April 5, 2023 • 38 mins
Trigger Warning: Our guest in this episode shares the story of self-inflicted death of a family member. Please dial 988 if you are concerned for yourself or another person.
This week on Disrupting Burnout, I’m joined by Micayla Robertson, a Woman Who Defines Disruption by telling her story and positioning others to tell theirs!
Micayla Robertson is a faith-based storyteller, producer, writer and sought-after podcast coach. She believes whole-heartedly in the power of storytelling and is the Host of The IRONWIFEY Podcast, Editor of IRONWIFEY Magazine, Creator of Faith Audio Network and Founder of The IRON Agency.
As iron sharpens iron, Micayla is on a mission to sharpen and encourage women in Christ by helping them own their story, find their voice and share their testimony with the masses. Today, Micayla shares HER story and confirms how the Lord will HELP all who seek Him!
It’s Time To Disrupt Burnout:
03:10 - The Power Of Hospitality
07:15 - Beyond Burnout
18:00 - Holding Onto Faith In The Midst Of Darkness
24:00 - The Lord Will Help You
28:00 - The Power Of Storytelling
31:00 - Share Your Story
You have HELP Takeaways
● “We all have a story to tell.” - Micayla Robertson
● “We miss the blessing in the season that we’re in longing for the next.” - Dr. PBJ
● “I decided to seek the Lord and that allowed me to hold onto faith.” - Micayla Robertson
● “I leaned on God for provision and Guidance and He ended up guiding us.” - Micayla Robertson
● “If God can help me, He can help you.” - Micayla Robertson
● “Receiving Jesus is the most important thing you’ll ever do.” - Dr. PBJ
● “Your story is what makes you stand out.” - Dr. PBJ
● “I define disruption by telling my story.” - Micayla Robertson
Connect With Micayla:
Instagram: @micaylarobertson | https://www.instagram.com/micaylarobertson/
Website: https://faithbasedstoryteller.com/
Podcast: The IRONWIFEY Podcast | https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ironwifey-podcast/id1493222239
Connect with PBJ
● To connect with Dr. PBJ, go topatricebucknerjackson.com
● Follow Dr. PBJ on IG@drpatricebucknerjackson for#aspoonfulofpbj.
● Need a dynamic transformational speaker? Dr. PBJ is ready to serve. Check outDr. PBJ Speaks | https://www.patricebucknerjackson.com/speaking
● Support The Show |https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/lovepbj?locale.x=en_US
Upgrade to Premium Membership to access the Disrupting Burnout audiobook and other bonus content: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1213895/supporters/new
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
So the revelation that the HolySpirit showed me was God is my
(00:02):
judge. The Lord shows grace.
Micayla, I will help you. And atthat moment, I knew that what
was about to happen in everyother day in my life, the Lord
has always helped me.
(00:25):
Hey, friends, listen, I am soexcited. I am so excited. We
have another episode in ourseries of women who define
disruption. And this one, all mygood, all of them are good, but
this one is close to my heart.
Today I have the opportunity ofintroducing you to Micayla
(00:47):
Robertson. Micayla is astoryteller. She is a Podcast
Producer. She is a coach, ateacher, and she is a woman of
God. Listen, even if you havenot met Micayla, you have seen
her work, because she has beenworking with me on the
(01:09):
disrupting burnout podcast forthe last few months and I'm
just, I'm so grateful. I am sograteful. So let me give her
some proper Okay. Micayla isgonna tell her story, but let me
just let you know what thiswoman is up to. So Micayla is
the host and creator of the ironwifey podcast. She's also the
(01:29):
editor of iron why wifeymagazine, and the founder of the
iron agency, As iron sharpensiron. Micayla is on a mission to
sharpen and encourage women inChrist by helping them to own
their story, find their voice,and share their testimony with
(01:50):
the masses. And today you get tohear Micayla story, and it is my
honor to introduce you all to mysister in Christ. Micayla
Robertson. Hello Micayla.
Welcome. Hi, Dr.
PBJ. Thank you so much forhaving me. I'm so excited to be
(02:12):
here.
I'm so excited to have you here.
Listen, we're just gonna letthem in on our weekly
conversations. For the last fewweeks, we have had the blessing
the honor to come together towork through not just the
podcast, but my goodness, we'vebeen just talking about life.
Yeah, so I just want these folksto hear you to hear your story
(02:34):
and know who you are. I believeit's important to be exposed to
and be aware of people who bringin disruption, who live in
disruption, and disruption in away that brings power in your
life, where you're not justsubmitting to a ladder or a
career box that somebody createdfor you. But you are living
(02:59):
fully in the purpose that Godcreated you for. Come on.
Makayla, tell the people who youare my friend.
Well, first off, you arepreaching today, because you are
pretty much telling my story.
Now, when it comes to definingdisruption, I first off, I'm so
honored that you even asked meto join you. Because I did not
(03:21):
think of myself as someone whodefined disruption. But once you
broke that down, and you really,you know, dove into what it
means to define the life thatGod has created for you not
necessarily following everybodyelse. It made me realize, Oh my
gosh, I guess I have to findthis eruption. So thank you for
(03:41):
having me, ladies and gentlemen.
My name is Michaela Robertson. Iam a storyteller for other
people, other people, and whenit comes to defining disruption,
I know about the power ofstorytelling because I honestly
used to work a nine to five jobthat I absolutely hated,
(04:05):
unfortunately, and maybe you'rein the same boat as me, maybe
you haven't. But I worked inhospitality for about five to
seven years, I did not enjoy myjob. But regardless of that, I
was humbled by it. Because everysingle position I was in the
Lord decided that he wanted toelevate me. So here you are at a
job that you don't want to be inand you keep getting promoted
and everyone loves you. It justgoes to show when God has favor
(04:29):
on UPS favor, but when I trulytalked about how he had to
humble me, I knew that I was inthat position because I had to
learn what it meant to serve.
And in learning how to serve.
That is where I learned thepower of storytelling because
when you walk into a hotel, thatperson standing at the desk,
that was me. But you have fiveminutes to literally engage in
(04:52):
conversation with someone andget to know their story in as
little time as possible so thatyou can make that experience so
much better. And so one Iliterally dove into the Bible
learned about hospitality in thefact that I'm supposed to be
here, I'm supposed to behospitable to people. It kind of
changed my perspective. And ittaught me that every single
person that walks into thathotel door has a story. And I
(05:15):
have the opportunity to addpositive impact to their story
or negative impact of theirstory based on the five minute
experience that they have withme. And so that was my start.
And once the Lord delivered mefrom hospitality, I started iron
Wi Fi, the blog, whicheventually turned into a podcast
on accident because I wanted tointerview someone, and my camera
(05:35):
died. And so all I had wasaudio. And because of that
podcast, I was blessed with theexperience to interview so many
amazing women. And that led tome being a Podcast Producer for
some pretty prominent podcast,launching my own podcast,
storytelling agency meeting, Dr.
PBJ, and having the privilegeof, you know, working on the
disrupting burnout podcastsevery week. It's just It's truly
(05:58):
been a blessing. It all startedwith understanding that we all
have a story to tell.
I love the way, Mikayla, youfound the purpose, even when you
were working in hospitality. Sooften we're so focused on this
is not it. This is not, there'smore to me, I shouldn't be here,
(06:21):
right. And I often say that wemiss the blessing in the season
that we're in longing for thenext. Absolutely. Purpose is
throughout your life. It's notone day that you get to it. But
even in what you're doing rightnow, whether it's serving
someone else's vision, orworking in someone else's
organization, you have purposein that place. So the fact that
(06:48):
you started honoring stories,and storytelling, even in that
position before you have hadyour own anything, it speaks to
the power of purpose throughoutour lives. And not just when we
get to a certain point, youmentioned that God delivered you
out of town. So you got to tellus, okay, you have to tell us
(07:14):
about that story and about thatpain.
Okay, so, before I tell thestory, I am going to say trigger
warning. If you have ever lost afamily member to suicide, I'm
just gonna let you know thatthis, my story doesn't come as
bad. So I do want to give youknow people a trigger warning if
(07:35):
they've lost someone or if theyhave considered it. But a little
bit about my story. I want totell you I worked 80 hours a
week, I worked 80 hours a week,I had two full time jobs. I
worked from 10pm to 7amovernight in hospitality. And
then I'd wake up in the morningand I had another job from 7am
to 5pm. And I go to sleepbetween five and 10 for about
(07:57):
five hours a day. And so whenyou talk about burning out, I
was beyond. I was beyondburnout. At that point, I was
just running on fumes. It waslike just wake up, do it again.
Wake up, do it again. And what alot of people looked at as the
world shutting down, it was mybreak. And so March, actually, I
(08:20):
remember the day Yeah, march23 2020. I went into work at my
first job and they said, Hey,today's your last shift at the
end of your shift, pick up yourchecks. And I was like, oh,
okay, and then on my way home,I'm driving home and the second
job calls and you're like, hey,we're shutting our doors. We're
actually closing down the entireSan Diego District. Come pick up
(08:43):
your check. And so within 30minutes, I lost all forms of
income on my way home from work.
And I remember going to myhusband and I was like, Oh, hey,
so I just got fired. He waslike, wait, what I'm like, Yeah,
I just got fired, and on the wayto pick up my check, like on the
way home for picking up mycheck, but other jobs has called
and said that they're closingtheir doors, and they're
(09:05):
furloughed, everybody. And soand he was like, Okay, well,
we're going to trust God in thissituation. And Dad said he's a
provider. So we're just gonnasee and wait and pray that he's
going to provide. And what'samazing is that that happened in
March. They did allow us toapply for unemployment. I don't
(09:28):
know what happened. But thisstate of Ohio which is where we
used to live still had meregistered in Ohio. So when I
filed for unemployment, SanDiego was like, I'm sorry, but
you don't live in this. Youdon't live in California. You
live in Ohio. And so I had tofile all the paperwork, all the
W twos from the last year alllike showing them that I had
proof that I lived inCalifornia, I worked in
(09:51):
California, I do deserveunemployment. I have this this
form from my jobs. You know,like I shouldn't be getting paid
They're like, I'm so sorry. Sothat process took three months.
And so for three months, whilewe had no income coming in,
because my husband worked fromhome, he's chasing his dream. So
I was like, oh, you know, I'llgo out, I'll work for us. And
(10:11):
when your dream kicks off, wecan switch off, like, you know,
we support each other. We had noincome coming down. And every
single day, I had to go down tothe leasing office and be like,
Hey, I promised you, I'm gonnapay you, but I don't have it.
And so the savings dwindle, thenthe savings ran out. And it was
a matter of deciding, are wegoing to pay the bills? Or are
we going to pay for food?
(10:33):
Because I mean, at this point,the stores are empty. The world
is fearful. We can't go outside,there's a curfew in certain
places. And now we can't payrent. And it's like three months
of not being able to program.
But God had so much favor on us.
Because every time we wentdownstairs to the leasing
office, they're like, hey, youknow what, you guys have always
(10:55):
paid on time, we understandwhat's going on, when you have
it, just give it to us. Andwe're like, okay, so you're
going through all that, then youget a call that your dad's in
the hospital, and he's sufferingfrom COVID. And unfortunately,
because he had COVID, he endedup developing pneumonia. And so
that impacted his lungs. And sowhen he actually recovered from
(11:17):
COVID, he actually couldn'tactually function 100% Like
walking from the couch, just toget to the bathroom was like a
whole entire workout. And for aman who's a workaholic, that was
like his life, you know, youtalked about me being burnt out,
he worked more than me, and thisis his whole life. And so he
became really depressed, itbecame a really, like, really
(11:38):
sad situation, because he neverfully recovered. And he was just
kind of in and out of like, youknow, his his positive mindset
versus negative mindset becausehe couldn't go to work. So 2020
I like to say it was one of thetoughest years of my life, but
also one of the best, becauseduring the time that my dad is
suffering from COVID, I don'thave a job bill collectors are
(11:59):
calling us every single day andwe're getting at least 10 calls
a day, because they're like,Hey, you owe us money, the car
gets repossessed, we can't pay,right. It was like one thing
after another thing afteranother thing. But my husband
and I were like, we're stillgonna trust God. And we asked
the Lord to provide andliterally, after three, four
months, the Lord provided weended up getting we had family
(12:21):
members who we had talked tofriends who I had seen since
high school, they were justlike, oh, my gosh, you are on my
mind. I'm sending you this. Andthat covered groceries for the
week. Hey, the Lord told me toreach out to you and send you
this and that covered this, likemy dad on his way to the
hospital, told my stepmom Hey,send Mikayla in Durant, this
much money and it literallycovered rent. And it was like
(12:43):
the Lord just kept providingafter providing in an
unemployment kicked in, and wewere able to back pay all the
other rent that we couldn't payduring that time. And so it was
one thing after another, but Ileaned on dad for provision, and
I leaned on him for guidance,and he ended up guiding us. And
within that time, I, I had aphone call from Patrice
(13:05):
Washington, who runs theredefining wealth podcast. And
before the pandemic, I hadreached out to her to be a guest
on another podcast that Iproduced at that time. And we
you know, we hit it off, weconnected. And so she calls me
in the middle of the pandemic,and she's like, Hey, you're on
my mind. Are you okay? And I'mlike, well, Sis, I lost both
(13:27):
jobs. I'm unemployed, I can'tpay rent. And you know, I got
family in the hospital. But youknow, what I actually did, like,
like, God is good, and I'm good.
And she's like, Well, I stillneed a producer. And I'm like,
well, I could have startedyesterday. And so I ended up
becoming our producer in themidst of the pandemic. I ended
up, you know, learning from herwhat it is that I need to do to
really build out this business.
(13:49):
And I decided, you know, what,I'm gonna focus on this
podcasting thing, and really,you know, grow it to the point
of whatever God has for it. Andso that's kind of how it took
off for 2020 It was the roughestyear because at the very end of
the year, I had a dream that myfather committed suicide and
three days later, his body wasfound. And so that alone is
(14:13):
another story but just knowinghow in your most darkest hour
you know, the Bible says eventhough you walk through the
shadow of death, you shall fearno evil for God is with me. Like
even in this like you're walkingthrough the darkest hour it's
like one thing after anotherthing after another thing I knew
that there was no points of fearbecause gas that he was gonna
provide so either you a liar, oryou for real. And that was me
(14:36):
testing out I'm like, either youdon't come through or you not.
And he came through and I'm sograteful. Because even in the
midst of that year, and evenending the year the way that it
did and losing, you know, like,one of my best friends my dad
was one of my best friendslosing one of my best friends in
a way that it happened. The Lordstill showed me what was gonna
(14:56):
happen before it did andprepared me for that.
Hey friends, I'm just popping into let you know that I have just
a handful of openings on mycalendar over the next three
months for one on one coachingclients, if you are an
accomplished woman who has foundthat you've lost your fire over
time, if you have beensuccessful doing all the things,
(15:20):
but you just want to love yourwork. Again, if you're really
good at what you do, but youknow that there is more than you
need to reach out, go to connectwith pbj.com Sign up for a
connect call, we'll jump on realquick. I just need to make sure
you're a good candidate for mycoaching program. And if so
(15:40):
we'll dig in together and I'llwalk this journey with you. All
right, y'all reach out connectwith Pb de.com. I look forward
to speaking with you.
Hello, my name is Ashley. And Ihave the privilege of
experiencing Dr. PBJ as one ofmy coaches in a business
accelerator program for womencalled purpose to platform. And
(16:02):
Dr. PBJ actually served as oursubject matter expert and our
mindset coach do throughout theprogram. And she brought over 30
years of experience in academia,her professional training is
amazing, her experience is veryrelevant. And she's an
applicable and we were sofortunate to benefit from her
(16:25):
being our mindset coach, Dr. PBJis compassionate, and very
skilled in creating safe spacesfor in creating safe spaces I'll
leave it at I'll leave it atthat. And she's also very
skilled in walking her clientsthrough transformation, you will
(16:47):
have a transformative experienceif you work with Dr. PBJ. She
worked with our cohort andliterally most of us were, I
would say in the caterpillarstage, when we came in, there
were many things that we neededto develop many things that we
needed clarity on and supportin. And she walked us through
this transformative experience.
She took us through the cocoonstage and ultimately helped us
(17:07):
to build resilience, confidence,self acceptance, and build us up
to be the butterflies that weare and that we need to be to
succeed in business. And so ifyou're looking for a coach who's
relatable, who is compassionate,authentic, authentic, effective,
and ultimately transformative,then you found the right woman
(17:33):
and Dr. PBJ. Thank you.
Listen, first of all, let mejust say, and we've discussed
(17:54):
this, right, so you've sharedyour story with me before, but
on behalf of our community, onbehalf of our community, I'm so
sorry for your loss.
Thank you so much.
And I really need you to talk tous and tell us how in the world
do you hold on to faith in themidst of all of that, like, for
(18:17):
somebody loss of a job isn'tenough? Loss of two bills cannot
be paid? We're not maybe notworrying, but okay, how we're
going to eat? That is it? Andnow that is gone? How in the
world? Do you hold on to faithin the midst of that kind of
(18:39):
trouble?
I believe I decided to seek theLord. And that is what allowed
me to hold on to faith becausewhat's funny is and I can dive a
little bit into this if we havetime, but when I had the dream
that my father passed away inthe dream, and I can just tell
(19:02):
you guys about the dream in thedream I saw it happen but I was
on the phone and so I'm watchingit happen but I'm on the phone
with him and he attempts to takehis life two times the first
time it didn't work. And thesecond time he's calling me and
he's crying and he's telling meyou know what, it's just it's
too much for me life is too muchit's over for me and on the on
(19:25):
the phone I'm telling my fatherthe story of shadow Acme shaken
up Indigo. And how if you knowthe story in the Bible, three
Hebrew boys walk into fieryfurnace because they decide that
they don't want to serve the Godof the king. The king is like
you know everybody bad out andworshipped by God. And they're
like, No, we serve our God.
We're not going to do that. Andthe kings like, Oh, if you want
(19:48):
to just go baby, I'm gonna sitwith you to this fiery furnace
volcano and you're gonna die.
And so I told my father thisstory, because in the biblical
story, the three people alwayswalk To the furnace and they
walk out on scorched, and theking is actually like, Oh, God
is in there with them. There's afourth person in there. So how
(20:08):
in the world is there a fourthperson when we only said three,
and they walk out, there's nofire, there's no ash, there's no
birth, there's nothing. And Itold my father that story in the
dream, and I'm like, debt, thefires that you endure in life,
you're going to come out onscorched, whatever fires, you go
through whatever challenges youhave in life, just trust God and
know that God is with you. Andyou're just going to walk away
(20:30):
freely. And in my dream, myfather told me, you know, I'm so
sorry, but that's not enough.
And you know, he, I'm not gonnagive you guys details, but he
committed suicide. And I woke upfrom my dream with peace. And
that's how I knew something waswrong. Because usually, for most
people, you would hear somethinglike this or dream about this.
(20:53):
And you'd be like, Oh, my God,like, what's going on? And I
woke up with peace. And that'swhy I knew like, okay,
something's off. And so I calledmy dad. As soon as I woke up,
it's like, 5am his time. I'mlike, Hey, I had a dream about
you. Like, first off, are youlooking to take your life? Like,
are you okay? Are you looking totake your life because this is
what happened. And he's like,you know, what, thank you for
(21:15):
sharing that dream. I'm not, I'mjust really sad. Because you
know, COVID Boss, he couldn't goback to work, lungs, everything.
He's just like, I'm really,really sad. But I know that I'm
not looking to take my life. Andbecause the Lord shows you this,
I know that God's going to dosomething really, really great
for you. And so three dayslater, I got a call from my
(21:37):
brother, and his body was foundin the woods. And everything
that I saw in my dream exactlyhow it happened to down to the
clothes that he was wearing isexactly how he was found. And I
knew in that moment, it was likethe Holy Spirit said, I heard
this. He was like a whisper. Itwas like, the dream wasn't for
you to warn him. It was toprepare you. And so when I flew
(21:58):
home, and I'm planning thearrangements, and I'm, you know,
in the household with my family,and I'm witnessing people
lamenting and wailing, and youknow, screams coming out of
people's bodies that I've neverexperienced before, I had so
much peace, I had so much peace,and I was in awe, because I'm
sitting here like, I shouldprobably be crying. I should
(22:19):
probably be sad. But God was me.
Like, you know, when you'relike, wait a minute, like, he
talks about a piece thatsurpasses understanding. I'm
like, first off, why am I thatsaid, I mean, I'm sad that I'm
not going to be able to talk tohim. But I'm not like everybody
else, like everybody else isgrieving. And I'm like, Dad, why
did you show me that dream?
Like, why me? And my father wasloved by everybody. Like, during
(22:44):
this time, this is COVID, youcouldn't have a real funeral. So
we had to have a virtualfuneral. And there were 4000
people that showed up on hisfuneral, because that's how many
people's lives he loved andimpacted. And so I'm like, Okay,
this is cool enough, but like,Why me? You know, like, what,
why? I'm not I wouldn't considermyself a dreamer, even though it
(23:06):
was as a kid. But I'm like, whywould you really like show me
all of this? And by the time Ireturned back home to
California, 2021 hits, and threemonths later, February 2021, I
really started asking God, whyme? You know, you talk about
why, how can you have so muchpeace in the midst of chaos?
Like I was really like, No, forreal? Like, why did you show me
(23:30):
that? And I started studyingabout dreams. And I read the
book of Daniel and I realizedthat the story of Shadrach,
Meshach and Abednego. I didn'tknow that story. When I told my
dad that story in the dream. Idid not know it. I had never
read it in the Bible. I think Ihad like a vacation Bible
school, like study, like wayback when I was a kid and like,
(23:53):
three little boys walk into avolcano and they come out and
God is good. And so that's all Iknew. And so I was like, God,
why don't you show me thatstory? And when I break down the
story, and I was reading thestory, there was a revelation.
Because when you look at Danieland the story of Shadrach,
Meshach and Abednego you realizethat that's not their real
(24:13):
names. Daniels real name isBelle touches our shed Rex rule
name is Hannah nya Misha orrechecks. Her name is Michelle
and Abednego. His real name isAzariah. And when I translated
their names because I'm reallybig on names, me Shaq or
Michelle and Mikayla mean thesame thing. It means who is like
(24:34):
God, and so when you translateit, it's Daniel, God is my
judge. Who's the first oneShadrach, which is here to Nya,
the Lord shows grace. Michelle,aka Mikayla, who was like that,
and then as Araya or a Bendigo.
(24:56):
You know, I will help you. Sothe revelation that the Holy
spiritual Was God is my judge,the Lord shows grace. Mikayla, I
will help you. And at thatmoment, I knew that what was
about to happen in every otherday in my life, the Lord has
always helped me. He has helpedme through the power of other
(25:16):
people's testimonies, which istheir stories. He has helped me
through one of the darkest timesin my life, and he was going to
help me through the death of mydad, in every repercussions that
came with that. And from thatmoment on, he has always helped
me and he will always help me.
And the Bible says that the Lordwill help you. And so I am so
grateful that, like I said, inthe midst of darkness, the Lord
(25:39):
told me that he was going tohelp me. And that has been
something that I've kind ofleaned on ever since. And if
you're hearing this, then Idon't want you to know, like, if
he can help me, he can help you.
And he's going to help you. Andso now that's something that I
kind of covered my life to washelping others tell their
(26:01):
stories, but also just breakingdown the method that the Lord
recently gave me. And so theLord showed me that when he
says, he's going to help you,he's going to heal you. He's
going to encourage you, he'sgoing to love you, and he's
going to protect you. And that'sthe foundation, he'll encourage
love and protect. Because onceyou've established that
(26:23):
foundation, then you can go onthe purpose in life, that means
he's going to humble you. I hadto be humbled and hospitality,
he's going to elevate you, he'sgoing to lead you, and he's
going to position you to carryout His will for your life. And
so I believe the Lord is goingto help me I know that he's
going to help you. But just knowthat you have to establish that
(26:47):
foundation. First. You have tobe healed. From whatever it is
the people that hurt you, theyou hurting yourself, self
infliction, you know, anythingthat you believe that has kept
you bound, like you have to behealed, the Lord will encourage
you one of my favorite songs, Idon't know who was fired. But
sometimes you have to encourageyourself. Sometimes you have to
(27:08):
speak over yourself, like you,you have to encourage yourself,
you have to know that the Lord'sword is going to encourage you,
the Lord is going to love you.
We know that God is love. Loveis patient. Love is kind. It's
not self seeking. It's notirritable. It doesn't rejoice in
wrongdoings, love yourself, lovewho God created you to be and
know that you're protected. Knowthat you are protected. God is
going to protect you everysingle step of the way. And once
(27:30):
you get through that, then thenthe real the inner work what you
call it, Dr. PBJ, the hard work.
The hard work starts you got tobe humbled, then you'll be
elevated, led by God in positionto carry out His will.
I pray that the listeners havereceived what you're saying
(27:54):
today. First of all, thank youfor sharing your story. But in
sharing your story you'veequipped us. Because so often
when we go through bad times,especially if we don't have a
personal relationship with God,or if we don't know him, we
wonder why loving God wouldallow, right? But understanding
(28:17):
that in this world, while welive on this earth, there is
going to be pain, this this isnot where we're going. This is
not the heaven, there's going tobe trouble there is going to be
pain. But the Bible says takeheart because God has overcome
the world. And knowing this isgood news. This is good news.
(28:39):
Knowing that he's going to helpme look okay, wait a minute,
because somebody needs to hearthat. Nobody ever promised that
you won't have trouble. Nobodyever promised that you won't
have pain. Nobody ever promisedthat things would be perfect.
But what he did promise is thathe will help you. Absolutely.
(29:02):
And that's everything.
Absolutely. That is That iseverything. I've been very clear
on this podcast about what Ibelieve. But in this moment, I
just want to appeal tosomebody's heart. And I want you
to know that one of the the bestgift, the best gift that anybody
(29:23):
could offer that anybody couldhave is a relationship with
Jesus Christ. Amen. And thatrelationship is everything
because regardless of whatyou've been through, or what you
either may have to face ever andany day of your life, you have
help. Absolutely. You have help.
(29:46):
So I pray that if you don't havethat relationship with Jesus if
you don't know God as yourhelper, that you can DM me DM
Makayla, reach out to PatEsther, because receiving Jesus
is the most important thing youoverdue. So I just I thank you,
(30:09):
Michaela. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you for sharing yourstory. And it's so much power,
because it comes from you. It'sone thing for someone who, you
know, hasn't had your story tosay, and all of us have a story,
right? Everybody does haveforgotten. But after hearing
(30:29):
what you went through and oneyear, in a matter of months,
whatever you get through, andfor you to say, that will help
you. He will help you. Hey,whoa. That's the power of
storytelling. That's the power.
(30:52):
Yeah. Praise the Lord. That'sthe power of storytelling. So
how do you empower or encourageothers? Maybe there's somebody
listening, who has a testimony,it may not be yours, but
everybody here has come throughsomething right. And they have a
story, but they don't know whatto do with it. They don't know
(31:14):
if it should be told. If it'sworth it, can you speak to
someone about their story andtheir testimony?
Absolutely. Each and every oneof you has a story to tell, it
may not be as dark and dire asmine was. Or it may not be the
most light story in the world,like you just won the lottery 16
(31:37):
times, even though if you haveslept through, because I could
use, I could use I could use apiece of candy Come on. But I'm
just saying each and every oneof us has a story. And a lot of
times are obstacles or some ofthe things that we've been
through are a part of the storythat we hide, because we feel
(31:58):
shame around them. And so I havea free download for the people
for what I call the storymethod. And the way that I help
people tell their story istelling it online. So literally,
you can tell your story on anavenue like this podcast, you
can tell your story via email,you can tell your story on
social media, or you can tellyour story to your neighbor next
(32:20):
door. But the story method issplit into five different parts.
It's s t o r y story. Andliterally it's SS in strength.
So what is what are yourstrengths? What are you strong
yet? What are you good in, youknow, some of us are gifted in
speaking, some of us are giftedin singing, some of us are
(32:40):
gifted in writing, and some ofus are gifted and listening. If
you're a listener, that is astrength. Because a lot of
people need someone to listen totheir story. So S is what are
your strengths? T is yourtechnique? When I think
technique I think of how to, youknow, what can you teach
someone? Whether it be how tostart a podcast? Or how to
(33:02):
disrupt burnout in your life? Orit could be how to wash laundry,
how to iron your clothes, how totake your dog out for a walk,
how to know like what is yourtechnique is your HOW TO THE
always going to be obstacles?
What obstacles have you faced inlife? Was it the death of a
loved one? You know, was it theloss of a job? What obstacles
have you faced in life? And thenthere's a second part to Oh,
(33:24):
which is overcome? How have youovercome that obstacle? The art
is going to be yourrelationships. So who do you do
it? For? What relationships inyour life inspire you to want to
do better? Is it a relationshipwith yourself? Because I mean,
we all want to be out here like,you know, I love myself enough
to go for more. Or I do it formy kids. Or I do it for my dad.
You know, my dad, he didn'tthink it was worth living. And
(33:47):
so I'm going to make it worthliving, you know? What are the
relationships that inspire you?
And then why is your why? And Iknow it starts with a W but it
ends with a Y so don't come forme. Okay? Why do you do what you
do? What are the reasons? Whatis the driving force behind you
showing up every single day. Soyour story method is your
(34:08):
strength, technique, obstacles,relationships, and why? And so I
have a free audio training indownload for the people if you
guys want it, it is how to tellyour story online, I will make
sure that Dr. PBJ has all thelinks wherever you need to find
the links, wherever. But if youwant to learn how to tell your
story, make sure you guys goahead and check out the story
(34:29):
method download. And don't beafraid to really tap into what
your strengths are. You knowwhat your techniques are, what
your obstacles in yourovercoming things are, what your
relationships mean to you andyour why like that is how you
tell your story. Because at theend of the day, you do have a
story to tell. I don't care whatother people have told you. You
(34:50):
have a story to tell. You have avoice. You have experiences that
no one else has gone through theway that you have gone through
them. And so if my story has thepower to play somebody that I
know that Charleston'sYes, absolutely. And we will
link all of that so that you canget that free download and start
using your story. Here's thething, your story is what makes
(35:13):
you stand out, Oh, nobody else,they may have your same degree,
they may have worked in the samecareer field, they do not have
your story. No one can tell itlike you tell it and the world
needs to hear it. So I'mexcited. I'm excited for you all
to tell your story. Mikayla, Ihave to ask you one more
question. Before we leave.
(35:35):
How do you define disruption?
Hmm.
That is a great question. Iwould say that I define
disruption. By telling my storyby telling me my story that
sounds so cliche after theconversation that we just had.
(35:58):
But really, I told you beforethis, I didn't think that I was
a woman who did definedisruption, but knowing that my
story has the power to disruptsomebody else's life. That is
how I define disruption bytelling my story and being proud
of my story. Yes,yes. Your story has the power to
disrupt somebody's depression.
(36:22):
Your story has the power todisrupt somebody's chaos. Your
story has the power to disruptsomeone settling in their life.
So you you are absolutely right.
You define disruption by tellingyour story. But Sister You also
empower us to tell ours. Amen.
(36:44):
And I'm so grateful. I'm sograteful for you. Not just your
skill, your experience, but yourheart, your heart for people,
and your heart for the kingdomof God. For him to do what he
wants to do through all of ourstories. It is evident and we
are so grateful for you here.
(37:07):
No know. Thank you for beinghere. Thank you. How can people
follow you hear more from youaccess the magazine, tell the
people how to get in touch with?
Absolutely. Well, I like to playon Instagram. So you guys can
follow me on Instagram atMikayla Robertson that's mi see
a y les our OB e r t s o n. Andif you're watching it, you can
(37:32):
see the factual spelling there.
But follow me on Instagram. Andthen you can also check out my
website faith based storyteller.
That's where you can get thedownload. But that's also going
to direct you to all things thatI have going on, whether it be
my personal website, our Wi Fimagazine website, that our Wi Fi
podcast, our agency if you'relooking to start a podcast or
(37:55):
want to work with me as aproducer, so faith based
storyteller is where you'regoing to find the download and
then from there, you'll see allthe other links that link to
everything else about me, butyeah, that's it.
Oh my goodness, listen, friends.
I know your heart has beentouched just like mine. And I
hope that you are powered up andempowered to tell your story and
(38:15):
to get more comfortable tellingyour story because there's power
in what you have to say. Soagain, Micayla, thank you for
joining us. As always friends,you know you are powerful, you
are significant and you areloved. Love always PBJ
So the revelation that the HolySpirit showed me was God is my
(00:02):
judge. The Lord shows grace.
Micayla, I will help you. And atthat moment, I knew that what
was about to happen in everyother day in my life, the Lord
has always helped me.
(00:25):
Hey, friends, listen, I am soexcited. I am so excited. We
have another episode in ourseries of women who define
disruption. And this one, all mygood, all of them are good, but
this one is close to my heart.
Today I have the opportunity ofintroducing you to Micayla
(00:47):
Robertson. Micayla is astoryteller. She is a Podcast
Producer. She is a coach, ateacher, and she is a woman of
God. Listen, even if you havenot met Micayla, you have seen
her work, because she has beenworking with me on the
(01:09):
disrupting burnout podcast forthe last few months and I'm
just, I'm so grateful. I am sograteful. So let me give her
some proper Okay. Micayla isgonna tell her story, but let me
just let you know what thiswoman is up to. So Micayla is
the host and creator of the ironwifey podcast. She's also the
(01:29):
editor of iron why wifeymagazine, and the founder of the
iron agency, As iron sharpensiron. Micayla is on a mission to
sharpen and encourage women inChrist by helping them to own
their story, find their voice,and share their testimony with
(01:50):
the masses. And today you get tohear Micayla story, and it is my
honor to introduce you all to mysister in Christ. Micayla
Robertson. Hello Micayla.
Welcome. Hi, Dr.
PBJ. Thank you so much forhaving me. I'm so excited to be
(02:12):
here.
I'm so excited to have you here.
Listen, we're just gonna letthem in on our weekly
conversations. For the last fewweeks, we have had the blessing
the honor to come together towork through not just the
podcast, but my goodness, we'vebeen just talking about life.
Yeah, so I just want these folksto hear you to hear your story
(02:34):
and know who you are. I believeit's important to be exposed to
and be aware of people who bringin disruption, who live in
disruption, and disruption in away that brings power in your
life, where you're not justsubmitting to a ladder or a
career box that somebody createdfor you. But you are living
(02:59):
fully in the purpose that Godcreated you for. Come on.
Makayla, tell the people who youare my friend.
Well, first off, you arepreaching today, because you are
pretty much telling my story.
Now, when it comes to definingdisruption, I first off, I'm so
honored that you even asked meto join you. Because I did not
(03:21):
think of myself as someone whodefined disruption. But once you
broke that down, and you really,you know, dove into what it
means to define the life thatGod has created for you not
necessarily following everybodyelse. It made me realize, Oh my
gosh, I guess I have to findthis eruption. So thank you for
(03:41):
having me, ladies and gentlemen.
My name is Michaela Robertson. Iam a storyteller for other
people, other people, and whenit comes to defining disruption,
I know about the power ofstorytelling because I honestly
used to work a nine to five jobthat I absolutely hated,
(04:05):
unfortunately, and maybe you'rein the same boat as me, maybe
you haven't. But I worked inhospitality for about five to
seven years, I did not enjoy myjob. But regardless of that, I
was humbled by it. Because everysingle position I was in the
Lord decided that he wanted toelevate me. So here you are at a
job that you don't want to be inand you keep getting promoted
and everyone loves you. It justgoes to show when God has favor
(04:29):
on UPS favor, but when I trulytalked about how he had to
humble me, I knew that I was inthat position because I had to
learn what it meant to serve.
And in learning how to serve.
That is where I learned thepower of storytelling because
when you walk into a hotel, thatperson standing at the desk,
that was me. But you have fiveminutes to literally engage in
(04:52):
conversation with someone andget to know their story in as
little time as possible so thatyou can make that experience so
much better. And so one Iliterally dove into the Bible
learned about hospitality in thefact that I'm supposed to be
here, I'm supposed to behospitable to people. It kind of
changed my perspective. And ittaught me that every single
person that walks into thathotel door has a story. And I
(05:15):
have the opportunity to addpositive impact to their story
or negative impact of theirstory based on the five minute
experience that they have withme. And so that was my start.
And once the Lord delivered mefrom hospitality, I started iron
Wi Fi, the blog, whicheventually turned into a podcast
on accident because I wanted tointerview someone, and my camera
(05:35):
died. And so all I had wasaudio. And because of that
podcast, I was blessed with theexperience to interview so many
amazing women. And that led tome being a Podcast Producer for
some pretty prominent podcast,launching my own podcast,
storytelling agency meeting, Dr.
PBJ, and having the privilegeof, you know, working on the
disrupting burnout podcastsevery week. It's just It's truly
(05:58):
been a blessing. It all startedwith understanding that we all
have a story to tell.
I love the way, Mikayla, youfound the purpose, even when you
were working in hospitality. Sooften we're so focused on this
is not it. This is not, there'smore to me, I shouldn't be here,
(06:21):
right. And I often say that wemiss the blessing in the season
that we're in longing for thenext. Absolutely. Purpose is
throughout your life. It's notone day that you get to it. But
even in what you're doing rightnow, whether it's serving
someone else's vision, orworking in someone else's
organization, you have purposein that place. So the fact that
(06:48):
you started honoring stories,and storytelling, even in that
position before you have hadyour own anything, it speaks to
the power of purpose throughoutour lives. And not just when we
get to a certain point, youmentioned that God delivered you
out of town. So you got to tellus, okay, you have to tell us
(07:14):
about that story and about thatpain.
Okay, so, before I tell thestory, I am going to say trigger
warning. If you have ever lost afamily member to suicide, I'm
just gonna let you know thatthis, my story doesn't come as
bad. So I do want to give youknow people a trigger warning if
(07:35):
they've lost someone or if theyhave considered it. But a little
bit about my story. I want totell you I worked 80 hours a
week, I worked 80 hours a week,I had two full time jobs. I
worked from 10pm to 7amovernight in hospitality. And
then I'd wake up in the morningand I had another job from 7am
to 5pm. And I go to sleepbetween five and 10 for about
(07:57):
five hours a day. And so whenyou talk about burning out, I
was beyond. I was beyondburnout. At that point, I was
just running on fumes. It waslike just wake up, do it again.
Wake up, do it again. And what alot of people looked at as the
world shutting down, it was mybreak. And so March, actually, I
(08:20):
remember the day Yeah, march23 2020. I went into work at my
first job and they said, Hey,today's your last shift at the
end of your shift, pick up yourchecks. And I was like, oh,
okay, and then on my way home,I'm driving home and the second
job calls and you're like, hey,we're shutting our doors. We're
actually closing down the entireSan Diego District. Come pick up
(08:43):
your check. And so within 30minutes, I lost all forms of
income on my way home from work.
And I remember going to myhusband and I was like, Oh, hey,
so I just got fired. He waslike, wait, what I'm like, Yeah,
I just got fired, and on the wayto pick up my check, like on the
way home for picking up mycheck, but other jobs has called
and said that they're closingtheir doors, and they're
(09:05):
furloughed, everybody. And soand he was like, Okay, well,
we're going to trust God in thissituation. And Dad said he's a
provider. So we're just gonnasee and wait and pray that he's
going to provide. And what'samazing is that that happened in
March. They did allow us toapply for unemployment. I don't
(09:28):
know what happened. But thisstate of Ohio which is where we
used to live still had meregistered in Ohio. So when I
filed for unemployment, SanDiego was like, I'm sorry, but
you don't live in this. Youdon't live in California. You
live in Ohio. And so I had tofile all the paperwork, all the
W twos from the last year alllike showing them that I had
proof that I lived inCalifornia, I worked in
(09:51):
California, I do deserveunemployment. I have this this
form from my jobs. You know,like I shouldn't be getting paid
They're like, I'm so sorry. Sothat process took three months.
And so for three months, whilewe had no income coming in,
because my husband worked fromhome, he's chasing his dream. So
I was like, oh, you know, I'llgo out, I'll work for us. And
(10:11):
when your dream kicks off, wecan switch off, like, you know,
we support each other. We had noincome coming down. And every
single day, I had to go down tothe leasing office and be like,
Hey, I promised you, I'm gonnapay you, but I don't have it.
And so the savings dwindle, thenthe savings ran out. And it was
a matter of deciding, are wegoing to pay the bills? Or are
we going to pay for food?
(10:33):
Because I mean, at this point,the stores are empty. The world
is fearful. We can't go outside,there's a curfew in certain
places. And now we can't payrent. And it's like three months
of not being able to program.
But God had so much favor on us.
Because every time we wentdownstairs to the leasing
office, they're like, hey, youknow what, you guys have always
(10:55):
paid on time, we understandwhat's going on, when you have
it, just give it to us. Andwe're like, okay, so you're
going through all that, then youget a call that your dad's in
the hospital, and he's sufferingfrom COVID. And unfortunately,
because he had COVID, he endedup developing pneumonia. And so
that impacted his lungs. And sowhen he actually recovered from
(11:17):
COVID, he actually couldn'tactually function 100% Like
walking from the couch, just toget to the bathroom was like a
whole entire workout. And for aman who's a workaholic, that was
like his life, you know, youtalked about me being burnt out,
he worked more than me, and thisis his whole life. And so he
became really depressed, itbecame a really, like, really
(11:38):
sad situation, because he neverfully recovered. And he was just
kind of in and out of like, youknow, his his positive mindset
versus negative mindset becausehe couldn't go to work. So 2020
I like to say it was one of thetoughest years of my life, but
also one of the best, becauseduring the time that my dad is
suffering from COVID, I don'thave a job bill collectors are
(11:59):
calling us every single day andwe're getting at least 10 calls
a day, because they're like,Hey, you owe us money, the car
gets repossessed, we can't pay,right. It was like one thing
after another thing afteranother thing. But my husband
and I were like, we're stillgonna trust God. And we asked
the Lord to provide andliterally, after three, four
months, the Lord provided weended up getting we had family
(12:21):
members who we had talked tofriends who I had seen since
high school, they were justlike, oh, my gosh, you are on my
mind. I'm sending you this. Andthat covered groceries for the
week. Hey, the Lord told me toreach out to you and send you
this and that covered this, likemy dad on his way to the
hospital, told my stepmom Hey,send Mikayla in Durant, this
much money and it literallycovered rent. And it was like
(12:43):
the Lord just kept providingafter providing in an
unemployment kicked in, and wewere able to back pay all the
other rent that we couldn't payduring that time. And so it was
one thing after another, but Ileaned on dad for provision, and
I leaned on him for guidance,and he ended up guiding us. And
within that time, I, I had aphone call from Patrice
(13:05):
Washington, who runs theredefining wealth podcast. And
before the pandemic, I hadreached out to her to be a guest
on another podcast that Iproduced at that time. And we
you know, we hit it off, weconnected. And so she calls me
in the middle of the pandemic,and she's like, Hey, you're on
my mind. Are you okay? And I'mlike, well, Sis, I lost both
(13:27):
jobs. I'm unemployed, I can'tpay rent. And you know, I got
family in the hospital. But youknow, what I actually did, like,
like, God is good, and I'm good.
And she's like, Well, I stillneed a producer. And I'm like,
well, I could have startedyesterday. And so I ended up
becoming our producer in themidst of the pandemic. I ended
up, you know, learning from herwhat it is that I need to do to
really build out this business.
(13:49):
And I decided, you know, what,I'm gonna focus on this
podcasting thing, and really,you know, grow it to the point
of whatever God has for it. Andso that's kind of how it took
off for 2020 It was the roughestyear because at the very end of
the year, I had a dream that myfather committed suicide and
three days later, his body wasfound. And so that alone is
(14:13):
another story but just knowinghow in your most darkest hour
you know, the Bible says eventhough you walk through the
shadow of death, you shall fearno evil for God is with me. Like
even in this like you're walkingthrough the darkest hour it's
like one thing after anotherthing after another thing I knew
that there was no points of fearbecause gas that he was gonna
provide so either you a liar, oryou for real. And that was me
(14:36):
testing out I'm like, either youdon't come through or you not.
And he came through and I'm sograteful. Because even in the
midst of that year, and evenending the year the way that it
did and losing, you know, like,one of my best friends my dad
was one of my best friendslosing one of my best friends in
a way that it happened. The Lordstill showed me what was gonna
(14:56):
happen before it did andprepared me for that.
Hey friends, I'm just popping into let you know that I have just
a handful of openings on mycalendar over the next three
months for one on one coachingclients, if you are an
accomplished woman who has foundthat you've lost your fire over
time, if you have beensuccessful doing all the things,
(15:20):
but you just want to love yourwork. Again, if you're really
good at what you do, but youknow that there is more than you
need to reach out, go to connectwith pbj.com Sign up for a
connect call, we'll jump on realquick. I just need to make sure
you're a good candidate for mycoaching program. And if so
(15:40):
we'll dig in together and I'llwalk this journey with you. All
right, y'all reach out connectwith Pb de.com. I look forward
to speaking with you.
Hello, my name is Ashley. And Ihave the privilege of
experiencing Dr. PBJ as one ofmy coaches in a business
accelerator program for womencalled purpose to platform. And
(16:02):
Dr. PBJ actually served as oursubject matter expert and our
mindset coach do throughout theprogram. And she brought over 30
years of experience in academia,her professional training is
amazing, her experience is veryrelevant. And she's an
applicable and we were sofortunate to benefit from her
(16:25):
being our mindset coach, Dr. PBJis compassionate, and very
skilled in creating safe spacesfor in creating safe spaces I'll
leave it at I'll leave it atthat. And she's also very
skilled in walking her clientsthrough transformation, you will
(16:47):
have a transformative experienceif you work with Dr. PBJ. She
worked with our cohort andliterally most of us were, I
would say in the caterpillarstage, when we came in, there
were many things that we neededto develop many things that we
needed clarity on and supportin. And she walked us through
this transformative experience.
She took us through the cocoonstage and ultimately helped us
(17:07):
to build resilience, confidence,self acceptance, and build us up
to be the butterflies that weare and that we need to be to
succeed in business. And so ifyou're looking for a coach who's
relatable, who is compassionate,authentic, authentic, effective,
and ultimately transformative,then you found the right woman
(17:33):
and Dr. PBJ. Thank you.
Listen, first of all, let mejust say, and we've discussed
(17:54):
this, right, so you've sharedyour story with me before, but
on behalf of our community, onbehalf of our community, I'm so
sorry for your loss.
Thank you so much.
And I really need you to talk tous and tell us how in the world
do you hold on to faith in themidst of all of that, like, for
(18:17):
somebody loss of a job isn'tenough? Loss of two bills cannot
be paid? We're not maybe notworrying, but okay, how we're
going to eat? That is it? Andnow that is gone? How in the
world? Do you hold on to faithin the midst of that kind of
(18:39):
trouble?
I believe I decided to seek theLord. And that is what allowed
me to hold on to faith becausewhat's funny is and I can dive a
little bit into this if we havetime, but when I had the dream
that my father passed away inthe dream, and I can just tell
(19:02):
you guys about the dream in thedream I saw it happen but I was
on the phone and so I'm watchingit happen but I'm on the phone
with him and he attempts to takehis life two times the first
time it didn't work. And thesecond time he's calling me and
he's crying and he's telling meyou know what, it's just it's
too much for me life is too muchit's over for me and on the on
(19:25):
the phone I'm telling my fatherthe story of shadow Acme shaken
up Indigo. And how if you knowthe story in the Bible, three
Hebrew boys walk into fieryfurnace because they decide that
they don't want to serve the Godof the king. The king is like
you know everybody bad out andworshipped by God. And they're
like, No, we serve our God.
We're not going to do that. Andthe kings like, Oh, if you want
(19:48):
to just go baby, I'm gonna sitwith you to this fiery furnace
volcano and you're gonna die.
And so I told my father thisstory, because in the biblical
story, the three people alwayswalk To the furnace and they
walk out on scorched, and theking is actually like, Oh, God
is in there with them. There's afourth person in there. So how
(20:08):
in the world is there a fourthperson when we only said three,
and they walk out, there's nofire, there's no ash, there's no
birth, there's nothing. And Itold my father that story in the
dream, and I'm like, debt, thefires that you endure in life,
you're going to come out onscorched, whatever fires, you go
through whatever challenges youhave in life, just trust God and
know that God is with you. Andyou're just going to walk away
(20:30):
freely. And in my dream, myfather told me, you know, I'm so
sorry, but that's not enough.
And you know, he, I'm not gonnagive you guys details, but he
committed suicide. And I woke upfrom my dream with peace. And
that's how I knew something waswrong. Because usually, for most
people, you would hear somethinglike this or dream about this.
(20:53):
And you'd be like, Oh, my God,like, what's going on? And I
woke up with peace. And that'swhy I knew like, okay,
something's off. And so I calledmy dad. As soon as I woke up,
it's like, 5am his time. I'mlike, Hey, I had a dream about
you. Like, first off, are youlooking to take your life? Like,
are you okay? Are you looking totake your life because this is
what happened. And he's like,you know, what, thank you for
(21:15):
sharing that dream. I'm not, I'mjust really sad. Because you
know, COVID Boss, he couldn't goback to work, lungs, everything.
He's just like, I'm really,really sad. But I know that I'm
not looking to take my life. Andbecause the Lord shows you this,
I know that God's going to dosomething really, really great
for you. And so three dayslater, I got a call from my
(21:37):
brother, and his body was foundin the woods. And everything
that I saw in my dream exactlyhow it happened to down to the
clothes that he was wearing isexactly how he was found. And I
knew in that moment, it was likethe Holy Spirit said, I heard
this. He was like a whisper. Itwas like, the dream wasn't for
you to warn him. It was toprepare you. And so when I flew
(21:58):
home, and I'm planning thearrangements, and I'm, you know,
in the household with my family,and I'm witnessing people
lamenting and wailing, and youknow, screams coming out of
people's bodies that I've neverexperienced before, I had so
much peace, I had so much peace,and I was in awe, because I'm
sitting here like, I shouldprobably be crying. I should
(22:19):
probably be sad. But God was me.
Like, you know, when you'relike, wait a minute, like, he
talks about a piece thatsurpasses understanding. I'm
like, first off, why am I thatsaid, I mean, I'm sad that I'm
not going to be able to talk tohim. But I'm not like everybody
else, like everybody else isgrieving. And I'm like, Dad, why
did you show me that dream?
Like, why me? And my father wasloved by everybody. Like, during
(22:44):
this time, this is COVID, youcouldn't have a real funeral. So
we had to have a virtualfuneral. And there were 4000
people that showed up on hisfuneral, because that's how many
people's lives he loved andimpacted. And so I'm like, Okay,
this is cool enough, but like,Why me? You know, like, what,
why? I'm not I wouldn't considermyself a dreamer, even though it
(23:06):
was as a kid. But I'm like, whywould you really like show me
all of this? And by the time Ireturned back home to
California, 2021 hits, and threemonths later, February 2021, I
really started asking God, whyme? You know, you talk about
why, how can you have so muchpeace in the midst of chaos?
Like I was really like, No, forreal? Like, why did you show me
(23:30):
that? And I started studyingabout dreams. And I read the
book of Daniel and I realizedthat the story of Shadrach,
Meshach and Abednego. I didn'tknow that story. When I told my
dad that story in the dream. Idid not know it. I had never
read it in the Bible. I think Ihad like a vacation Bible
school, like study, like wayback when I was a kid and like,
(23:53):
three little boys walk into avolcano and they come out and
God is good. And so that's all Iknew. And so I was like, God,
why don't you show me thatstory? And when I break down the
story, and I was reading thestory, there was a revelation.
Because when you look at Danieland the story of Shadrach,
Meshach and Abednego you realizethat that's not their real
(24:13):
names. Daniels real name isBelle touches our shed Rex rule
name is Hannah nya Misha orrechecks. Her name is Michelle
and Abednego. His real name isAzariah. And when I translated
their names because I'm reallybig on names, me Shaq or
Michelle and Mikayla mean thesame thing. It means who is like
(24:34):
God, and so when you translateit, it's Daniel, God is my
judge. Who's the first oneShadrach, which is here to Nya,
the Lord shows grace. Michelle,aka Mikayla, who was like that,
and then as Araya or a Bendigo.
(24:56):
You know, I will help you. Sothe revelation that the Holy
spiritual Was God is my judge,the Lord shows grace. Mikayla, I
will help you. And at thatmoment, I knew that what was
about to happen in every otherday in my life, the Lord has
always helped me. He has helpedme through the power of other
(25:16):
people's testimonies, which istheir stories. He has helped me
through one of the darkest timesin my life, and he was going to
help me through the death of mydad, in every repercussions that
came with that. And from thatmoment on, he has always helped
me and he will always help me.
And the Bible says that the Lordwill help you. And so I am so
grateful that, like I said, inthe midst of darkness, the Lord
(25:39):
told me that he was going tohelp me. And that has been
something that I've kind ofleaned on ever since. And if
you're hearing this, then Idon't want you to know, like, if
he can help me, he can help you.
And he's going to help you. Andso now that's something that I
kind of covered my life to washelping others tell their
(26:01):
stories, but also just breakingdown the method that the Lord
recently gave me. And so theLord showed me that when he
says, he's going to help you,he's going to heal you. He's
going to encourage you, he'sgoing to love you, and he's
going to protect you. And that'sthe foundation, he'll encourage
love and protect. Because onceyou've established that
(26:23):
foundation, then you can go onthe purpose in life, that means
he's going to humble you. I hadto be humbled and hospitality,
he's going to elevate you, he'sgoing to lead you, and he's
going to position you to carryout His will for your life. And
so I believe the Lord is goingto help me I know that he's
going to help you. But just knowthat you have to establish that
(26:47):
foundation. First. You have tobe healed. From whatever it is
the people that hurt you, theyou hurting yourself, self
infliction, you know, anythingthat you believe that has kept
you bound, like you have to behealed, the Lord will encourage
you one of my favorite songs, Idon't know who was fired. But
sometimes you have to encourageyourself. Sometimes you have to
(27:08):
speak over yourself, like you,you have to encourage yourself,
you have to know that the Lord'sword is going to encourage you,
the Lord is going to love you.
We know that God is love. Loveis patient. Love is kind. It's
not self seeking. It's notirritable. It doesn't rejoice in
wrongdoings, love yourself, lovewho God created you to be and
know that you're protected. Knowthat you are protected. God is
going to protect you everysingle step of the way. And once
(27:30):
you get through that, then thenthe real the inner work what you
call it, Dr. PBJ, the hard work.
The hard work starts you got tobe humbled, then you'll be
elevated, led by God in positionto carry out His will.
I pray that the listeners havereceived what you're saying
(27:54):
today. First of all, thank youfor sharing your story. But in
sharing your story you'veequipped us. Because so often
when we go through bad times,especially if we don't have a
personal relationship with God,or if we don't know him, we
wonder why loving God wouldallow, right? But understanding
(28:17):
that in this world, while welive on this earth, there is
going to be pain, this this isnot where we're going. This is
not the heaven, there's going tobe trouble there is going to be
pain. But the Bible says takeheart because God has overcome
the world. And knowing this isgood news. This is good news.
(28:39):
Knowing that he's going to helpme look okay, wait a minute,
because somebody needs to hearthat. Nobody ever promised that
you won't have trouble. Nobodyever promised that you won't
have pain. Nobody ever promisedthat things would be perfect.
But what he did promise is thathe will help you. Absolutely.
(29:02):
And that's everything.
Absolutely. That is That iseverything. I've been very clear
on this podcast about what Ibelieve. But in this moment, I
just want to appeal tosomebody's heart. And I want you
to know that one of the the bestgift, the best gift that anybody
(29:23):
could offer that anybody couldhave is a relationship with
Jesus Christ. Amen. And thatrelationship is everything
because regardless of whatyou've been through, or what you
either may have to face ever andany day of your life, you have
help. Absolutely. You have help.
(29:46):
So I pray that if you don't havethat relationship with Jesus if
you don't know God as yourhelper, that you can DM me DM
Makayla, reach out to PatEsther, because receiving Jesus
is the most important thing youoverdue. So I just I thank you,
(30:09):
Michaela. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you for sharing yourstory. And it's so much power,
because it comes from you. It'sone thing for someone who, you
know, hasn't had your story tosay, and all of us have a story,
right? Everybody does haveforgotten. But after hearing
(30:29):
what you went through and oneyear, in a matter of months,
whatever you get through, andfor you to say, that will help
you. He will help you. Hey,whoa. That's the power of
storytelling. That's the power.
(30:52):
Yeah. Praise the Lord. That'sthe power of storytelling. So
how do you empower or encourageothers? Maybe there's somebody
listening, who has a testimony,it may not be yours, but
everybody here has come throughsomething right. And they have a
story, but they don't know whatto do with it. They don't know
(31:14):
if it should be told. If it'sworth it, can you speak to
someone about their story andtheir testimony?
Absolutely. Each and every oneof you has a story to tell, it
may not be as dark and dire asmine was. Or it may not be the
most light story in the world,like you just won the lottery 16
(31:37):
times, even though if you haveslept through, because I could
use, I could use I could use apiece of candy Come on. But I'm
just saying each and every oneof us has a story. And a lot of
times are obstacles or some ofthe things that we've been
through are a part of the storythat we hide, because we feel
(31:58):
shame around them. And so I havea free download for the people
for what I call the storymethod. And the way that I help
people tell their story istelling it online. So literally,
you can tell your story on anavenue like this podcast, you
can tell your story via email,you can tell your story on
social media, or you can tellyour story to your neighbor next
(32:20):
door. But the story method issplit into five different parts.
It's s t o r y story. Andliterally it's SS in strength.
So what is what are yourstrengths? What are you strong
yet? What are you good in, youknow, some of us are gifted in
speaking, some of us are giftedin singing, some of us are
(32:40):
gifted in writing, and some ofus are gifted and listening. If
you're a listener, that is astrength. Because a lot of
people need someone to listen totheir story. So S is what are
your strengths? T is yourtechnique? When I think
technique I think of how to, youknow, what can you teach
someone? Whether it be how tostart a podcast? Or how to
(33:02):
disrupt burnout in your life? Orit could be how to wash laundry,
how to iron your clothes, how totake your dog out for a walk,
how to know like what is yourtechnique is your HOW TO THE
always going to be obstacles?
What obstacles have you faced inlife? Was it the death of a
loved one? You know, was it theloss of a job? What obstacles
have you faced in life? And thenthere's a second part to Oh,
(33:24):
which is overcome? How have youovercome that obstacle? The art
is going to be yourrelationships. So who do you do
it? For? What relationships inyour life inspire you to want to
do better? Is it a relationshipwith yourself? Because I mean,
we all want to be out here like,you know, I love myself enough
to go for more. Or I do it formy kids. Or I do it for my dad.
You know, my dad, he didn'tthink it was worth living. And
(33:47):
so I'm going to make it worthliving, you know? What are the
relationships that inspire you?
And then why is your why? And Iknow it starts with a W but it
ends with a Y so don't come forme. Okay? Why do you do what you
do? What are the reasons? Whatis the driving force behind you
showing up every single day. Soyour story method is your
(34:08):
strength, technique, obstacles,relationships, and why? And so I
have a free audio training indownload for the people if you
guys want it, it is how to tellyour story online, I will make
sure that Dr. PBJ has all thelinks wherever you need to find
the links, wherever. But if youwant to learn how to tell your
story, make sure you guys goahead and check out the story
(34:29):
method download. And don't beafraid to really tap into what
your strengths are. You knowwhat your techniques are, what
your obstacles in yourovercoming things are, what your
relationships mean to you andyour why like that is how you
tell your story. Because at theend of the day, you do have a
story to tell. I don't care whatother people have told you. You
(34:50):
have a story to tell. You have avoice. You have experiences that
no one else has gone through theway that you have gone through
them. And so if my story has thepower to play somebody that I
know that Charleston'sYes, absolutely. And we will
link all of that so that you canget that free download and start
using your story. Here's thething, your story is what makes
(35:13):
you stand out, Oh, nobody else,they may have your same degree,
they may have worked in the samecareer field, they do not have
your story. No one can tell itlike you tell it and the world
needs to hear it. So I'mexcited. I'm excited for you all
to tell your story. Mikayla, Ihave to ask you one more
question. Before we leave.
(35:35):
How do you define disruption?
Hmm.
That is a great question. Iwould say that I define
disruption. By telling my storyby telling me my story that
sounds so cliche after theconversation that we just had.
(35:58):
But really, I told you beforethis, I didn't think that I was
a woman who did definedisruption, but knowing that my
story has the power to disruptsomebody else's life. That is
how I define disruption bytelling my story and being proud
of my story. Yes,yes. Your story has the power to
disrupt somebody's depression.
(36:22):
Your story has the power todisrupt somebody's chaos. Your
story has the power to disruptsomeone settling in their life.
So you you are absolutely right.
You define disruption by tellingyour story. But Sister You also
empower us to tell ours. Amen.
(36:44):
And I'm so grateful. I'm sograteful for you. Not just your
skill, your experience, but yourheart, your heart for people,
and your heart for the kingdomof God. For him to do what he
wants to do through all of ourstories. It is evident and we
are so grateful for you here.
(37:07):
No know. Thank you for beinghere. Thank you. How can people
follow you hear more from youaccess the magazine, tell the
people how to get in touch with?
Absolutely. Well, I like to playon Instagram. So you guys can
follow me on Instagram atMikayla Robertson that's mi see
a y les our OB e r t s o n. Andif you're watching it, you can
(37:32):
see the factual spelling there.
But follow me on Instagram. Andthen you can also check out my
website faith based storyteller.
That's where you can get thedownload. But that's also going
to direct you to all things thatI have going on, whether it be
my personal website, our Wi Fimagazine website, that our Wi Fi
podcast, our agency if you'relooking to start a podcast or
(37:55):
want to work with me as aproducer, so faith based
storyteller is where you'regoing to find the download and
then from there, you'll see allthe other links that link to
everything else about me, butyeah, that's it.
Oh my goodness, listen, friends.
I know your heart has beentouched just like mine. And I
hope that you are powered up andempowered to tell your story and
(38:15):
to get more comfortable tellingyour story because there's power
in what you have to say. Soagain, Micayla, thank you for
joining us. As always friends,you know you are powerful, you
are significant and you areloved. Love always PBJ
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