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. Hello and welcome to Episode 19 of the Women Infused Podcast Radio Show. In today's episode, I continue my interview series with our co-authors of the 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 series available now on Amazon.com. I'll put a link in the show notes so you can make sure and get your copies today. Walking by faith is a journey, and for Christian women who work in the marketplace, that journey can be particularly challenging as they strive to do their job with excellence and be salt and light in a world filled with challenges. To have faith means to always have a vision of what success looks like for you, and to walk out that on a daily basis.
That is something that my guest today is so good at. Lemonstein Poindexter, or Lemon as we call her, has had her challenges, but she has also strived to see a bigger vision and focus on the positive. You know, I met Lemon in, I think it was about 2008, when she was going through a major life transition, and she hired me as her life purpose coach. We became fast friends and have kind of ebbed and flowed out of each other's lives, but we always seem to reconnect just when God is about to do something big in either of our lives.
I truly believe that God has connected us for a greater purpose, and we are just waiting on his instructions every step of the way. I am truly blessed to know and co-labor with this amazingly talented woman of God on so many projects, and this book project is no different. Now, Lemonstein Poindexter is the founder of National Barren Women Support Groups, a group designed to encourage barren women. She is the author of Sing, O Barren Woman, and has released two CDs, Dancing in the Rain in 2012 and More Than I Deserve in 2016.
Her love for writing and singing will continue to serve as an outlet to minister to others. Lemon has received her Master of Arts in Counseling from Liberty University in 2014, and this is what I find fascinating. Not only does she plan to open a life coaching center for women, she is going to be able to retire in just a few years, so she's retiring early, so she can do a whole other purpose-filled life that God has planned for her. And above all else, she loves God and wants to serve Him by serving others.
For more information, please visit Lemon on her website at www.lemonsteinpoindexter.org. I'm going to put those links in the show notes so you don't have to remember how to spell her name, but please go visit. She's an amazing gospel music artist. She's a writer, songwriter.
She's a great counselor. She works with women. I mean, I just can't say enough about her, so please go visit her website. Now, let's listen and hear a little bit more about who Lemon is and the gifts that God has given her and how she has impacted the marketplace as a woman of faith.
So today, I am so excited to welcome Lemonstein Poindexter as our guest on Lemon Fused Radio, and I have to tell you, she is a passionate woman about using her voice. I believe, these are my words, using her voice to encourage others, and she does this through written word, through song, and through spoken word. So Lemonstein, I just want to thank you and welcome you to our show. Well, thank you for having me.
Now, one thing I have to tell our audience, in full disclosure, you and I met a number of years ago, and you can correct me if this is wrong, but I believe that when we met, we met for a certain reason and a season, but I instantly felt like God had more for us. Would you agree with that? I totally agree. I love it when God does that, and so I think we're still looking for what that extra or that something more is, but we've stayed connected all these years, and I just cherish you as a dear friend and an incredible woman of God, and I'm going to brag on you a little bit closer to the end of the show here and tell people, if you don't bring it up, I will, about your career and some other things that you've done in your past.
But one thing that struck me, as you were writing this chapter for the book, We Walk by Faith, Not by Sight, the first thing you mentioned was the legacy that your parents left you and how that shaped your life as a woman of faith. Can you tell us a little more about that? What did they instill in you that you still carry with you to this day? Well, I think that my parents, I was part of older parents.
I was there, nine of us, and I was seven to nine children, eight of which were girls. My father was actually 72 years old when I was born, and he lived to be 104. And so, and he was like 30, over 30-something years old, and my mom, and I always thought that even because people were like, oh, your mom has a few, 70. But they taught us, me and my sisters and my brother, the importance of God, education, and respect of others.
And I believe those are the three things that actually shaped my life, because everything that I do in my life centers around God and respecting other people. And I believe education is also an important part of that. I believe God not only wants us to just be spiritual, but I think he also wants us to be educated people. And when I say educated, I don't mean just, you know, with the number of degrees you have.
I don't mean that. I mean just always looking for knowledge, you know, always reading and things like that. And then my parents also just taught us the importance of respecting everybody, respecting other people, and learning that everybody's different, but we should respect each other. So I know that one of your gifts is encouragement, and I definitely know that you respect others.
So let me ask you this. In your current role, how does your gift of encouragement and your concept of respect show up in your work environment? Are there situations where you've really had to rely on those two things to kind of make someone feel better or make a choice in your work? Pretty much every day.
An example is just maybe about 30 minutes or an hour ago, one of my employees, she was considered like the advisor of the month. So they have a special event award meeting every month, and they invite people who attain that award. So she was saying she didn't want to go tomorrow because she didn't want to go tomorrow. I was like, well, you actually were advisor of the month, and you should go.
She said, well, I just don't like the people to make a big deal. I think I don't want to stand up when they call my name. So I just talked up a while and told her that there was nothing wrong with being recognized when we done well. And those are some things I do on daily basis, just trying to encourage people to be not just what they are, but to be even more, to be all that they can be, to not just stop where they are at that point in life.
Exactly. And I'm thinking that not only do you encourage those people, but you've had to develop kind of a skill set to listen. And I'm thinking you probably even have to listen more than you speak. What would you say about, like, why is it so important to learn to listen?
So that you can see what they don't say. I know that even in my workplace every day, I do with a lot of customers, and they say a lot. And sometimes, you know, you really want to shut them off sometimes. But I've learned over the last 30 years that it's better to just listen first because people, especially when people are upset or irate or just, you know, confused about the situation, if you listen, you'll find out that what they're telling you is really not a problem.
If you listen long enough, you'll actually hear what they don't say. And that's how I'm able to tell people to kind of hear the part that they don't tell you. Exactly. And I know in your role as well, you have to follow some procedures and policies that are set up by your company.
And typically, I think if people are talking about utility bills, and I believe they're calling you because there's a problem and they can't pay the bill. So you have to listen past, but you have to show empathy. So I think that's a real skill set to have because, on one hand, you know what your policy is, but you want to humanize it for them. That's the best way I can think of or just make it natural for them so they can open up a dialogue.
Would you agree with that? Well, absolutely, because the customers I deal with now, they're actually face-to-face, which way they're in your face. And so it's not just the call can cause a lot of problems in the lobby. So we get customers right there.
And usually, sometimes by the time they get a call from their client, you know, you have elderly people who really can't pay their utility bill, but also you have a call from them either. Like you said, one of the biggest things you teach I advise is to have empathy. And so they have to listen because you really don't know the person's situation. And no matter how it looks on paper, just because somebody hasn't paid a bill in six months, it doesn't mean that everybody's not somebody who's just misusing money.
It just may be somebody who really doesn't have money. Exactly, or you never know. There's a health crisis or there's usually more. Go ahead.
You can look at a customer's account sometimes, and if they've been paying their bill on time every month in the last 20 years, and then for the last three months, there hasn't been a payment, automatically you know there's a problem. Something is happening in their life. And it's the same way to me, to me, to deal with people. To deal with employees who, if somebody's been a really good worker for years, and they always say, you know, if they start coming in later in the day, or they're real quiet or what's wrong, you know there's an issue there.
So I would think that's challenging. So tell us, what's your most challenging role as a supervisor today? I think it is not so much with the customers. I think it's with employees.
And the most challenging one for me is always remembering to treat each person individually, to treat them as an individual, and to not, that you can't put everybody in the same box and believe that everybody's going to do the same thing or act the same way. So it's challenging when you get new employees to actually take the time to learn their personality. You know, sometimes you get to learn about their lifestyle, and that kind of helps you. Well, it helps me, you know, to be able to work with them on a daily basis and be able to be a better supervisor to them.
Now, I don't know if I asked you this before, but have you taken the Strength Finder 2.0, that assessment? I believe I took that, I know I took it years ago. I think when you and I first met, I believe I took it. And I'm sure, and I feel like I took it somewhere, even Brad School was talking about, but I believe you and I took it since I met you.
Okay, so even if we don't remember what your strengths were, just think of your strengths in general. What strengths do you bring to the table that you think have really carried you through? And, you know, I don't know if you need a few reminder words, but is there anything that comes to mind? Like, what's your greatest strength, and how have you used that to be successful?
I was going to say, I don't encourage it. I've heard people say that encouragement. Sometimes when you hear what other people say, I don't say that. So I know that encouragement is one of my big strengths.
And I don't know the work of this, but motivation. I've been able to motivate a lot of people to go back to school or to take up a hobby or to pursue, you know. There are some people who are writers, and they don't even know it. Well, they know it, but they're afraid to do it.
So, you know, I try to encourage people to move toward their destiny, to move outside of what they do on a play hour, any basis, because there's still another part of you other than what you do at work. Absolutely, and I think you probably lead by example. I know you've gone and got different degrees, and you keep, you know, reaching out to what you would need, not only for your job, but what you think God has planned for you kind of for the next. And that brings to mind, you know, we're talking about women of faith in the marketplace, and how do we be that salt and light?
So how do we motivate people? How do we be that role model? I love that you put in the book a passage from Matthew 5, and you used the Message Bible. And two phrases, I'm going to quote from that and then ask you about it, where it said, you are here to bring out the God flavors of this earth and then the God colors in the world.
How have you been able to uniquely do that, either people you work with or people through your church or your community or family? You know, how important is it to bring out everybody's gift and everybody's flavor and sometimes when I get home, I'm kind of like tired, and when I get tired, I'm like mentally tired. And I'm trying to figure it out. It's because you pretty much, you know, people think that, you know, if you're not a construction worker or something, you don't work hard.
But you can mentally bring yourself, and I think sometimes that's what I do during the day. And again, with that, about here to be alive or bringing out the God colors in the world, I think back to just recently when I had my 50th birthday party, and I had a bunch of phone that day. And I looked in my room, and I looked at all the people that were here, and I had my family, and I had my coworkers. I had people, just friends that I had held on to throughout the years.
And then I had friends that I met at a new church that I started going to. And I had like four groups of people there. And then, and I thought about all those people that come together to help me celebrate, and every last one of those people were fortunate. And when I look at those people, when they get up to talk, a lot of them are talking about, even my God sons, they talk about the ways that I had encouraged them over the years to, you know, to just be happy, to find a place in your life that makes you happy and makes you want to do things.
I think about my manager all the time. Last year, she gave all of us a different, she had to give all of us a word in a gift card she gave us. And to me, she gave peacemaker. She said that I was kind of like a peacemaker in our, like our leadership staff at work.
She said I was a peacemaker. You know, sometimes I didn't try to be a peacemaker, but I learned that you can only be for God's quality. It doesn't matter who you, like sometimes I may say, you know, I've always been in peace. But that's what you are.
That's just what you are. I'm having to accept that too. You see some people who in a moment know that they can just get somebody straight. Like, in my mind, I think, oh, I should try that.
But that's just not who I am. Well, and that leads me to the next question I was going to ask you, and so it's a perfect segue. You know, a lot of women struggle with perfection. We either struggle with trying to be someone we're not, or trying to be perfect all the time, and then we always fail.
Have you ever struggled with perfection, or how have you dealt with that? You know, I don't know if I can answer this problem. I don't think that I have. I never feel like I'm a person who's struggling with trying to be perfect, or with perfection at all.
I kind of, I just kind of try to be who God wants to be. I know that I can't do everything. A good example is, I have a lot of events. I don't do any of the decorating.
I don't even try to put it. I can tell you what I want for the event, but I can't do any of it. I don't even try it. But I have a friend.
You always know who to go to. And they know that. They'll tell you that. Even if we have an event here at work, and let's say if I'm over, they're going to to the retirement party.
I may plan it. I don't try to be perfect. You can't do everything. That's not my feel.
Exactly. But it also plays, exactly what you said, it plays to your strengths. You know what your strengths are, and you know there are other people better at other things. And it's also the quality of a leader.
And so you don't get to be in a position where you're at if you're always doing everything. And we can't. So you're right. We can't.
We're tired anyway. I hear you on that. And the older I get, the more tired I get as the day goes on. I don't know.
It's just a fact of life. I hate to tell all of our younger listeners, but you reach a certain age, and you're just tired by 8 o'clock at night. You are. And you learn that.
And I tell them all the time, even when I'm at an event, my dad learns how to bring the white decorator with the white catering. There are some people who I know cannot, they don't work well together. Personalities don't work well together. So I've got to learn how to bring the white people together so that you don't have a good fiasco.
So my role is making sure that the entire event is managed well, but I'm going to bring the white people who have the gift to do it. And I think at a certain age in life, you don't have the energy to do all that stuff. You don't even want to. Yes, absolutely.
And part of it, too, we can lose ourselves in the process. And you wrote in the book that sometimes we can be super busy, but we're doing the wrong things. And so let's talk about that for a little bit. You and I have done some coaching together around the whole concept of purpose and how do you find your purpose?
And I don't know that we always figure out our ultimate purpose right away, but how do you discern the difference? How do you choose what activities to work on that are purpose-filled versus activities that are just going to take up your time? Do you kind of have a way of determining what's a good use of your time as it relates to purpose? I kind of do now.
I know that my goal and my desires are to work on my music, perfect my music and my writing. And of course, I always take out time for my family. But I've learned that if the things that people ask me to do, if they're not going to help somebody in one of those areas, I've just kind of decided not to do them. I actually, I got out of the choir that I was in, and it's a huge choir, but I got out because I didn't feel like I was really allowing my gifts to be used there.
And what I did is I joined a little group that sings with the, I still got my church, I'm not even playing them. I joined a group that sings with the, that's a witness mission here in Nashville. We sing once a month, they hold it. service and i'm with they actually have a full service but i think with the praise worship group and we go to the women's mission the first day of every month and that's one of the best things i've ever done the place is packed full of women every day and then look when we call them they start clapping and they're so glad somebody takes the time out to come and share the word of god with them every month and that's been one of the best things i've done wow that is definitely purpose-filled living because you're being of service but i love that they're so excited and you're using your gift so you are still using a song which um definitely is one of your strongest gifts and i've seen that i was at your first cd release party which i still remember oh and i actually i told you i have that cd it sits on my um desk and i put it in all the time i just love it and so it's a way to use our gifts but i love the fact that you've decided i don't have to be all things to all people but i can do this little thing right here and part of that is understanding in the book we asked you a question about how do you take a sabbath rest so lemon i'm going to ask you what have you learned as we all grow older and wiser what have you learned about a sabbath rest and you know you've mentioned a few things about that looks like but what else does that look like for you how have you kind of lived out your life now understanding what can burn you out and when to take a rest yeah i have learned that you have to get some rest and you have to make it a point of your own you have to decide that you need rest you can't let people tell you need rest you have to rest your body because if you don't let your body until you rest your body your mind doesn't rest and your spirit doesn't rest and i've learned to just start resting a lot of times on saturdays especially 30 mornings i rest things i used to be so busy and with many you know church activities and things that i felt you just had to be like like nobody was gonna get to know jesus unless i was out there you know going up and down the street every single corner knocking on every door and you know but i've learned oh and your body will help you with that too i believe that i'm about this so the lord the days of your youth because as you get older you and you get you should get wiser and that's i learned that a sabbath to me is just whatever rest you want to be and and sunday of course when i go and i'm able to refill or refill or rejuvenate myself you know in worship with other people but um i just wanted to rest and rest for me could just be well this may not seem like rest but sometimes it's just watching the internet what i used to be that used to be red actually watching the internet um watching through network it's just kind of just be still and be quiet and then sometimes a sabbath to me is just on a Saturday not leaving the house until about two o'clock just to go maybe to publish or something but just quiet peace and quiet where there's not a lot of noise going on well and i'm thinking you came from such a large family that quiet time was that premium i mean i have to believe there's always a lot of noise going on at your house and there still always is even on sundays on sundays when i go over it's still a holiday while together on sundays in the afternoon i go to my sister's house my mom's living my big sister and so a lot of times we'll all get over on sunday for dinner and my mom was like trying to pull us out she's like okay well she understands yes she understands the importance of sabbath rest even when it comes and that's something she taught you oh my goodness that is so funny hey it's christy again that was just part one of my interview with lemon point baxter to hear the rest of the interview where we talk more about girlfriends of weddings jamaica yes i said jamaica you see i was lobbying to get an invitation to lemon's friend karen's wedding in jamaica this fall but you have to listen to the interview to hear more about that but seriously in the full interview available only on the women of use broadcast network lemon shares more about her struggle with infertility and how god has built her up to step into the next chapter of her life by using her gifts of writing speaking and singing you can download the free women of use app at women infused app.com when you download the app on your mobile device register to log on and then go to the channel icon on the bottom of your screen there you will find the women of use podcast channel where you can find lemon's interview episode 19 you can also get your free copy of the free ebook love notes of encouragement for women of faith in the marketplace and could you do me a favor tell all your friends to download the women of use app at women infused app.com there will be a link to that in the show notes as well our vision is to reach 1 million women for christ with faith teachings health and wellness information and practical business and leadership principles for women of faith and if you know anyone who you think would like to have their own broadcast channel on our network please have them contact me by email at christy at christy lynnelson.com i'd love to chat with them about it so goodbye for now and remember alone you are significant but together we are amazing 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 join the conversation on social media visit us at christy lynnelson.com thank you