You're listening to Women in Feast Radio, where women in the marketplace connect with purpose and spirit, where the conversation covers all things women, business and fascinating fame. And now, your host, Kristi Lynn Olson. Hey everyone, this is Kristi Lynn Olson. Before we start today's episode, I wanted to ask you a question.
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There's going to be a link in the show notes so you can just click right on that. So why don't you come along, get informed, and join me on this beautiful mission at BeautyCounter. Hello and welcome back to Women and Views Radio Podcast. I'm so excited that you're here today, and this is episode four of the Unveiled Voices series, helping you to not only understand who you are, but to help you understand the power of your calling as you start to release your value, your voice, and your vision to the world.
Your calling is that thing you're made for, that message you're meant to share with the world in all you think, do, and say. It's how you are meant to show up in the world. It's that mountain that you are assigned by having to climb. In my personal experience, this step in the unveiling your voice process is both the scariest and the most exhilarating.
It is the winch pan of your success going forward. This is where the rubber hits the road, so to speak. It potentially be that moment in time where all you've done up to this point and all you've ever dreamed of doing starts to come together. It's a releasing of sorts.
Instead of telling yourself you can't do this, you begin to realize that you can't not do this. Do you see the difference? It's a burning desire inside that will wake you up every day and you just know that it will be more painful to stay the same than it will be to change as you step into your divine message and begin to speak your moment's call, compelled by change and empowered by faith to risk all and freely reveal the value of your voice. You will be empowered by faith to risk it all.
Do you realize that you only need one ounce more faith than fear to be successful? That's it. One more ounce. Fear and faith can't inhabit the same space and one of them has to go.
And you get to choose which one has to go. What will it be? Fear or faith? Which will it be for you?
What are you ready to release in order to realize the dream? It's your choice. And it might encode a little downsizing in some areas of your life in order to make room for your dream. And hang on to fear and stop here or choose one more ounce of faith and move ahead.
It's all about today's yes. In episode number three, I talked about just getting one step at a time of the strategy that God will lay out for you. Imagine yourself walking down a dark lit path and all you have to guide you is a lantern held in your hand. It radiates just enough light to show you where to take the next step and you take that step.
And then the lantern shines just enough light on the next step. And eventually you will reach your destination one step at a time. And so it is with your big dream and the message you have to share. The light from one step at a time will be sufficient to get you to the bigger vision.
Now can you shine a light on today that will move you one step forward? That's all we're talking about one step forward. Don't worry about how to get to the end right now. Don't let fear take hold.
Don't let procrastination take hold. And don't let perfection take hold. Procrastination is really a form of perfection. And God's not looking for perfect.
He is looking for an available and teachable spirit. Second Chronicles 16 verse 9 tells us, For the eyes of the Lord move to and for all throughout the earth that he may strongly support those whose heart is completely his. Did you hear that? So that he may strongly support those whose heart is completely his.
That's all he wants. So again, it's not perfect. He's not looking for perfect. He's looking for that available and teachable spirit.
Now each of these things, perfection and procrastination will stop you dead in your tracks, especially when you're on the brink of moving up to that next big thing. There are two key principles in this fourth step. The first one is this. I want you to take a look at what's in your hand.
What resources do you already have? Who do you already know that could help you move forward in your vision? What gifts, abilities, skills, talents, then includes time, money, influence, do you already possess? How many women entrepreneurs think that they have to get another degree or wait until they have all their children in school or save up more money before they invest in their dreams?
And not just entrepreneurs. Really that anyone, any woman in the workplace, I hear that a lot. They just think they can't do that next thing until they go back to school. And I love school.
I could stay in school forever, but that's not going to move me toward my dreams because it just keeps me in learning mode and it keeps me out of action mode. But I want to challenge you to look at what you already have and know to do. If you truly need training in a specific area, get it. But don't use it as an excuse to stop you from stepping up and getting into action on your dreams.
You just need to learn along the way. There's a story in the Old Testament. Now remember, I come from a background and I'm going to talk about women in faith. There's a story in the Old Testament about a woman named J.L.
who killed an evil man named Cicero to deliver Israel from the troops of King J.V. by hammering a tent peg through his temple while he slept. Who says the Bible is boring? Now I want to read that complete story to you right now.
You can follow along if you want to open your Bible to Judges 4, verse 21, or just listen. It's a short story, but I want to make sure you kind of get what was going on before we look at the moral of the story. So verse 17 actually is where I'm going to start. But Cicero fled away on foot.
He's the evil man that's trying to kill God's people. Cicero fled away on foot to the tent of J.L. The wife of Hebrew the Kenite. For there was peace between J.V.
and the king of Hazer and the king of Hebrew the Kenite. And J.L. came out to meet Cicero and said to him, Turn aside my Lord, turn aside to me, do not be afraid. So he turned aside to her into the tent and she covered him with a rug.
And he said to her, please give me a little water to drink for I am thirsty. So she opened a skin of milk and gave him a drink and covered him. And he said to her, stand at the opening of the tent and if any man comes and asks you, is anyone here? Say no.
So he died. And behold, as Barak was pursuing Cicero, J.L. went out to meet him and said to him, come and I will show you the man whom you are seeking. So he went into her tent and there lay Cicero dead with the tent peg in his temple.
Now the moral of the story is this, J.L. used what was already in her hand, what she was already familiar with and skilled in to fulfill her mission. And it was previously prophesied that the battle would be won at the hand of a woman. What lessened came to be a woman.
And it was previously prophesied that the battle would be won at the hand of a woman. What lessened can you and I learn from this? Three things I want to list that we can learn from J.L. The first is this, get familiar with your process.
J.L.s people moved from place to place and she was familiar with the process of constantly taking down their tents and putting them back up. Remember, they were no mads and they moved from place to place. This is something she did over and over to the point that it was so familiar to her that she didn't even have to remind herself how to do it and the tools she used were comfortable in her hands. I imagine she would have complete confidence in knowing how to do this work.
So get familiar with your process. It's that thing you do that is going to be in your business or in the community, whatever you do, whatever you teach. Get so familiar with your process that you know it backwards and forwards and use the tools in your hand until they become so comfortable that you don't even have to think that you're picking them up. Number two, be confident and assured of the outcome.
J.L. went softly to him. It says she didn't need to draw attention to what she did. She was not only comfortable and confident, but she was assured of the outcome.
That's how we build up our own faith. We do something over and over again until we are so confident and comfortable that we don't have to shout and wave our skills in front of everyone just to get a little attention. We can confidently do our work and it will stand on its own merit and fulfill the promise of victory. So be confident and assured of the outcome.
Number three, don't miss your moment. J.L. didn't hesitate in the moment. She took the moment or the opportunity for what it was and moved forward to do that thing that she had been training for all her life.
Remember it said she went out to meet him and used what she had, what she was familiar with and with the inspiration that she had in her spirit. And now her name is infamous in history for generations to come. She took swift action when her moment came. Don't miss your moment because you didn't use what was already in your hand.
And don't discount what's in your hand as old, unusable, or familiar. Breathe new life into it if you have to. Look at it from a different perspective and don't be too quick to disregard it as insignificant. It could be that very thing that you think is unusable or old that God wants to use to provide for you or to take you to another level.
Yes, it's as simple as that. The second key in this principle is start talking about it. It's as simple as that. No additional skills or training required.
Just start talking about it out loud, not in your head. The power of life and death is in your tongue. Speak it out. Tell anyone who will listen.
Don't kill your dreams by being silent. Just start the conversation. Better yet, leave the conversation. Oh yes, there will be naysayers, but carry on.
I have found that whatever clarity I was still lacking came out into the open once I stood up and just started talking about my message. It gave me a platform to kind of shift and change and mold the words I wanted to use and the approach that I wanted to take. And it helped me find those exact words that would resonate with whomever I was supposed to reach. And then I could clearly communicate the vision.
Amazing things will happen when your vision moves from your head to your voice. We need your voice. And if we don't get the privilege of hearing your voice, the conversation will be unbalanced. Like a square table with only three legs.
Unbalanced and unstable. Not much use at all. There are so many ways that you can start talking about your message and vision. Speaking can take on all forms of communication.
It could be social media, blogging, writing a book, an e-book, a workbook, offering an online course, groups, meetup groups, professional associations, networking. Have coffee with someone and just share. And don't forget about the power of a book. I'm going to talk about that for a minute.
Writing a book or an e-book. Remember, God is an author and finisher. And if we are designed in His image, that means we are too. So we need to tell our story and maybe we need to write our story in a book.
And maybe only five people are going to read it. Maybe one person will read it. But sometimes you do need to think about is it time to write a book or an e-book. Now let me give you a small piece of advice.
If you know you have a negative nelly in your midst. Don't start by telling them all about your vision. They will hear about it soon enough. And honestly, sometimes our own families are the last ones to get on board with the vision.
Perhaps you can join a mastermind group, a Facebook group, and try out different ways of telling your message. Ask for feedback and take note on what is resonating with your tribe. If you don't have a tribe, find one. My point is this.
You have to hone your message and just start to freely reveal the value of your voice. Your voice and your message will have value if you've taken the time to learn what you need to learn. To ask yourself the tough questions about who you are and what has brought you to this exact moment and who you are here ultimately to serve. Let me tell you a secret about speaking your moment's call.
It's not about you. It's about who you are destined to serve and about how you can show up with love, grace, and integrity to add value to someone else's life. To take all those difficult life lessons or successes you've had and help another soul along their journey. Did that surprise you?
That it's not about you? To be honest, when I understood that concept, it took a lot of pressure off me. It was up to me to just show up and it was up to God to do all the heavy lifting, as long as I was doing my part in pressing into his presence in my life. Don't be afraid to speak your moments call or let anyone tell you it's already been said or done.
Only you are uniquely wired and designed to release your message to the world in your way to reach the people that God will put in your path. The most effective tool we have is Women of Faith in our hand is the Word of God. So here's my favorite part of the podcast, The Word Unveiled. Esther 4 verse 14, If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die.
Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this? So don't keep quiet. This is your time. And who knows?
Why wouldn't you be made for such a time as this? So I want you to grab your scepter, put on acute parachutes, and own your vision with all the authority of heaven backing you up. Just like Esther did. Here's your action challenge for the day.
Speak. Start to release your message. Write it. Blog it.
Put it out on social media. Talk to your circles of influence about it. Get feedback. List three things you can do right now in the next 30 days to start speaking about your message.
Tell three people this week about your big vision and see what unfolds. This has been Women Infused Radio, connecting women around the globe with purpose and spirit. And we want to connect with you. Get your free gift, Unveiled Voices, six things you need to do to define your value, voice and vision.
For more information on the free gift and links to do in the conversation on social media, visit us at christylinnalston.com