You're listening to Women in Feud's radio. While women in the marketplace connect with purpose and spirit, where the conversation covers all things women, business and fascinating fame. And now, your host, Christy Lynn Olson. Hello and welcome to episode 35.
These past two months, I've been interviewing amazing women who are going to help us start the year out stronger and strategically positioned for success. And today's guest is known different. Melissa, Jane Nixon and I are going to have a conversation around how to use your passion to position yourself to profit as an entrepreneur. Now, I know if you're listening today and you've spent any time at all in the entrepreneurial space, you've heard the term passion of profits a lot.
But I guarantee that you have never heard it explain the way Melissa sees it. And as a woman of faith in the marketplace, this is going to be a game changer for you. Melissa has always said that entrepreneurship is a calling and I agree with that 100%. It is not easy.
But Melissa is so good at walking you through all levels of entrepreneurship, which is why I'm so excited to have this conversation. And then together, we can inspire you to understand that you can profit from your passions. Now, Melissa is one of the first women that I met. So full disclosure, she is a friend of mine.
When I moved to a new community, we immediately connected. And we talked at a networking event about how to incorporate more of our faith in our businesses. When I first met Melissa, she had recently left her corporate job and stepped into her journey of entrepreneurship. And now she's coaching and training men and women how to do the exact same thing, but with her valuable insight and new revelation about passion and profits.
Melissa prepares, positions, and pushes leaders and organizations to make their next courageous move. The courage coach, as she is called, is known for being a thought driver and the keynote speaker that will do more than be inspiring. She challenges audiences everywhere to own their voice, show up more powerfully, and live by her motto. I'm not afraid of failure.
I'm afraid of regret. She is a powerhouse woman of God. So let's listen in now to our conversation about passion and profits. Welcome, Melissa.
I am so excited to have this opportunity to just have a conversation with you today because as an entrepreneur, I know we have to talk about profits. And it's something that's really important, but also on your journey, I know you wrote a book about career to calling. You had a revelation recently, though, because you've done so much since then. And you have this revelation about profits and passion and how to position yourself to profit.
And that just woke something up inside of me. And so I wanted to just share a little bit today about how you can tell us more about profits and passion, how they're linked together, and just share a little bit about your story. So why don't we start there? Just share a little bit about maybe your journey, and then how you got to this point where you realize you have to position yourself in order to profit.
Good. Well, thank you so much for having me, Chrissy. It is an honor to be here. And I can't wait to just talk more about, I love talking about business.
I love talking about people walking in their calling and pursuing their passion, and most importantly knowing that they can. You know, there's so many people and there is absolutely nothing wrong, nothing wrong with having a full-time position. The only time that it is wrong is when we know we are supposed to do something different in the feeling out of fear. We're staying in those roles out of fear.
So if God has called you out, I'm talking to you right now. But other than that, there's absolutely nothing on because we all have gifts that we're supposed to use, whether it's in the corporate arena or in the entrepreneurial world. In entrepreneurship, as you and I both know, it's a calling. It is not something that's worth a thing at heart.
That's right. My background is as a leadership and business coach or as some people say a faith in business strategist, I just love helping people pushing people to their next level. A lot of people say that I'm an activator. So whenever I see things lying dormant in people or see that there's something bigger for them to do or for them to place for them to be, I activate that in them and get them going on the path that they should be.
I've been in full-time entrepreneurship for the last five plus years. I'm founder of the Courageous Life Academy. As you mentioned, Christy, I've written a couple of books called The Courageous Life, how to leap from your career to your calling, as well as the profit playbook for women, the ultimate resource guide to building a sustainable business. And other than that, I love to work with my clients, play with my clients and travel doing what I love most.
Oh, and I know you travel. I love watching your Instagram because you go places that I'm not able to go. So it's just so fun to watch that. I love what you said about, let me just backtrack a little bit.
There's nothing wrong with being in a career because we, God has us in that career, perhaps, for a specific reason. And we have gifts, we have talents. And so thank you for saying that because sometimes I think we get caught up in this world of start your own business. Everybody's doing it.
And we think we're a failure if we haven't done that. So I appreciate that you laid the groundwork for that. And then this call, though, specifically is if you're willing to make that leap and you know God has called you, then we have to step into that and not let fear hold us back. So thank you for just saying that to our listeners.
And maybe share a little bit about what that means to you as far as your passion and what you do, what you love and the challenges that come along with that when you're talking about profiting as a business. Yeah. So, you know, a lot of times the reason why we do stay in certain roles out of fear or that we don't see the results that we're looking for in our businesses is because we are trying to figure out how do we turn that this thing, this passage, what we'll make back up one of the things is we've been caught many times there's been a stop philosophy that you can't profit from your passion. That thing that has been a side hobby that you love or that, you know, if someone loves makeup, like we both make up, we both close, we both love fashion, we love all the girly things, right?
There's no one has this thing that no one else can do, but they do it that it has to be this side thing forever and ever amen because I don't know how to make up make money and I don't know how to profit it. I just don't know how to turn it into something. And that's where people like you and myself come in and say, wait, whoa, you sure we can do that? I remember, this was years ago, one of my girlfriends, I think it was on her baby shower, she was expecting.
And we were just talking to people that I didn't know that were friends of hers. And one of them said, I would love, I think she wanted to be a lawyer and she would love to be an interior designer. But she was like, you can't make money at that. You can't make money at that.
And I said, wait, yes, you can, because at the time I had just become friends with one of my social media friends on Facebook who was an interior designer out in California doing it full time, living her best life into this day has an amazing, driving business. Wow. And I love what you said, live in your best life, because when we're, we use the term a lot, Kingdom Calling. And to me, that really means living your best life, living fully in the gifts that God has given you.
And yes, you can make a profit because he will provide, you know, we always hear the saying where there is a vision, there is provision. And so he definitely can do that. But sometimes we have this mindset that the world tells us we can't do that. So thank you for sharing that.
Because I think that's key. First of all, to get some of those false mindsets, just cut them off at the root right away and just say, no, you can. So how do you encourage women then to be realistic, though, about looking into that calling? Wow.
You know, how do I encourage? I let them see the possibilities. You know, I try to point out people that was one of the things I did actually in the career exercise book, I identified probably about six to seven women who had untraditional careers that people might say, oh, you can't make money at that, you know, whether it was keynote speaking or being a word renowned classical pianist or even having a woman from California who's an interior designer, they all had untraditional careers that someone might look at it and say, oh, I can never do that for a living. We're actually, you can't, you know, and so I wanted to, you know, the first thing I said, I saw this by sharing the possibility and sharing examples of women that are doing a thing that people say ordinarily that you can't do and that it's possible, not just for them because of whatever ideal situation they may have been handed, but it's possible for the everyday woman who has to, you know, make big decisions to trust God, walk by faith, make some sacrifices that yes, that woman, you can do the same thing as well.
One of the things also, Chrissy, just talking about profit, and this has been something really new for me because as believers, we will and we can pray about things, you know, God, you know, can you help me to change careers? Can you help me become this feeling of like, you know, makeup artists, this interior designer, it's launched this coaching business? Can you do all the things and, you know, Chrissy, I honestly feel like, you know, not that we've been praying wrong, but that we can pray differently, we can pray differently. And that's where, you know, when I talk about turning your profit into passion that there's a new profit formula that God has given me that's different than what we learn in our business classes or from our account.
You know, normally we talk about profit, you know, being your revenue, how much you bring in, minus your expenses and minus some other, you know, expenses, your taxes and all of that and whatever you have left over, that's your profit, whatever, as you're operating in from it, all of that business stuff, that's your profit. And I'm like, you know what, yes, that is so true, that's not gonna change forever, never amen, but what really prevents us from profiting and doing the things God has called us to do and doing it at the level that we desire and we want, and also that we know that he's called us to, is because we don't know our position in the kingdom. When we begin to understand who we are and who we are, we show up differently and our prayers change because it's no longer about God, can you, will you, can you help me? It's knowing that, you know, we think about the word that we are a chosen generation and a royal priesthood, you know, we think about things that we've been taught and that we know that we are the apple of this act, like we are the, like we, it talks about I think in Deuteronomy 28 that we are the head and not the tail.
So there's a positioning that we need to know, but because there are so many of us, even me at times, even you at times, because we don't understand or we lose sight of, maybe we understand it, maybe we heard it, those are all structures that we've heard before, but maybe we haven't internalized it and know it for ourselves, therefore we don't show up in full power in our rightful position to get the prophets that are owed to us. And we walk around in this state of timidity and fearful and smallness that's not, that's not who we are, that's not our position. And once that changes, then everything else changes. So that's just the first part of the formula is knowing our position in the kingdom.
And the second part is preparing for it. Once we know our position, they're not mean, okay, these are the things, these are the steps that we now have to take, but because we are operating from a place of smallness, timidity, meekness, then we don't do the things where we're supposed to show up in boldness with our powerful voices and with our big bold ideas that could change industries. We don't show up with those because we're not showing up in our rightful position, but when we position plus preparation equals profit, that's a new profit formula that God has to mean that I've been teaching to others and that they'll be able to show up definitely and make the money that we all want to make in the kingdom. Wow, let me just repeat that to make sure I have it right.
Position plus preparation equals profit. Wow, that is so amazing. And I heard you saying over and over, you know, your position, know your position, it really has to do with identity. Correct.
And somewhere along the line, I know we have listeners who, like you said, you may have felt you knew who you were and then life happens and things just start shipping away at your identity and then you start questioning yourself, you start questioning God. And so what I hear you saying is we need to circle back to that original position in who we are in Him. And when we do that, I love how you said our prayers will pray differently. And I see a shift that happens.
You know, we start coming maybe from the positive or coming from our identity as opposed to hopes, wishes and dreams, because sometimes we can dream and hope and wish, but we don't put any feet to it, you know, we think because in the back of our minds, we're like, well, maybe it'll happen, maybe it won't. But this tells me in your new formula, now that we're grounded in our position, we're coming from a place of it has already happened in the spiritual. And so I am going to walk it out by doing the preparation on that's the key thing that I love hearing too, because so many times we hear people achieve success. And we think, well, it just happened, you know, it just happened to them.
They're lucky. There is no luck in the kingdom. That's not what this is about. There is preparation and hard work.
So can you share an example of some of the things maybe you've had to do to prepare differently for this season? Yeah, so one of the things and once the story that you know, I have been, I've always been in business. I've always had great roles in my corporate career, even in my actual business. That's always been fine.
But there was this faith component, and I've always had a faith-based business, but there was this faith component, and you know, intercession and prayer, that it's always been a part of what I've done more so personally than it was outwardly publicly with things of that nature. And so I would either, you know, even though it was my gift, it was something that my close friends knew about. If you were a private client, then you had a chance to experience it. And other than that, it was just, it was a thing that got it blessed me with.
And I didn't know, I always knew that I was supposed to combine faith and business, which I thought that I had it, but there was just, I knew there's this feeling and a lot of people have it that we feel like they're supposed to be more, they're supposed to be more. And so just earlier, a few months ago, one of my friends said, Melissa, when will you finally surrender? Because I had ran from ministry to ministry side of things for a long time. And just because I didn't know what to do with it, I was like, how do you make money from praying?
How do you make money? I know it's a gift God, but I don't have to deal with that gift because I'm not going to do that. I'm working, you know, instead of the fighting about it was in the month of October, the month of September, got it related to my heart, you're supposed to go live on social media and pray with entrepreneurs, because you're not the only one dealing with this. You're not the only one going through this.
You're supposed to do it for 21 days. And I was like, but God, what qualifies me who they're going to say, who am I to pray with them? And can I tell you that the Facebook community group that was started grew so fast to over 1500 people during those 21 days, not only that, when I talk about how do you make money from praying? Literally, the one thing that I did not put a monetary value to, there was no ethical, there was no end goal.
People, I think by the third day, just started getting money. Like, what's your cash up? What's your pay balance? Like, wait, what is going on here?
You know, they talk about how you make money from praying, you open up your mouth and pray, and pray. And that is where, you know, profit started to come from my prayers. Who would have known? Who would have thought that that would have happened?
So for me, there was knowing, having to learn my position in the kingdom and not just keeping my gifts to my friends and my private clients, but allowing me to finally surrender, stop playing small and show up and do the things that God has called me to do. So it's a knowing opposition is when we finally make that yes, to say, oh, when will I, can I know that I'm supposed to? And I haven't really, you know, when we know our position in the kingdom, there's a couple of things that happen. And one of them, you already mentioned, we start to show up differently and pray differently because it's already done.
We are who we are. We are bold. We are confident. We are courageous.
We are who the word says that we are. We are who God says that we are there for we show up differently and we execute differently. The other thing is we no longer have to posture in social media or anywhere in the marketplace because we're already positioned. You'll see people trying to be seen or get likes or whatever it is because they want people to like them, follow them, buy from them, whatever that is.
But when you know your position in the kingdom, you can get less about what everybody else does because you know what you're supposed to be doing and whatever that looks like, it's good for you and it's good for God. Wow, I love that because, you know, we hear a lot about, oh, you have to create this and then you have to do that and then you should be at all these places and don't say this, but make sure you say that. You don't worry about that anymore is what I hear you saying. You're just like, no, God's already set me up.
And so all I need to do is show up. So the setup will be a show up, I think for you. And if you listen to God, he's going to show you the strategy. That's what I hear you saying.
Yeah, yeah. You're absolutely right about that. And so I think about there's so many people that who are believers, you love God and I'm talking specifically to you right now that's listening, you love God. It's not that you don't.
The thing is, and the reason why you're struggling, and of course you call that identity, I call it position and call it what you want, but until you know your identity and your position in the kingdom, that place of struggle will continue. And I encourage you to not just pray the word, to not just sing the word, to not just talk to your friends and family about the word, but to believe the word. Believe what God says about you. Believe who he created you to be before you were in your mother's womb.
He knew you. He says in Jeremiah 1 5, he knew us. He formed us before we went in our mothers room. He knew.
And so I am just excited about the testimonies that will come from people knowing their position in the kingdom. And here's even something that's just as important to what you're saying is knowing your position, so knowing who you are, but in the bigger picture, knowing your position in the kingdom, because I firmly believe that let's take your example, Melissa, you have stepped up into this place that you know you're now doing that thing that God has called you to in this season, and he might be doing something else with you five years down the road that right now you're fully abandoned to what he's called you to do. And so you're unlocking something for another woman in the kingdom. And so that's to me, even the bigger picture, because once we know our position, that can set others up in their position so we can even have more impact.
And that's what I hear you saying, you know, as we uncover our gifts, which is that a correct assessment? That is definitely a correct assessment, Kristi. You know, there is something, there's just I am so expected for the month ahead, because I believe that as people catch a hole to who they are, and what who God is calling to be, that they're no longer praying about who they are supposed to be, but they are walking fully in it. There's gonna be so much that changes in all of the industries that we impact in government, in retail, in education, in, you know, you name anything about the seven mountains that we have, and they will be completely transformed once we as believers show up in our rightful position.
You have to think about, look, there's no difference between us as believers and people that don't believe in God is that the thing when you see people that are not believers excelling in the marketplace, I mean, just with crazy ideas, and they don't even believe in God, the reason why they do it is because they have a belief system. And what their belief is, they may not be in God, but it's in themselves that says, you know what, I know this idea is crazy. I know no one has done it before, but let's try it. Let's do it.
You know, and the thing about it is, now here, here is this gonna step on somebody toes, about somebody toes, the thing about it is they didn't have to go pray about it. They didn't have to go and say, oh, I'm not sure. Let me think about it. Let me pray about it.
They knew they're like, oh my gosh, here's my window of opportunity. Here's a timing. Somebody's gonna, I know if I just step into it, the resources will come and I show up and I build it. Everything else will come.
There's a belief system that's there. The question is, what is your belief system? Wow. What is your belief system?
And here's why that's important. This isn't about whether you believe in God or anybody else or whatever other system this is about, that you have a system of belief, prayerfully that is in the Lord that God who loves us so much. But I got to a point in my Facebook, because years ago, years ago, when I got tired of being being timid, being small, wondering God, can you help me operate this business and replace my salary full time? You know what, God says, I have more than your salary.
This salary ain't nothing. I have more than that. But I got to a place in my Christian walk where I got so tired of not believing that I was just like, what the heck am I? Why am I on this Christian walk?
If I can't even believe in the God that I say that I serve. And so once my faith was on the line of how to make a decision that says, I would not only believe God, but I would walk in faith and do the things that He's called me to do so that I can live the abundant life that we're supposed to be living. Wow. You know, and making decisions and taking action.
So I think another step to that then is we know our position, we understand where we stand. And so we start walking it out, but we have to continually take action instead of shrink back. And I heard you saying that. And so what advice would you give to women who are listening here that think, well, I know I have this gift, but and they always follow it up with a but how do we stop shrinking back from that gift God has called us into?
Oh my goodness. I'm like, oh my goodness, if you could only see what we see, you could only see not only what we see, but what God sees and its greatness is amazing. And the only thing that I can share, Christine, is to ask Him, ask yourself, your Heavenly Father, to not only allow you to know the word and know it with your being able to read it, be able to see it and retain it, you can recite it, to not just do those things, but for it to open your eyes and to transform who you are, to transform how you see yourself, especially if this is especially for women that have been walking with God for a long time, and they've been dealing with these issues for a long time. You don't have to, even if it's been 30 years, you don't have to spend the next 30 years dealing with that same thing.
And there's some things, and I'm a firm believer in this, that only come through prayer and fasting. And maybe you have to be like Jacob and wrestle with God until he blesses you. But don't allow yourself to walk another 30 years dealing with the same thing because the word is powerful and it's true and it's not that some scriptures apply to you and others don't. It's not that some scriptures and promises apply to everybody else and not you, it is for you.
And so I ask God to help you to see who you are, who you are through his eyes that you, as I said earlier, you are the head and not the tail. Your voice is powerful when it truly says that eyes have not seen and ears have not heard, they haven't because they're waiting on you. You're waiting on you. He's waiting on you.
And so part of that comes through being relentless in the pursuit of him, being relentless in the pursuit of him, not the facade of it, not the, I have all the Christian basis covered. So I'm good. I mean, my thing is we're not good until we see ourselves as he sees us. We're not good until we start to show up as he sees us.
I don't care how many ministries you serve on that church. I don't care what your morning routine is if you get your coffee and you have your devotions and you listen to your favorite worship songs. I don't care about that. I care that you see yourself as God sees you and you're operating in that each and every day that the fears that have held you down no longer hold you down.
And until that day, I feel like not that nothing else matters because it does. But what I wanted to do is when you're having that morning devotion time and you're getting in the Word and you're spending that time, I want it to pierce through the thing that tells you back. I wanted to break that thing up that you dismantle the mental mindset that I've been, whoever told you who you are and who you are when you're a little girl that that just gets broken up. Whoever you've taught yourself to be and told yourself that you aren't, you know, that it breaks that up.
That's when that's when I want to see the Word, you know, become and do what it does in your life. Not just a routine of it, that does you have all the boxes checked, but that it enables you to be who God is called you to be. I love that. It feels like you've already been using your gift, a prayer, an intercession on us, but I can't think of a better way to end this interview with just having you, if you'd be willing, having you step into your gifting and pray over us and pray over our listeners today and just let that word kind of soak over us.
Would you be willing to do that as we close out? I would, Christine, can you one second? Let's go ahead and close out in prayer. And I'm excited for the listeners whether they're the thing about media is that it's evergreen, right?
So whether you're listening to this two years after it's shared or you're listening to it today's after a chair, this message and this word is for you. So let's pray. Thank you, God. Father God, thank you, God.
Thank you, God. I thank you that you care about every single area of our life. And yes, you are pleased at that we serve, that we incorporate you into so much of what we do, but that you also care. Thank you, God, about that area or those areas that we have yet to fully walk in fullness and that we have yet to fully surrender.
You care, God. You care. Thank you, God. Thank you, God.
Can I just pray for just a surrender, a surrender for everyone that's listening, that they would not allow their lives to go on any longer with that area being an issue for any significant time, whether it's they don't feel like their voice would be heard if they pursued a thing that you've called them to, whatever it is, whatever lie the enemy has told them, God, I just ask that not only will you deal with it now during this prayer, not only will you deal with it as soon as the podcast is over and because it's front of mind and it's relevant, but it would literally be broken up into pieces, into dust that we could blow away that each and every person listening would begin to walk in boldness, in fullness, in courage, unlike anything that they ever seen before, that the lies have to go. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. The lies that the enemy has held over our head that people have planted seeds and they've grown into full, on full grown roots deep down and it's what we believe.
They love you, God, but Lord, they've taken, they've allowed these things to take root and to hold on to them and to prevent them from becoming who you've called them to be. You are concerned. Yes, their life is great, but you're concerned about that area too. You want that area too.
They've given you their time, God. They've given you their heart, God, but you want that area too that prevents them from being all that you have thought about before they were even born. You want that little girl that's that dream big that saw the possibilities. You want her to come back that doesn't stop when they see barriers that you want that little girl that says God that used to dream and have the biggest imagination.
You want her to come back the one that would trust in her mom and her dad to ask for big things because we didn't know any better better. We didn't care about anything. You want that little girl. And so father, we pray her back today.
Oh God, we pray for that young innocent. So God that doesn't look at situations doesn't look at life, but they look at you who owns a thousand cattle, the cattle on a thousand heels. They look at you who is all knowing. They look at you who is the provider who takes care of the birds and the bees and everything else.
They don't ask, how am I going to be taken care of today? They just fly God. And so Lord, I pray for that little girl to return in even in her adult life, in her 30s, in her 40s, in her 50s, in her 60s, in her 60s, and that she would fly God, not caring about all the circumstances and conditions that we have been conditioned to be mindful of and pray about that we strict us and that make us risk a verse, but that we would be childlike in our faith again, God, because you care. You love us.
There are big things that you have for us if we would only surrender that issue and not pick it up again. But I think that even right now that there are lies that have to go, there are lies that will not be revisited again. There are lies whether it's been from someone else or from the woman herself, there are lies that have been spoken over her life that have to go and they're going now in the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus, we speak to it now, whatever country she's in, whatever state she's in, whatever county she's in, whether she's in her car or in her kitchen, it has to go now in the name of Jesus.
I thank you that we will be women that know our position in the kingdom. We don't know it for everybody else except ourselves, but we know it for ourselves too. I thank you that for the business owner that this will be the year that you make the most money. You make the most money, not because of anything that you've done differently in your business, but because of what you've done differently in your faith in the kingdom, because you have because you will accept the challenge to show up as God sees you and as the word says said over spoken over your life, you will be that woman in business in all areas.
So we thank you God that everyone that's listening, they would know their position and they would know their proper, they would know how to prepare and therefore you would bless them abundantly and increase their profits. In Jesus, we pray. Amen. Amen.
Amen. Thank you Melissa so much for sharing just all that wisdom with us. And I look forward to it. We'll have all your resources and websites listed on the bottom of the show notes here, but I'm just so thankful that you took your time to spend a little bit of time with us and start us out right for the new year.
So thank you so much. You are so welcome. God bless you. God bless everyone.
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