Faith and Entrepreneurship: How to Allow God to Help Your Business

Discovering strength and guidance in unexpected places, we often overlook the most powerful ally in our entrepreneurial journey—faith. Join me, Erin Olson, as I open up about the transformative experience of weaving spirituality into the fabric of business. It's a sensitive subject, one that I've tip-toed around, but the compelling stories of personal growth and the undeniable "coincidences" have led me to share how seeking divine assistance has reshaped the way I approach my enterprises. There's no preaching here, just raw and honest reflections on finding that extra edge in your professional life through faith.

This episode is more than just my narrative; it features the inspiring tale of my friend Vollie, whose horse ministry, Hope Rides, exemplifies faith in action. Volley's simple act of gifting a One-Year Bible not only impacted my business partner and me but also unveiled the remarkable influence that spirituality can have on management and leadership. Tune in to see how a touch of the divine could potentially align with your path to success, without ever compromising who you are or the values you hold dear.

Resources:
Hope Rides
Joel Osteen on Fear
The One Year Bible

Thanks for listening! I'm glad you're here.

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See ya next week!
Erin

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

Welcome to the Quality of Life podcast. I'm Erin Olson, a wife, a mother and a serial entrepreneur. After starting three successful businesses, I've learned some hard lessons regarding the ins and the outs of starting and running a small business. My intention is to share my knowledge that I've learned from the School of Hard Knocks, so you don't have to learn it the hard way like I did. Each week, I hope, to guide you to the next level in your business or in the business that you work in. So let's go. Hey guys, welcome back to the Quality of Life Podcast. Erin Olson here to help you get from business idea to big business.

Speaker 1: 0:48

This week, I have finally decided to cover something that I resisted for a long, long time. Not only did I resist it in my personal and business life, but I have also resisted bringing it up on this podcast. The truth is, I know that I will be judged for covering this topic and I am a recovering people pleaser. Well, at least I'm trying to be. This week, I am talking about allowing God to help you in your business. Now, before you start tuning me out because I mentioned God, let me just tell you that I have done business on my own and it is totally possible. But the second that I started to ask God for help, things shifted. Now I am not some Bible banger that just judges other people and whether or not they are doing things quote right. I am also not perfect. I screw up a lot and, honestly, the F word, among other words befitting of a sailor, come out of my mouth more frequently than they should. Now, personally, I gave up on God years ago and have only made my way back to him over the last 15 or so years and, honestly, that was due to my life circumstances and how judgy and hypocritical I thought the church had treated me. But at that time I had really gotten into the law of attraction, how energy works, and the universe. And guess what I found? They are one and the same as God. God is the universe, he is energy, but that is my belief and, honestly, if you are not a Christian, that is totally okay. You just use whatever texts support your beliefs.

Speaker 1: 2:31

The thing that I want to talk to you about today is how to allow God to really help you in your business. Now, I talked about how I had made my way back to him about 15 or so years ago and that is thanks to a Joel Osteen audio CD set gifted to me by my former business partner. Now I know that the mention of a megachurch pastor is almost as polarizing as the mention of a presidential candidate nowadays, but bear with me. The CD set was all about dealing with fear and, as a person who was bullied really bad in high school and junior high and who felt like they were looked at as less than for all of my life, fear really was ruling my life and my choices. So love him or hate him, joel's message got me back on track to becoming who I am today. Now, if you've ever seen businesses with their little fish icons or using God in advertising and gotten a little weird feeling that they are just using it as a marketing ploy, that is not what I want to talk to you about today. Seeing that in advertising can rub people the wrong way and instantly turn them off to you and your business. But there is a way that you can allow God to be part of your business without slapping people across the head with doctrine or scripture. So Get ready for story time.

Speaker 1: 3:56

There have been a lot of coincidences in my life that there is just no way something divine wasn't orchestrating them. For instance, I have a friend named Volley who is awesome and man. I just love her and if there was ever someone who walked the walk, it's her. It's almost like she has an open communication with God herself. Her it's almost like she has an open communication with God herself. She even has a horse ministry called Hope Rides that helps kids to deal with life. She is someone who does whatever God tells her to, and one day she gave me and my business partner the one-year Bible.

Speaker 1: 4:33

Now this Bible is kind of daunting it's about two inches thick but she said that she felt that she was supposed to give it to us. To quote read together, read together. Weird, but in all honesty, we were having issues managing the business and the people in the business and we needed all of the help we could get. So we let it sit on our desks for a while and then finally just decided to start January 1st, even though it was probably sometime in June, if I remember it right. The way that the one-year Bible is set up is that each calendar day has some Old Testament, some New Testament, a Psalm and a Proverb. So you read an assortment, if you will, every day, and then you read it for 365 days and that is the complete Bible.

Speaker 1: 5:21

So we started reading out loud together, taking turns, and let me tell you, it was so awkward and I'm not a good reader out loud in general, but reading the Bible in front of somebody so weird. So we just started doing it and taking turns and let me tell you, the way that it ended up being relevant to our issues each time we read was not a coincidence, and that became the norm. Even though we didn't read the Bible daily, when we did it, it almost always was relevant to something one of us was going through, or that the business was going through one of us was going through, or that the business was going through. Now, I'm sure you've heard your mom or your grandma tell you to read the Bible a hundred times. But let me tell you something shifted when we started to read the Word Okay. So not only did we decide which buildings to buy or rent, where to move our business, based on what we read, but we also decided whether or not to hire, fire or even to send employees to rehab. Yep, that really happened. And no, it wasn't like the words literally told us what to do, but it gave us a glimpse of what we should do, like an intuition, a nudge, if you will.

Speaker 1: 6:38

Like I said, even if the Bible is not your chosen text, it has so much wise information in it, and almost all of it relates to business, really. So how should you let God into your business? Simply put, ask him for help. Pray Now. Don't let any old upbringing or training from the church make this harder than it is. If you are struggling with finding a supplier, an employee or how to advertise, who to hire or anything, just ask God, simply and plainly, to help you.

Speaker 1: 7:14

But what you do next is the most important thing. You have to thank him for answering your prayer, even if you haven't gotten an answer yet, then let go of all of the doing and making it happen and be patient. Yeah, I know, it's not one of my strengths either, but things take time and sometimes you just have to wait and while you're waiting, pick up the Bible and read something. Sometimes, just open the Bible after you ask the question and thank him for the answer and just let it flop to whatever page feels right and then just start reading. I guarantee you that eventually, something that you read is going to be relevant and, in addition to reading something, schedule some unplugged time with just you and a notebook and write down any ideas that pop into your mind. Be sure to do this unplugged from the internet, your phone and without any other distractions. You might be surprised what actually comes out on paper. As you start to ask and wait, the results will get better and better over time.

Speaker 1: 8:22

And, honestly, if you want to know how we grew Haychix to be a multi-million dollar a year company, this is the secret. It's also the secret to why I sold my half of the business to my business partner, asking for help and reading the one-year Bible. That's the secret. Will it work for you and your business? I really honestly believe it will. Now, like I said earlier, you don't need to, and probably shouldn't, blast it all over your marketing because, like I said, it rubs people the wrong way. But God created business, so there's no reason that he can't help you and yours.

Speaker 1: 9:03

Guys, I have hymned and hawed for months about this topic. I have started writing it out at least a dozen times, but I never really wanted to record it since I knew it might turn people off. I have made lots of references to God in most of my episodes, but decided today that I was going to lay it all out, and God helped me. God does help. His timing might not be your perfect timing, but it is always perfect to his plans. Daniel 10, 12 through 14 talks all about how God hears our prayers the second that we say them, but sometimes the angels have to fight their way to you to answer your prayers. In that instance, it took the angel 21 days. So wait patiently, like Psalm 37, 7 says, be still before the God and wait patiently for him to act. I know it's a work in progress for me too, guys. Well, guys, that is all that I have for you today. I hope that this wakes up your curiosity about how to allow God to help you in your business.

Speaker 1: 10:15

If you know someone who is struggling in business or just in life, this episode might help them out, so please share it with anybody that just happens to pop in your mind. I thank you so much for listening and hopefully I will see you next week on the Quality of Life podcast. See ya. Thanks for listening to today's episode. Be sure to check us out on the Quality of Life podcast Facebook and Instagram pages and our website, thearenolsoncom, for downloads and more information. That is T-H-E-E-R-I-N-O-L-S-O-Ncom. Stay up to date by joining our email newsletter. Together, we can improve all of our quality of life.