led me. And I I can almost feel a lot of people saying, Yes, yes, we've been hurt. Things have been misrepresented. But you know what God said to me? So don't be like them. Go out and stand up and do your best to be a leader that shines my light. Now, if you know me and if you've been in my world, you know that I don't do it perfectly. Surprise, surprise. I mess up and all the rest, but my goal is to be an outstanding godly leader. I want God to shine through me for two reasons. Number one, I want him to say, Well done. But I also want people to be impacted in the correct way that is going to bring transformation to their lives because I've led correctly. And there's always room for growth. Don't ever think you've got there, folks. But don't step away from what God's God's called you to because somebody else has misused or usurped it. We've seen too much of that in God's kingdom. And I could go on about that for hours. So you'll have to hold for that podcast. But so powerfully true that God also didn't say I go about my father's ministry, He said, I go about my father's business.

SPEAKER_00 27:51

Good point.

SPEAKER_01 27:51

So He intended for us to be in business. And if it's the business of sharing the gospel or the business of making a profit so that we can impact the kingdom in a different way, we are in line working our father's business. Yes. Yes. And then I can't let this go. I can't let this go. There is a whole study that's worth listening to, and I listened to Patricia King speak to it as well recently. The turning of the tables in the temple. One of the reasons why tables were turned in the temple was because that's what happened when they were closed for business for the day. That's what signified we're done for business for the day. So Jesus turned their tables to say this vendor is not working anymore today. He imposed that on them. Now, the original language used in the Greek can be interpreted as energetically did it or violently and aggressively did it. It can be read either way. I do not see Jesus anywhere else in scripture being violently and aggressive. So I tend to go with the energetically and passionately, he turned the table up so that the money launderers who were overtaxing people and doing unjust work and the people who were selling, and this is what was happening. The market outside the temple there was so that people could buy what they needed to sacrifice, and those were supposed to be the purest of animals, and they were putting sick animals out there. They were putting birds with broken wings, animals that were sick for the sacrifice. So not only were they cheating people, but they were creating dishonor to God in the sacrifice. It wasn't that God was saying don't do business, he was saying don't do business like that. And unless we as Christian entrepreneurs go in there and show people that there can be success and joy in business by doing it the right way. If we just steer away from that, instead of showing them what is possible, we're missing part of where we get to speak our voice. So now that I've been on my soapbox for a bit, this is why Debbie and I get on so well because we are so aligned and so much. And you know, Debbie has so much amazing wisdom. I'm sure we'll have her back for a second episode, but I just want to thank you for sharing your heart here, Debbie. You have wisdom, you have knowledge, and you now teach other people how to do exactly that. Tell us about what you're doing now, from coming from that place of being called names and having no identity. Talk to us.

SPEAKER_00 31:10

Yes, yes. No, and again, God has put me into a car. This time it's not a Ferrari, which I'm very thankful for because I and he was taking the wheel, thankfully, because you know, you have to know how to drive that, right? But now he's put me into a more conventional car, which I'm really thankful for, and has slowly been taking me step by step, um, driving me, you know, those miles and showing me how to drive, take the wheel and so forth, where that now everything has evolved into a business leadership program where we are waking up into our identity, we're showing, we're stepping, well, excuse me, we're waking up into our identity, we're showing up. What does that look like in your business? Well, that would be your not just communication skills, but your connection skills, which is so important, so overlooked, so overly assumed that we are making those connections, but we aren't. And this is all part of kingdom, right? So these are all biblical principles that are being applied. And then we are stepping up, we are stepping into that unforgettable type of leadership because that's it. We want to leave that fragrance of Jesus in the rooms that we enter. So we are um we are walking in our authority, we know what it is, we are um our identity, our authority, and then now we're stepping in and stepping up into leadership. And so that's what we do is um we train on all those basic skills of networking, how to really have that effect and leave that good fragrance in the room, if you will. Also speaking and communicating and the details of that, even your physical stage presence, as well as all the important leadership skills, as we because I do, I work with a lot of leaders who are already kind of up here, but we always need to up-level again, like we were kind of talking about that we're always up-leveling, always up-leveling. And again, um depending on the different industries, I've worked with nonprofit, with service industries, and so forth. And there's always opportunities to be a better communicator, to be a better networker, uh, and to show up better. So that's what we do.

SPEAKER_01 33:38

Isn't she just a powerhouse, folks? And you might be sitting there going, wow, how do I connect with this amazing lady? Well, you can connect with Debbie at where?

SPEAKER_00 33:53

Well, um, I actually I have a gift for you as well. And also in the notes um will be all my contact information. So not to worry, and I would love to connect and even just uh have a conversation.

SPEAKER_01 34:07

So if you were worried that you didn't have a pen, check the show notes. They've got all Debbie's details in there, and she's very generously left a gift for you. Make sure you click on it and download it. So be sure to connect with her. And if this episode blessed you, if this episode touched you, the identity, the having labels of other people, all the other little Holy Spirit squirrels we went on. And by the way, I saw Debbie sitting in that Ferrari, but God gave her a chauffeur too, and the chauffeur was driving her around because that's how God does things. And when she said a little later, you know, you have to learn how to drive those things. I just laughed because I realized that picture was so true of what God had done there. But if you had a giggle here, which I hope you did, if you were touched, if you felt something pulling at you, and you know another lady who needs to hear this, please be sure, tag her, share the episode because transformation happens when you hear, and then it goes from your head to your heart, and then you take action. So before we wrap up for the day, Debbie, any last-minute words of advice or wisdom you want to drop for our audience?

SPEAKER_00 35:39

I would love to share what my business is based on. The verse that God gave me through one of my tightest women was 2 Timothy 1.7. That and I want, we have heard it, but I want it to be absorbed and to be heard that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of love, a spirit of power and authority, and a spirit of self-mastery. And you can base your whole business on that. And that's just what I want to encourage you. And just as a side note, too, um, I just wanted to add in there that many of you are in industries, network marketing, direct sales, etc., where you might feel like you have to fit into a mold, like what your upline is telling you to do or or whatnot. Um that you don't have to be that. You need this is where you get to stand out in your industry because of who you are and who you carry. That's my encouragement for today.

SPEAKER_01 36:46

I love that. Thank you so much, Debbie. Thank you. Go away and and nurture the treasures God's put in your heart from this episode. If you need to make a little note of something and stick it on your wall, do it. Let the Holy Spirit bring out the action that's going to remind you what you heard here that had an impact. I thank you all for being here. And Debbie, thank you so much again. I know we could talk for hours. It is such a blessing, and I'm so privileged and honored to know you, to connect with you, and to see our relationship grow. So, for the rest of you, have an amazing, joyful day, and I look forward to seeing you next week. Blessings. Bye all. Bye. Thank you so much for joining me on the Joy Inspired Podcast at www.joyinspiredpodcast.com. Make sure you hit that subscribe button so that you can get this and every other episode that comes out. We have lots of great stuff coming, and you don't want to miss it. So make sure to hit that subscribe. I am so grateful for all the reviews and comments, and I look forward to serving you in next week's episode.