You're listening to Women Infused Radio, where women in the marketplace connect with purpose and spirit, where the conversation covers all things women, business, and fascinating faith. And now, your host, Christy Lynn Olson. Welcome to Episode 15 of the Women Infused Podcast Radio Show. Today, my guest is another co-author from a recently published book series entitled, We Walk by Faith and Not by Sight, Women of Faith in the Marketplace.
It's a two-volume book set that includes inspiration and encouragement from 19 women in a variety of professional careers throughout the United States. It's available on Amazon.com, so make sure you click on the link in the show notes to order your copies today. I have to tell you that I was beyond blessed to be able to gather these women together, publish their stories of perseverance and persistence in their chosen fields. But more importantly, I have had the honor of interviewing them for our radio show.
In these interviews, I was able to go beyond what they wrote in their chapter of the book and really do a deep dive of the path that God has them on and how he has woven his story throughout all of their lives. Being a woman of faith in the marketplace is not always easy, and just like any other challenge we face, it takes perseverance and persistence to keep going and pressing through life's challenges, keeping it all together for our families, and continuing to be that shining light in spite of our circumstances. It's in that space between tragedy and triumph that we learn the most about who we are and whose we are as mighty women of faith, just walking out our kingdom calling and wanting to be in alignment and on assignment for God's will for our lives. And that excites me, to share our stories and learn from each other.
I have truly learned and received more from these 19 women than they will ever know. I am honored that they chose to share their stories with us. So today, I want to introduce you to Lynette Dutton. Lynette and I were connected together on Facebook, I think about six years ago.
And at the time, I was living in Minnesota, and she had just moved from Texas to North Carolina. Little did I know that two years later, I would be moving to North Carolina, just about an hour away from her. She reached out to me and invited me to her women's conference just a few months after we arrived and welcomed me into her circle-like family. I can't tell you how much that impacted me as a northerner who found herself in the South.
It's a complete culture shock. No, seriously, it is. Not bad, just different. And today, we have not only become what I call Covenant sister friends, but business and ministry partners as well.
I'll share more about that later at the end of our interview. Lynette Dutton has held many leadership roles, both in corporate America and the church over the last 20 years. She is a speaker, trainer, coach, recruiter, and a co-pastor. In 2011, Lynette completed her coaching certification through the world-renowned Dream Releaser Coaching by Dr.
Samuel Chan. In 2012, Lynette continued her pursuit for leadership excellence by joining the John Maxwell team. She was the recipient of Hope for Women's Magazine 2014, 25 Women Who Inspire. Lynette has had her own TV show, Leading Life and Loving It, and has a weekly podcast called The Unstuck Woman.
Lynette and her husband, Dr. Joseph Dutton, have been married 25 years. They have two children, Destiny and Benjamin, and one beautiful grandchild, Teagan. I can attest to the fact that she's beautiful and spirited.
Lynette is a recruiter in the financial industry and a leadership trainer. She also has a channel on the Women Infused Broadcasting Network, so make sure you download the free Women Infused app available on Apple and Google Play stores. Then go to the At Work Network to find her Unstuck Woman on-demand broadcasts. To learn more about Lynette and connect with her, visit her online at lynettdutton.com.
Now, let's listen into my interview with Lynette, and don't forget to stay tuned to hear more about an exciting new venture we are working on for professional women of faith in the marketplace and how you can be a part of it. Today, I want to welcome Lynette Dutton to the Women Infused Radio Podcast show. Lynette, I'm so glad that you're here, and we're going to talk a little bit about the book that you just had a co-author chapter in, but I also am going to dig a little deeper kind of into your story, so I'm so glad you're here, and welcome. Thank you so much, Christy.
It is a pleasure and an honor to be here with you today. I'm so excited about what's happening and the book coming out here in a couple weeks. It's really a great season. It is, isn't it?
And I think specifically, it's a season for women in the marketplace. That's another reason why I'm so excited, and you and I have talked about marketplace ministry and women in the marketplace so much that, you know, I think God is doing a new thing, and it is a new season, and I think you'll agree with me on that, so that's just super exciting. You know, one of the things, we know that you are a recruiter for the financial industry, and you also do a lot of leadership training. I know you have a very unique gift mix, and one of the things that you have unique insight into is kind of kingdom wisdom and kingdom knowledge, and I want you to go a little deeper, if you can.
Tell us a little bit, just so everybody's on the same page. When we talk about kingdom building and having a kingdom mindset, can you share a little more about what that really means and what it looks like? Yeah, well, I think so many times, I was raised in church. My great-grandmother was a pastor.
My husband, his whole family, they're all just all but one brother's pastors. His dad, his grandfather, so I come from a long heritage of being churched, and I think so many of us that have grown up in the church, we think churchy, and one thing that's really switching and changing is we have to get from thinking churchy inside of the four walls of the church and the people in the church to thinking bigger. Jesus said, go into all the world, and so kingdom building and kingdom mindset is having that mindset and that vision for something larger than just a local church, and that is, I'm an ordained minister, and I've been working in the financial industry, so not just me ministering inside the church, but my career is my platform to make a difference for God. Over 40 times in the New Testament, Jesus said, or Jesus was preaching the kingdom, the kingdom of God is at hand, the kingdom of heaven.
And all those terms are interchangeable, but in his prayer, even in the Lord's Prayer, he says, let your will be done in earth as it is in heaven. So there's a kingdom order that's established in heaven that we're to be bringing to earth, and that is the original mandate for mankind, and that's given in Genesis 1.28. So it's real exciting because we need to be taking the light and being salt and light into the world, and that's what we can do through our careers, through our businesses, through education, is you're getting outside of that local church, that kind of comfort zone where you're coming to get fed and to fellowship, but to taking that outside and spreading that light and that salt and the love of Jesus wherever you go. You know, I really love, kind of three things jumped out as we were talking.
Number one, that it's a kingdom order, and we all know that God is a God of order, and so especially in the workplace, if we think of it that way, that was an awesome way to put it, and also that we have a bigger mission than outside the church. And again, there's nothing wrong with the church. You and I both know that, but sometimes I think the people in the church, they're saved. I know where they're going to go when they die, and I'm not so worried, but we have such a bigger mission for those outside of the church who may not have any other connection.
And so using our platform, you also said, so you see your work as a way to use your platform for the kingdom mandate. And so I think that's so important for our listeners to understand that it is a bigger mission, and your work is important to the kingdom, and that's what kingdom building is. And so I don't know if you've run into women who think they're less than if they don't work inside of the church or vice versa. I think that's something we struggle with.
Would you say that part of a kingdom mindset is understanding not only biblical truths, but also understanding your role in that bigger vision? Oh, definitely. And how would you define that? If you think of kingdom mindset, how do you find your role in the bigger mission?
You know, I think inside of us, and as coaches, your life gives you cues and clues. There are some innate things inside of you that kind of come out as a child or a preteen or early on in life that kind of gives you those hints of what God wants for you. There are several that happened in my life. One, I had always been a leader, whether it was by choice or whether by default or whether I was born into it.
It seemed like I would always lead, and there was always something inside of me. If there is a book that has leader anywhere in the title, I promise you, I'm on this, or it's on order or on my wish list. Because ever since I was young, every time somebody said leader, my ears tuned up. It's like, ooh, I need that.
I want that resource. I want to be a part of that conversation. But then also, I had that entrepreneurial thing, and it was really, really funny. I grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin when I was young and moved to the South when I was 12.
And it was one year, we had the big maple trees and the helicopter ceilings. So fall came, and all those little helicopter things were falling to the ground. And me and my little sister and a couple of neighborhood friends picked up a bunch of our sandboxes and forgot about them, well, the snow came, multiple feet of snow. And we didn't think anything else about those seeds that ended up in that sandbox.
Spring came, snow melted, and all of a sudden, there's green shoots everywhere in the sandbox. And we get this bright idea to get these little solo, tiny little cups like you used to rinse your mouth out from mouthwash and stuff. And so we planted and transplanted all those little trees into these cups and went around selling them. So I think my entrepreneurial skills developed really early on because every time I saw something, I was like, ooh, we can make money at that.
But the neat thing about that story is my grandparents were visiting from Aachen, South Carolina, and I actually sold them five or six of those little trees, and they brought them home, and they transplanted them. And at their house, I've got big maple trees now. Oh, wow. I love that.
So that tells me two things about you. One, you're definitely a leader. And two, you definitely play to your strengths. And so now that we know we have this bigger mission and there's a kingdom order for things, I always like talking to women about not only their gift mix, because we all have spiritual gifts that the Lord has given us, but their strengths and how we combine those.
And exactly to your point, how God has prepared you from a little on for the work that you're doing today and the work that you're going to be doing tomorrow. So I was asking a lot of our authors, you know, what is your strength, your core strength profile? If you've taken the Strength Finder 2.0, a lot of people are familiar with that. And I'm going to read your strengths, because you sent them to me.
And one is relator, futuristic, responsibility, deliberative, and self-assurance. And when I saw that, and now even hearing the story that you told, I really think it's such a good clue and an indicator to how you can use your strengths in the workplace. So out of those five, actually, let me back up. I'm going to give you kind of a one-sentence little phrase on each of those, and then I'm going to ask you which strength you think has helped you the most.
Is that all right with you? Sure. So a relator is someone who works hard to achieve a goal not only for themselves but with others. Futuristic is inspiring others with their vision of the future.
Responsibility, I love this one. They usually take ownership of what they say they will do, and they actually do it, and they're guided by a moral compass when they do it. So I think that was the key. The deliberative is someone who anticipates the obstacles that might come their way in any given project.
And then the self-assurance one is kind of that inner compass that guides you with confidence. So out of all those five core strengths, which one do you think you relied on the most, or which one tends to kind of show up? They all do. I'm an introvert, really.
I'm an introvert, extrovert. So typically I don't like big crowds or anything. So I think the relator one has really helped me because I'll find out one or two people I can really relate to and connect to and just build a relationship with them versus, you know, mixing and mingling with everybody typically. So that's kind of sustained me because I'm in a sales career.
Right. That definitely helps. So being an introvert and, you know, that sales career is not usually the easiest thing, but that's probably what's really adapted me to that. But I think the one that I really see is that futuristic because I have got such a positive outlook for my future and what God's called me to do.
And usually when I talk to somebody, I can see they are sometimes better than they can. Wow. And so it's just encouraging them in their future and their vision and the dreams that are inside of them. To me, it's just something that whether I'm building a sales team, whether I'm working at the church, no matter what I'm doing, I think that one just really pushes through.
And then responsibility is the glue that kind of ties them all together. Yes, isn't that the truth? And I love what you said about futuristic because as you're building a team, especially for those listeners out there who are also in a situation where they have to build a team, they really need to understand how to share that vision, but not only how to share it but how to encourage the vision inside of others. Because, you know, typically it is not just about one individual, even though if you're working for a company, you probably have the mission and the vision of the company in mind.
But when we're all playing to our strengths and all understanding our own piece of the vision within, I think it's a much stronger position. So I love that you were able to talk a little bit about all of them. So as a leader, you also have to create intentional strategies. And I know just personally because you and I have worked together on some other projects that being intentional is a huge strength of yours as well.
If there is someone who's listening today that isn't quite sure how to be intentional with either a strategy at work or a strategy with their home, you know, what would you give advice for? What would you say to them about how do you go about being intentional and creating strategies around that? Well, I think it is in every decision you make, you don't see it as just a now decision, but you see how it's linked to your future goals, your future dreams. So everything I do today, I tie to something that I want to do in the future.
So you look at the big goal, you know, you know what we're planning, and we're looking at a year or two years in advance. It's taking those big goals and breaking it down so I know what I have to do every day. But then that allows me when something comes up today, you have to look at it, you have to put it in, you know, one of three buckets. This is very intentional for me.
This is a key, a strategic key to getting me to my next. Then you have a mid-bucket. You know, it's not really going to help me, but it's not really going to hurt me. And then you've got to see where this is a time waster.
I need to really delegate this because this is not going to help me, you know, really achieve anything, and it's going to be a time-drainer. For me, that's IT stuff. Yes, it is. That is so funny, you and me about anything technical, anything IT.
But I wonder, so given those three buckets, that is such a great strategy. I'm wondering if you think the third bucket, the one that this is really a time waster, ends up being the fullest bucket. Always. Yes, because I'm thinking there are so many ideas out there, and some of them are even really good ideas.
But when we really look at it, if we're being intentional, we're probably focusing on maybe one to three core strategies that we want to employ. And the rest we have to put in that third bucket. And it may sound counterintuitive, but I think as women, we try and do too much, and we try and put everything in that first bucket, you know, or think we'll get to it someday, that second bucket, and we're not willing to release it into the third bucket. And that's a hard thing, but that's where we have to use wisdom.
That's where we have to use these kingdom strategies that we were talking about earlier. And as a leader, we have to know the difference. And so I think that's a really good analogy. So I'm hoping that everyone is listening to that, and they're kind of looking at their three buckets.
And I'm hoping that your third bucket is really full, because that means you're probably on track to do the right things. Yeah. You know, we've got to really get that strength to say no. Do you think that's hard?
Do you think that's hard for women? It's really hard. It's hard for women, especially if you have some of the traits like me and you have, and others that I've talked to that you'll be interviewing, you know, because you want to help them. Right.
And the thing is, is I've found that sometimes I want to help people more than they want to help themselves. Oh. And that's when I have to have the strength to let go, because I'll get that vision for them, and I'll almost take ownership of it more than they do. Wow.
That's powerful. And, yeah. And so I've had to learn that my helping is a good thing, but if they don't want to help themselves, then, you know, this is not going to go anywhere. So, you know, you may have to release some of that.
And that's tough. It is tough. And because we are relational as women, you know, we do want to help. And so that's good advice for a lot of women, especially women in the marketplace.
We can't do it all, and we have to release some of that. So thank you for explaining that a little more about Kingdom Mindset. And that kind of brings me to my next. point you already mentioned that if part of that kingdom mentality or kingdom mindset is to be salt and light in the world we have to find strategies that will allow us to be seen maybe in a different light yet fit in at the same time do you know what i mean i mean we have to fit into our organization so how does having a strong biblical foundation help you function and flow in that corporate environment well i you know i think it has been you know i've got that firm foundation so you know it has been really the thing that's allowed me to build and to grow um and to flourish i developed early on a core set of values totally based on my biblical foundation and they really make decision making easy wow because i can i can really look at something so when i'm faced with a decision um and i'm not sure if some of you are in corporations and um you know where numbers get to be a thing so well you just like the numbers right right you know make the numbers come out well you know if you have a core value that says i'm doing the best that i can and i'm not going to make it look any different than what i've actually done you know i'm going to be honest that that's a fault right right so my numbers on paper may not look as good as everybody's but my results are going to be as good or better because they're actually the honest numbers well it's not only honesty i think that's walking with integrity and integrity and that's something as believers i think that's why it's so important for women of faith to be in the marketplace because we need to set the standard and we need to say we walk with integrity no matter what and at the end of the day that's our reputation and so i think the question is how do you want to build a reputation do you want to be the one who fudges numbers and i don't think you can last forever like that no it's that's you know it's all that's temporary so it may be a good idea your company may think it's a good idea or you know a partner or somebody in there that wants to just have a report that looks like a certain way but actually you know that's temporary long term if you're really operating in integrity you know um i told somebody one day i said i'm not going to be your best number one producer first year out i'm not because it's going to take me a little bit to get used to the systems and the ways and and i'm not going to build fast and furiously but i'm going to build strong and steady so two and three years out you're going to have some really consistent you know high potential coming forth so you know it's knowing yeah there's gonna be some people that that first year or you know whatever your industry may change a little bit the first year may come out the gate run a little faster than me but mine's gonna be solid right right and that's definitely a biblical principle as well so what kind of advice would you give to women who maybe want to deepen their knowledge of biblical principles or walk a little deeper in their faith to get to that point where you are because you said well you've had that for quite some time but what if there are some you know women they're wondering well how do i define define my biblical foundation what would you advise them you know you just gotta start getting the word and you gotta start getting the word daily even if it's for 30 minutes even if it's for 15 minutes and you're just reading you know one chapter start in the new testament um and really just try to move that forward every day because you know it's not what was downloaded to me was not downloaded in the day right you can make progress in a day but you can't get the results in a day i love my time chatting with lynette as always and learning from a woman who truly has conquered some mountains in her career she is strategic and has a no-nonsense approach to business and life which is probably why we get along so well now this is only a small segment of our interview together to hear the complete interview i want to invite you to download the women infused app the only place you can hear the raw uncut version of our interview together plus get your free ebook companion devotional called love notes of encouragement for women of faith in the marketplace just download the app go to the women infused podcast network click on the podcast channel and find lynette's interview episode 15 there you will find the link to download the free ebook devotional you will also find the rest of our co-author interviews there as we release them it's wisdom you don't want to miss out on trust me we have a lot of fun in these interviews and you never know what we're going to talk about in the process now here's more exciting news lynette and i have partnered together to launch e4 christian professional women which is based on ephesians chapter 4 it is a network for professional women of faith like yourself our mission is to empower equip engage and enlarge your territory for women of faith in the marketplace as well as creating an environment that will foster collaboration and unity stay tuned for monthly local luncheons in the charlotte north carolina area that will feature faith teaching business strategy with availability for sponsorship opportunities we will also be hosting regional retreats and conferences we will be providing details very soon with a website coming a private facebook group and bonus teachings on the women of views broadcast network we invite you to be a part of this collaboration as we grow and reach a global audience of women just like yourselves waiting to be connected to each other you can go to e4women that's the letter e number four w o m e n dot org for more information we look forward to seeing you there and don't forget alone you are significant but together we are amazing where is that candle in the night you you