August 28, 2025 • 31 mins
What happens when you completely stop your business activities and only do what God specifically tells you to do? Well, it happened to me! I felt a divine nudge to pause everything – the social media posts, the marketing efforts, the constant activity that defined my days. This wasn't a sabbatical; it was a complete surrender of strategy.
The journey that has followed in not just changing my business but my entire approach to leadership. Initially, the silence was deafening. I felt unproductive, worried about losing momentum, and anxious about what wasn't happening. But as I settled into this sacred pause, something remarkable occurred: my perspective shifted dramatically. Like stepping from a noisy conference into a quiet courtyard, I could suddenly see and hear what had been there all along.
This approach has now extended beyond my business to how I lead in my corporate role, my family relationships, and every area of influence. I'm inviting you to experiment with this counter-cultural approach to leadership. Set aside time to specifically ask, "Lord, what would you have me do today?" in your leadership contexts. Be prepared for initial discomfort, but know that clarity, direction, and supernatural provision await on the other side of surrender.
Please subscribe to our mailing list to stay connected and get updates! Thanks for listening to the Graced to Lead Podcast.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Welcome to the Grace to Lead podcast.
I am Belinda Gaston, your host,and listen.
Today's episode is going to bequick.
I want to share with you what'sbeen happening with me and
hopefully give you someencouragement on your own
leadership journey.
So many of you know, if youlisten to the last episode, that
(00:31):
God shifted some things for me.
Right, he shifted some thingsfor me.
I ended up having to stop somethings that I was doing because
God kind of gave me a momentwhere I realized that, with
Grace to Lead, though, god gaveme the vision I was doing some
things that really were kind ofman's best practices and not
(00:51):
necessarily the strategies fromGod, and so I made a commitment
that I would stop and reassessthings, and so I said, okay, I'm
going to go into prayer and Ionly am going to do in my
business what you tell me to do,lord, about a few days into my
commitment to only do what Godwants me to, let me just tell
(01:14):
you what I mean by that.
There are some things that youhave to do in your business.
Right, if a customer orderssomething, you have to make sure
you fulfill that order.
If there is some kind ofaccounting or something that you
have to do, you have to makesure you fulfill that order.
If there is some kind ofaccounting or something that you
have to do, you have to dothose things right.
But where it came to my socialmedia presence, my online
presence, my website, even someof my offerings, I gave those
(01:37):
things back over to God and Ireally did stop and say, okay,
lord, what is it that you wouldhave me to do?
And so that's what I mean bypause.
And I had been on my socialmedia channels posting content
regularly, thanks to help fromthe helpers that came along
beside me.
I had revamped the website,again thanks to the helpers at
(02:02):
Chatty Hosting.
Mill and Kamari did a great jobwith that.
But I just heard stop, stop.
Just stop for a moment and getwith me.
And so what I began to do was Ibegan to put some dedicated
time with God in my schedule.
Now, I already had dedicatedtime with God in my schedule for
(02:24):
my own personal growth.
So you know, prayer time withGod, reading my Bible, studying
the word, those were all part ofmy.
That's all part of my.
What do you call it?
My kind of regular God time,for lack of a better phrase, but
what I hadn't been doing hasspecifically praying for my
(02:45):
business and asking God'sguidance, and so about three
days into this process, thefirst thing I heard was stop,
and then I started making.
What would happen is in myprayer, god would say make a
video about this, I do that, orpost this, I do that, or send a
note to this client that youcoached, send this note.
So those are the kinds ofthings that were happening.
(03:05):
So about three, I mean itprobably was about, I would say,
three to five days.
I can't remember now thetimeline, but into this process
I saw a challenge by Kendra Toll, the Less Hustle Tribe, where
she was challenging people for30 days to only do the content
that God had shared, and so herchallenge is called so Grace
(03:31):
Greater Than Cell.
I can't remember the title ofit, but it is a 30 day challenge
and I'll put the link for thathere, and Kendra doesn't know
that I've even mentioned this.
She probably doesn't even knowI'm in the challenge, but I will
put the note in for Less HustleTribe in the show's notes.
So she started this thing andshe is a content creator.
Her primary, I think, platformis Instagram, so I took that as
(03:54):
a sign, like, okay, lord, thatyou really want me to do this.
A couple of things happened.
Is what I want to share withyou is what happened, what has
been happening in this process,what I've learned, and I also
wanna give you some tips,because, though this is my
business, this also applies inother places that I lead, and
I'm gonna share a little bitabout that.
So I want you to listen to thisif you're in the place where
(04:17):
maybe you feel stuck, maybe youfeel like, well, you know God,
I'm doing what you told me to do, but it's not quite working, or
you've hit a certain kind ofplateau in your business or in
your leadership journey, and ifyou're in corporate America and
you are working, for instance,and you're in a space of
influence because, remember,that's what I kind of define
(04:40):
leadership as the influence youhave in the space that you're in
, where you get to makedecisions or people kind of lean
into what you say, right,that's influence.
And so if you're in that space,in the corporate space, you may
have kind of been given avision of a particular promotion
, a particular type of job, aparticular type of task that you
(05:02):
might have.
It may not be happening the wayyou think it should happen, or
you put yourself in a positionso you thought to have these
things happen as you believe inyour heart and it's not going
that way.
And so, if that is you, thefirst thing I'm going to do is
encourage you to take the pause,really take a pause.
Take a pause not just for thesake of pausing, but for the
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sake of asking God to give youdirection, because I honestly
believe that God does not givevision without strategy.
If you read the Bible he hasgiven, he gave lots of leaders,
women and men instructions hegave.
He would give them a dream, orhe would give them a word, or he
would say this is what's goingto happen, and it may not have
(05:50):
necessarily been the totalvision, but he gives you.
He gave those people something,and then it was followed by
instructions go and do thisthing, tell the people this
thing, do this particularactivity right.
It was always followed byinstructions, and if we believe
that the Bible is the word ofGod, then we can say that if God
(06:10):
gives the vision, he givesinstructions, and some of those
instructions, if you read them,I mean when you look at, for
instance, jeremiah or Hosea.
Hosea is a great one.
If you look at Hosea and thethings that God told them to do,
those things don't make sense,right, but they're for a greater
good.
And I believe that the thingsthat we lead, god gives us those
(06:33):
vision.
He gives us the vision.
He gives you, you know, thebook idea.
He gives you the business idea,the nonprofit organization idea
.
He gives you the idea of youknow you're going to be at this
level, you're going to be thenext VP, you're going to be the
next director or senior programor whatever it is.
He gives that to you.
You're going to be a wife,you're going to be a mother.
(06:55):
He gives it to you.
But then we take it sometimesand we run with it.
Right, yes, okay, so God told methat I need to.
I'm going to write this book,so then I'm going to go take
this class, I'm going to startwriting every day for 30 minutes
.
I'm going to whatever it is,and sometimes we forget to go
back to God and say thank youfor the vision.
I've written it down.
(07:15):
Because that's what we shoulddo.
We should write it down andthen say then pray, continue to
pray, lord.
How do you want me to do this,because sometimes God will give
you instructions that doesn't gowith what the world says,
simply so that he can get theglory and others can be brought
to him.
And so that's the process thatI've been going through.
I really have been praying overgrace to lead and what God
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wants me to do the grace to lead.
And so the first thing that Godtold me to do was to stop
posting every day, and I waslike what do you mean?
I mean I was just starting toget some momentum.
I had gained a few followers.
You're supposed to post onsocial media and you're supposed
to do that so many times a day.
And so when God told me to stopand I had to go back to those
(07:56):
people who were supporting meand say listen, I got to pause
for a second.
It didn't feel good, it didn'tfeel comfortable, right?
The other thing he told me to dois to only release episodes.
When he told me to Many of us,batch record our content for
particularly for interviews youknow I may have two or three
interviews in the same day andthen release them on different
(08:19):
days, and so I had gotten to thepoint where I was out of
content and I was like, okay,we're at the end of the season.
So I had gotten to the pointwhere I was out of content and I
was like, okay, we're at theend of the season.
Technically, this is supposedto be the last episode, but God
has given me one more.
So our season finale episodewill be next week and I have
some special guests that aregoing to be joining me.
But I was like, okay, good, youdon't want me to release any
(08:39):
episodes right now, that's great.
And so it was all these things.
But it was still uncomfortable.
And here's why I felt like if Iwasn't busy in my Grace to Lead
business, if I wasn't doing allthe things, then the business
would not go well.
Grace to Lead is a combinationof business and ministry, so
there's a ministry component toGrace to Lead that doesn't make
(09:02):
any money or anything like that.
Then there is the business ofGrace to Lead that's also tied
to Grace to Lead Consulting,right and so the thought of not
doing activities that generatethe income to me felt like, well
, how is the income going to bemade?
Now, lord, you told me thisvision.
So it was very uncomfortable tostop and to sit.
(09:22):
So it was very uncomfortable tostop and to sit, but it was
necessary for me to stop and tosit.
The first thing I'll say to youis, if you decide to take this,
take this challenge I'm goingto call it a challenge, for lack
of a better term but to take amoment to really pray to God
about what you lead and ask Godto give you strategy for that.
(09:46):
Be prepared to be uncomfortable, be prepared to Feel
unproductive, be prepared tofeel as if you're missing out or
falling behind.
That's the first thing I felt,honestly.
(10:08):
But as I began to sit in thespace of pause, then some other
things began to happen, and solet me talk to you about the
space of the pause.
We in our society are, you know, often told that you have to
hustle, go hard, you have tokeep doing all these things.
(10:30):
Consistency is key, all of thatright, but when you pause,
something begins to happen.
When you pause, you become moreaware of yourself and also your
surroundings.
I'll give you this example Iwas recently at a professional
conference and there wereprobably over 600, 700 people
(10:53):
there, and in this large space,there was a lot of noise.
There's a lot of activity.
There's a lot of activity,there's a lot of energy because
people are in person, and it wasjust that kind of energetic
vibe.
And so we were in a location, ahotel space, that was really
quite beautiful, but we were inthe midst of the networking and
the learning and all of that andI love that.
(11:15):
But I stepped outside for amoment and I believe I had kind
of like a headache or something.
I just kind of stepped out toget some fresh air.
And when I stepped out it tooka minute.
The noise stopped.
There was nobody really around,it's just me kind of standing
there.
And that's when I realized, oh,my goodness, this courtyard is
beautiful.
It was a courtyard that hadlike a waterfall and flowers and
(11:37):
things like that.
It had been there Now thisconference.
I had been there for three days.
This setting had been therethis whole time, but because I
had not paused to pay attentionto it, I didn't even notice it.
The other thing is, when Istepped out I also was able to
hear differently, realize thatthere was like birds and stuff.
(11:59):
There were literally birdschirping and you know, it was
just a very beautiful moment.
I had a thought about somethingthat I heard in the conference
and I kind of quickly sat downand wrote it down.
So in that pause for me in theconference one, I was able to
still myself and really getcapture my thoughts.
My headache went away but I wasalso able to see the space
(12:23):
differently.
That's what the pause does inour lives.
Sometimes we have to take apause so that we can see things
differently, so that we can hearthings differently, so that our
minds and our bodies can kindof become aligned.
And that pause is not a placewhere there's pressure to you
(12:47):
pause only to keep going, butyou pause in the moment and be
comfortable.
In that pause some things beginto happen, and so I'll tell you
that first it's uncomfortable,first it's uncomfortable.
But if you can get comfortable,at least embrace the pause,
your perspective of how you lead, what you're leading can change
(13:12):
and how you hear God can change.
The strategies will come.
And so in my pause, that's whatbegan to happen.
I began to see grace, to leaddifferently.
I actually had a moment toreceive a few phone calls of
people who had been calling me,but I was too busy and one of
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those conversations providedclarity, so it was almost like
the person had shared with mesomething that they had been
trying to tell me for weeks.
They had this idea they weretrying to tell me for weeks, and
I know it was a God thing, butI was too busy.
I was too busy to listen, I wastoo busy to hear them, and so I
(13:59):
was able to sit and listen andkind of begin to build on that.
This is what I've been tryingto tell you.
This is what I've been tryingto get to you.
The vision that you had was theone thing that I gave you, but
there are other things.
There are strategies here thatI need for you to do, not just
to grow grace, to lead, butbecause I need you to help this
(14:22):
woman, or I need this to be ablueprint for something else,
right, and so there is power inthe pause, and so I want to tell
you upfront that you're goingto feel uncomfortable.
But here are a couple otherthings, and I'm looking at my
notes.
The other thing is that I hadto get okay with nothing
happening.
So there's one thing to embracethe pause, because in the pause
(14:44):
, your perspective changes.
You're hearing, you hear thingsdifferently, you feel
differently, but also, if you'renot doing anything, nothing
sometimes happens Nothing washappening.
So when I stopped, you know,there were a couple of times
where I posted some videos I'mnot great with videos, I don't
like to be on camera, but Iposted some videos, or I made a
(15:05):
post about something, and andthen after that there was
nothing.
It wasn't a failure of myleadership, it wasn't a failure
of my business, it was just Iwasn't released to do anything,
which brings me to the nextthing.
(15:27):
Interestingly enough, while Iwas doing nothing, things were
happening that I didn't realize.
So, you know, in the Bible,where it talks about God is
working, we see often Godworking on behalf of people
(15:47):
where they're given a task, andGod will say when you go, this
will happen.
As you go, these things willhappen.
It's the idea that, though wearen't working, god is working.
God never stops working for thevisions that he's given us.
I mean, if it's a God vision,then he's already started
(16:11):
working it out.
He knew, before we even got theassignment, what the assignment
was, how it was going to goabout and what was going to
happen as a result of it.
And so just because we aren'tworking, we aren't doing
anything, necessarily doesn'tmean that God isn't doing
anything.
So here's my example.
(16:33):
One of the things that I do as apart of Grace to Lead
Consulting is I facilitatespaces.
I am really good God's given mea gift of creating safe spaces,
of helping people get tostrategic resolve, of
facilitating spaces where peoplefeel as if they're with teams,
where they can come to aconsensus and come to a plan.
(16:56):
Strategic planning is somethingthat I'm really good at, and so
one of the things that Godtalked to me about was that
facilitation piece.
I kind of been ignoring itbecause I was really focused on
the podcast, I was focused onthe book, I was focused on the
coaching cohort, like all ofthese things that were also a
part of the vision.
I'm also trying to get speakingengagements.
(17:16):
I believe that God called me tospeak, but I was hitting a
block.
I mean, I have a ministry eventcoming up in a few weeks, but
it just wasn't happening.
So when I started to do nothingwhich is what God instructed me
to do except to pray and tocontinue to study he moved on my
behalf.
(17:36):
I got two facilitationcontracts and I didn't do
anything.
I didn't change the websitecontent, I didn't post a post
about hey, contact me if youneed a facilitation need.
These were people who reachedout that God put me on their
mind and they reached out andsaid hey, can you do this for me
, god?
(17:57):
So I want to tell you it's okayto do nothing if that's what
God instructs you to do, becausehe is working on your behalf.
The other thing that I wanted topoint out in this process how
much stress there is attached tothe busyness of leadership.
(18:19):
I will say that again I did notrealize how much stress there
is attached to the busyness ofleadership.
Whether you're leading people,whether you're leading
organizations, whether you'releading in spaces, whether
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you're leading in home, thereare some things that make you
busy in your leadership.
Some of these things arenecessary.
It's important for leaders tostrategize and to plan.
It's important for leaders tohelp prioritize things.
It's important for leaders toconnect with the people that
they're leading.
If you're leading people andyou're not connecting with those
(19:02):
people, then you're not being agreat leader.
But there are other things thatwe get caught up in doing that
creates busyness for us.
Busyness for us Phone calls,emails, scrolling social media,
looking at websites even in ourstrategy, like taking time to
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think about the next big thingcan create busyness, and you can
go, go, go, go, go and neverstop, and what begins to happen
is in that busyness you can losesight of how busy you really
are and that busyness can turnto stress, because as you become
busier you take on the burdenof busyness.
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I know this feels really deep.
I'm really not trying to makeit deep, I'm trying to figure
out how to make it simple, butour busyness becomes a burden.
It's like a merry-go-round.
So you get on themerry-go-round and you're going
round and round and you don'trealize how long you've been
going round and round, until youget dizzy.
Right, I don't know, this isold school.
(20:16):
I don't know if they even stillhave merry go rounds on
playgrounds right now, but ifyou know about a merry go round
back in the day when I was a kid, on the merry go round, you
could go, go, go.
You can go fast, fast, fast.
It's great, great, great, untilyou start to feel dizzy and
then it's like I need to get offof here.
Right, and that's what happenswith the busyness in our lives.
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Right, we can be so caught upin doing all the things that we
don't even realize that it's thedoing of all the things that's
created a burden for us, thathas us feeling stressed, that
has us feeling tired, that hasus feeling cranky or angry or
frustrated or whatever it is.
And what I realize is, thoughand this is a particularly
difficult if you love what youdo, particularly difficult if
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you love what you do.
So I love what I do with Graceto Lead.
I absolutely love it, and sogetting caught in that kind of
regular busyness felt greatbecause I was doing all these
things, and it was amazing.
But what I didn't realize is Ialso was tired.
I also was burdened.
I began to take on theresponsibility for the success
of Grace to Lead as a personalthing.
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I have to make this work.
I lost sight of the fact thatthis was a God-given vision and
God is responsible for thesuccess and my praying and being
intentional about Lord, what isit that you'd have me to do in
my business?
What would you have me to do asa leader?
Gave me permission to rest.
The stress I didn't even realizeI had began to melt away.
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I don't know who this is for,but somebody right now is so
stressed out you don't evenrealize it, but your body is
aching, you're having back painand shoulder pain.
You're getting short withpeople.
You don't understand why peopleare so frustrated.
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Sometimes it's not the peoplethat are peopling, it's our
response to the situations thatare occurring with the people.
Because we're not properlyrested, because we're not
properly, we're not, we don't,we are carrying burdens we
shouldn't carry.
And so, in this process, I haveless stress because of a couple
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of things.
One I am confident now that thesuccess of Grace to Lead is
partially on my obedience, ofcourse, to God.
But it lies in the hands of God, and what success looks like in
God's view may be differentthan my thought of success.
It may not be that I'll everhave millions and millions of
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downloads on the podcast ormillions of books sold or, you
know, huge corporate contracts.
That may never be it, eventhough that's my idea of success
.
That may never be what Godwants from this.
Maybe God just meant for someone person to experience
whatever the message was thatday.
Maybe it was for one person toread the book and see themselves
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and realize that, yes, eventhough you've been through these
things, there's a plan for yourlife and God can help you lead.
It may be that it's just theone place that I go to speak or
facilitate.
That brings people together andthey see God.
There's no more pressure, right?
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And I know what you're saying,belinda.
If I started a business, I didthis to make money, especially
if you're an entrepreneur andyou're not working a corporate
job or you're not working a job,you're just.
Your business is your primarysource of income.
I get that, but I also believethat God, one of them, first of
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all, god is a provider, and theword says that never have I seen
the righteous forsaken or hisseed begging bread, which means
that as a child of God, as abeliever, right, god will
provide for your needs.
That's the first thing.
The second thing is that if Godgave you the business, then God
(24:33):
will give you the strategy forthe income that you need, and
this is easier said than done.
I am walking this thing outwith you, but I am telling you
two contracts so far that Ididn't solicit, I didn't market
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to them, I didn't post X numberof posts on social media and
have a huge following, y'allgracefully, my Instagram page
has like a little over 400followers.
My children have more followersthan me, right?
But God provided he knew what Ineeded and he worked on my
(25:17):
behalf.
I wanted to share that I amless stressed, I am less
pressured, because I'm followinghim.
All the pressure is on him.
Well, lord, you told me to dothis, so now what?
And the last thing that I willsay is a big lesson for me in
this time of asking God forstrategy, with the vision he
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gave me, is that he will giveyou strategy.
I may not have all of it, Idon't think I have all of it,
but I know the next two or threethings that I should be doing,
and each day it requires a levelof commitment, it requires a
level of obedience for me.
(26:00):
So if God says to post a reelabout this topic, I can't not
post the reel.
If I'm asking for, if that's thepart of the strategy, then okay
, lord, here I am, and if you gothrough this process, I
guarantee you he will answeryour prayers.
(26:23):
He's also clarifying somethings to me.
There are some things that Ithought that grace to lead was
about.
That it's not, and so I want toencourage you that, if this is
resonating at all with you, thatyou have a vision that God has
given you and you want to knowthe strategy, to take a
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dedicated amount of time andevery day, pray, god.
What would you have me to do?
It doesn't have to be, you know, it could be a couple of days,
it could be a week, it could betwo weeks, but set aside time
and pray specifically about whatyou lead right, and know that
you're going to be uncomfortableat first, but know there is
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beauty in the pause.
Know that he will provide foryou, know that he will give you
strategy, but that strategy willrequire obedience, even if it's
somewhat uncomfortable for you.
I want you to do it and then Iwant you to let me know how it
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goes, because I believe thatthis shift for me is changing my
business and it's changing myleadership.
It's changing how I lead othersand it's expanding beyond grace
to lead.
I'm finding that I'm prayingeven in my corporate job, every
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day.
Lord, what would you have me todo on my job today?
I'll tell you what that's done.
It's changed how I relate topeople.
It has.
I have more patience, I'm moreflexible and I think I've always
been pretty flexible.
But it's different because Iknow that the God priorities of
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the day are the God prioritiesof the day.
I've also started doing thiswith my family.
God, what would you have me todo with my family?
Is there something I'm supposedto do or say to my husband
today?
Is there something I'm supposedto do or say to my children
today and I'm in transitionright now my son has moved on
(28:47):
campus and so now I have twocollege students and one middle
schooler.
The dynamics has shifted right.
But, lord, what would you,would you have me text today to
my college kids?
What would you have me saytoday to my middle schooler?
What action would you have medo today for my husband?
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I am telling you that if you gowith a process and you can get
past the discomfort of notknowing because that's a whole
control thing, which is adifferent episode altogether but
if you can, if you can go withit, I guarantee you that God's
(29:35):
going to meet you and show youwhat he has for you, what he
wants you to do, but he'll alsokind of show you yourself.
There's some areas I had torepent in, quite frankly.
There's some areas I had torepent in as a leader,
(29:58):
complaining, complaining aboutthe blessing, the blessings of
God.
You know, god gave me a job.
Why would I?
Why am I complaining about whathe blessed me with?
What's that about?
Instead of saying God, howshould I lead in this workspace
Complaining about the work thathas to be done for my business
(30:22):
instead of Lord?
What would you have me do today?
So, if you do it, let me know.
You can reach out to me.
You can send me a text message.
It comes directly to me andI'll respond.
You can send me an email or, ifyou're watching this on a
platform, you can put it in thecomments.
But I want to know if you'regoing to take this challenge, if
you're going to do this, sothat I can pray for you as you
go through the process.
That's all for today on today'sGrace to Lead podcast.
(30:46):
Thank you for joining.
I don't take your listeninglightly because you could.
There's so many podcasts youcan be listening to anything you
want.
Come back next week with myspecial guests for our finale
for season two and remember toshare the podcast.
(31:07):
Follow us and share withsomebody who you think might
find it interesting or helpful.
And until you hear me againnext week, remember you are
indeed graced to lead.
Bye-bye.
Welcome to the Grace to Lead podcast.
I am Belinda Gaston, your host,and listen.
Today's episode is going to bequick.
I want to share with you what'sbeen happening with me and
hopefully give you someencouragement on your own
leadership journey.
So many of you know, if youlisten to the last episode, that
(00:31):
God shifted some things for me.
Right, he shifted some thingsfor me.
I ended up having to stop somethings that I was doing because
God kind of gave me a momentwhere I realized that, with
Grace to Lead, though, god gaveme the vision I was doing some
things that really were kind ofman's best practices and not
(00:51):
necessarily the strategies fromGod, and so I made a commitment
that I would stop and reassessthings, and so I said, okay, I'm
going to go into prayer and Ionly am going to do in my
business what you tell me to do,lord, about a few days into my
commitment to only do what Godwants me to, let me just tell
(01:14):
you what I mean by that.
There are some things that youhave to do in your business.
Right, if a customer orderssomething, you have to make sure
you fulfill that order.
If there is some kind ofaccounting or something that you
have to do, you have to makesure you fulfill that order.
If there is some kind ofaccounting or something that you
have to do, you have to dothose things right.
But where it came to my socialmedia presence, my online
presence, my website, even someof my offerings, I gave those
(01:37):
things back over to God and Ireally did stop and say, okay,
lord, what is it that you wouldhave me to do?
And so that's what I mean bypause.
And I had been on my socialmedia channels posting content
regularly, thanks to help fromthe helpers that came along
beside me.
I had revamped the website,again thanks to the helpers at
(02:02):
Chatty Hosting.
Mill and Kamari did a great jobwith that.
But I just heard stop, stop.
Just stop for a moment and getwith me.
And so what I began to do was Ibegan to put some dedicated
time with God in my schedule.
Now, I already had dedicatedtime with God in my schedule for
(02:24):
my own personal growth.
So you know, prayer time withGod, reading my Bible, studying
the word, those were all part ofmy.
That's all part of my.
What do you call it?
My kind of regular God time,for lack of a better phrase, but
what I hadn't been doing hasspecifically praying for my
(02:45):
business and asking God'sguidance, and so about three
days into this process, thefirst thing I heard was stop,
and then I started making.
What would happen is in myprayer, god would say make a
video about this, I do that, orpost this, I do that, or send a
note to this client that youcoached, send this note.
So those are the kinds ofthings that were happening.
(03:05):
So about three, I mean itprobably was about, I would say,
three to five days.
I can't remember now thetimeline, but into this process
I saw a challenge by Kendra Toll, the Less Hustle Tribe, where
she was challenging people for30 days to only do the content
that God had shared, and so herchallenge is called so Grace
(03:31):
Greater Than Cell.
I can't remember the title ofit, but it is a 30 day challenge
and I'll put the link for thathere, and Kendra doesn't know
that I've even mentioned this.
She probably doesn't even knowI'm in the challenge, but I will
put the note in for Less HustleTribe in the show's notes.
So she started this thing andshe is a content creator.
Her primary, I think, platformis Instagram, so I took that as
(03:54):
a sign, like, okay, lord, thatyou really want me to do this.
A couple of things happened.
Is what I want to share withyou is what happened, what has
been happening in this process,what I've learned, and I also
wanna give you some tips,because, though this is my
business, this also applies inother places that I lead, and
I'm gonna share a little bitabout that.
So I want you to listen to thisif you're in the place where
(04:17):
maybe you feel stuck, maybe youfeel like, well, you know God,
I'm doing what you told me to do, but it's not quite working, or
you've hit a certain kind ofplateau in your business or in
your leadership journey, and ifyou're in corporate America and
you are working, for instance,and you're in a space of
influence because, remember,that's what I kind of define
(04:40):
leadership as the influence youhave in the space that you're in
, where you get to makedecisions or people kind of lean
into what you say, right,that's influence.
And so if you're in that space,in the corporate space, you may
have kind of been given avision of a particular promotion
, a particular type of job, aparticular type of task that you
(05:02):
might have.
It may not be happening the wayyou think it should happen, or
you put yourself in a positionso you thought to have these
things happen as you believe inyour heart and it's not going
that way.
And so, if that is you, thefirst thing I'm going to do is
encourage you to take the pause,really take a pause.
Take a pause not just for thesake of pausing, but for the
(05:27):
sake of asking God to give youdirection, because I honestly
believe that God does not givevision without strategy.
If you read the Bible he hasgiven, he gave lots of leaders,
women and men instructions hegave.
He would give them a dream, orhe would give them a word, or he
would say this is what's goingto happen, and it may not have
(05:50):
necessarily been the totalvision, but he gives you.
He gave those people something,and then it was followed by
instructions go and do thisthing, tell the people this
thing, do this particularactivity right.
It was always followed byinstructions, and if we believe
that the Bible is the word ofGod, then we can say that if God
(06:10):
gives the vision, he givesinstructions, and some of those
instructions, if you read them,I mean when you look at, for
instance, jeremiah or Hosea.
Hosea is a great one.
If you look at Hosea and thethings that God told them to do,
those things don't make sense,right, but they're for a greater
good.
And I believe that the thingsthat we lead, god gives us those
(06:33):
vision.
He gives us the vision.
He gives you, you know, thebook idea.
He gives you the business idea,the nonprofit organization idea
.
He gives you the idea of youknow you're going to be at this
level, you're going to be thenext VP, you're going to be the
next director or senior programor whatever it is.
He gives that to you.
You're going to be a wife,you're going to be a mother.
(06:55):
He gives it to you.
But then we take it sometimesand we run with it.
Right, yes, okay, so God told methat I need to.
I'm going to write this book,so then I'm going to go take
this class, I'm going to startwriting every day for 30 minutes
.
I'm going to whatever it is,and sometimes we forget to go
back to God and say thank youfor the vision.
I've written it down.
(07:15):
Because that's what we shoulddo.
We should write it down andthen say then pray, continue to
pray, lord.
How do you want me to do this,because sometimes God will give
you instructions that doesn't gowith what the world says,
simply so that he can get theglory and others can be brought
to him.
And so that's the process thatI've been going through.
I really have been praying overgrace to lead and what God
(07:36):
wants me to do the grace to lead.
And so the first thing that Godtold me to do was to stop
posting every day, and I waslike what do you mean?
I mean I was just starting toget some momentum.
I had gained a few followers.
You're supposed to post onsocial media and you're supposed
to do that so many times a day.
And so when God told me to stopand I had to go back to those
(07:56):
people who were supporting meand say listen, I got to pause
for a second.
It didn't feel good, it didn'tfeel comfortable, right?
The other thing he told me to dois to only release episodes.
When he told me to Many of us,batch record our content for
particularly for interviews youknow I may have two or three
interviews in the same day andthen release them on different
(08:19):
days, and so I had gotten to thepoint where I was out of
content and I was like, okay,we're at the end of the season.
So I had gotten to the pointwhere I was out of content and I
was like, okay, we're at theend of the season.
Technically, this is supposedto be the last episode, but God
has given me one more.
So our season finale episodewill be next week and I have
some special guests that aregoing to be joining me.
But I was like, okay, good, youdon't want me to release any
(08:39):
episodes right now, that's great.
And so it was all these things.
But it was still uncomfortable.
And here's why I felt like if Iwasn't busy in my Grace to Lead
business, if I wasn't doing allthe things, then the business
would not go well.
Grace to Lead is a combinationof business and ministry, so
there's a ministry component toGrace to Lead that doesn't make
(09:02):
any money or anything like that.
Then there is the business ofGrace to Lead that's also tied
to Grace to Lead Consulting,right and so the thought of not
doing activities that generatethe income to me felt like, well
, how is the income going to bemade?
Now, lord, you told me thisvision.
So it was very uncomfortable tostop and to sit.
(09:22):
So it was very uncomfortable tostop and to sit, but it was
necessary for me to stop and tosit.
The first thing I'll say to youis, if you decide to take this,
take this challenge I'm goingto call it a challenge, for lack
of a better term but to take amoment to really pray to God
about what you lead and ask Godto give you strategy for that.
(09:46):
Be prepared to be uncomfortable, be prepared to Feel
unproductive, be prepared tofeel as if you're missing out or
falling behind.
That's the first thing I felt,honestly.
(10:08):
But as I began to sit in thespace of pause, then some other
things began to happen, and solet me talk to you about the
space of the pause.
We in our society are, you know, often told that you have to
hustle, go hard, you have tokeep doing all these things.
(10:30):
Consistency is key, all of thatright, but when you pause,
something begins to happen.
When you pause, you become moreaware of yourself and also your
surroundings.
I'll give you this example Iwas recently at a professional
conference and there wereprobably over 600, 700 people
(10:53):
there, and in this large space,there was a lot of noise.
There's a lot of activity.
There's a lot of activity,there's a lot of energy because
people are in person, and it wasjust that kind of energetic
vibe.
And so we were in a location, ahotel space, that was really
quite beautiful, but we were inthe midst of the networking and
the learning and all of that andI love that.
(11:15):
But I stepped outside for amoment and I believe I had kind
of like a headache or something.
I just kind of stepped out toget some fresh air.
And when I stepped out it tooka minute.
The noise stopped.
There was nobody really around,it's just me kind of standing
there.
And that's when I realized, oh,my goodness, this courtyard is
beautiful.
It was a courtyard that hadlike a waterfall and flowers and
(11:37):
things like that.
It had been there Now thisconference.
I had been there for three days.
This setting had been therethis whole time, but because I
had not paused to pay attentionto it, I didn't even notice it.
The other thing is, when Istepped out I also was able to
hear differently, realize thatthere was like birds and stuff.
(11:59):
There were literally birdschirping and you know, it was
just a very beautiful moment.
I had a thought about somethingthat I heard in the conference
and I kind of quickly sat downand wrote it down.
So in that pause for me in theconference one, I was able to
still myself and really getcapture my thoughts.
My headache went away but I wasalso able to see the space
(12:23):
differently.
That's what the pause does inour lives.
Sometimes we have to take apause so that we can see things
differently, so that we can hearthings differently, so that our
minds and our bodies can kindof become aligned.
And that pause is not a placewhere there's pressure to you
(12:47):
pause only to keep going, butyou pause in the moment and be
comfortable.
In that pause some things beginto happen, and so I'll tell you
that first it's uncomfortable,first it's uncomfortable.
But if you can get comfortable,at least embrace the pause,
your perspective of how you lead, what you're leading can change
(13:12):
and how you hear God can change.
The strategies will come.
And so in my pause, that's whatbegan to happen.
I began to see grace, to leaddifferently.
I actually had a moment toreceive a few phone calls of
people who had been calling me,but I was too busy and one of
(13:37):
those conversations providedclarity, so it was almost like
the person had shared with mesomething that they had been
trying to tell me for weeks.
They had this idea they weretrying to tell me for weeks, and
I know it was a God thing, butI was too busy.
I was too busy to listen, I wastoo busy to hear them, and so I
(13:59):
was able to sit and listen andkind of begin to build on that.
This is what I've been tryingto tell you.
This is what I've been tryingto get to you.
The vision that you had was theone thing that I gave you, but
there are other things.
There are strategies here thatI need for you to do, not just
to grow grace, to lead, butbecause I need you to help this
(14:22):
woman, or I need this to be ablueprint for something else,
right, and so there is power inthe pause, and so I want to tell
you upfront that you're goingto feel uncomfortable.
But here are a couple otherthings, and I'm looking at my
notes.
The other thing is that I hadto get okay with nothing
happening.
So there's one thing to embracethe pause, because in the pause
(14:44):
, your perspective changes.
You're hearing, you hear thingsdifferently, you feel
differently, but also, if you'renot doing anything, nothing
sometimes happens Nothing washappening.
So when I stopped, you know,there were a couple of times
where I posted some videos I'mnot great with videos, I don't
like to be on camera, but Iposted some videos, or I made a
(15:05):
post about something, and andthen after that there was
nothing.
It wasn't a failure of myleadership, it wasn't a failure
of my business, it was just Iwasn't released to do anything,
which brings me to the nextthing.
(15:27):
Interestingly enough, while Iwas doing nothing, things were
happening that I didn't realize.
So, you know, in the Bible,where it talks about God is
working, we see often Godworking on behalf of people
(15:47):
where they're given a task, andGod will say when you go, this
will happen.
As you go, these things willhappen.
It's the idea that, though wearen't working, god is working.
God never stops working for thevisions that he's given us.
I mean, if it's a God vision,then he's already started
(16:11):
working it out.
He knew, before we even got theassignment, what the assignment
was, how it was going to goabout and what was going to
happen as a result of it.
And so just because we aren'tworking, we aren't doing
anything, necessarily doesn'tmean that God isn't doing
anything.
So here's my example.
(16:33):
One of the things that I do as apart of Grace to Lead
Consulting is I facilitatespaces.
I am really good God's given mea gift of creating safe spaces,
of helping people get tostrategic resolve, of
facilitating spaces where peoplefeel as if they're with teams,
where they can come to aconsensus and come to a plan.
(16:56):
Strategic planning is somethingthat I'm really good at, and so
one of the things that Godtalked to me about was that
facilitation piece.
I kind of been ignoring itbecause I was really focused on
the podcast, I was focused onthe book, I was focused on the
coaching cohort, like all ofthese things that were also a
part of the vision.
I'm also trying to get speakingengagements.
(17:16):
I believe that God called me tospeak, but I was hitting a
block.
I mean, I have a ministry eventcoming up in a few weeks, but
it just wasn't happening.
So when I started to do nothingwhich is what God instructed me
to do except to pray and tocontinue to study he moved on my
behalf.
(17:36):
I got two facilitationcontracts and I didn't do
anything.
I didn't change the websitecontent, I didn't post a post
about hey, contact me if youneed a facilitation need.
These were people who reachedout that God put me on their
mind and they reached out andsaid hey, can you do this for me
, god?
(17:57):
So I want to tell you it's okayto do nothing if that's what
God instructs you to do, becausehe is working on your behalf.
The other thing that I wanted topoint out in this process how
much stress there is attached tothe busyness of leadership.
(18:19):
I will say that again I did notrealize how much stress there
is attached to the busyness ofleadership.
Whether you're leading people,whether you're leading
organizations, whether you'releading in spaces, whether
(18:40):
you're leading in home, thereare some things that make you
busy in your leadership.
Some of these things arenecessary.
It's important for leaders tostrategize and to plan.
It's important for leaders tohelp prioritize things.
It's important for leaders toconnect with the people that
they're leading.
If you're leading people andyou're not connecting with those
(19:02):
people, then you're not being agreat leader.
But there are other things thatwe get caught up in doing that
creates busyness for us.
Busyness for us Phone calls,emails, scrolling social media,
looking at websites even in ourstrategy, like taking time to
(19:32):
think about the next big thingcan create busyness, and you can
go, go, go, go, go and neverstop, and what begins to happen
is in that busyness you can losesight of how busy you really
are and that busyness can turnto stress, because as you become
busier you take on the burdenof busyness.
(19:56):
I know this feels really deep.
I'm really not trying to makeit deep, I'm trying to figure
out how to make it simple, butour busyness becomes a burden.
It's like a merry-go-round.
So you get on themerry-go-round and you're going
round and round and you don'trealize how long you've been
going round and round, until youget dizzy.
Right, I don't know, this isold school.
(20:16):
I don't know if they even stillhave merry go rounds on
playgrounds right now, but ifyou know about a merry go round
back in the day when I was a kid, on the merry go round, you
could go, go, go.
You can go fast, fast, fast.
It's great, great, great, untilyou start to feel dizzy and
then it's like I need to get offof here.
Right, and that's what happenswith the busyness in our lives.
(20:41):
Right, we can be so caught upin doing all the things that we
don't even realize that it's thedoing of all the things that's
created a burden for us, thathas us feeling stressed, that
has us feeling tired, that hasus feeling cranky or angry or
frustrated or whatever it is.
And what I realize is, thoughand this is a particularly
difficult if you love what youdo, particularly difficult if
(21:02):
you love what you do.
So I love what I do with Graceto Lead.
I absolutely love it, and sogetting caught in that kind of
regular busyness felt greatbecause I was doing all these
things, and it was amazing.
But what I didn't realize is Ialso was tired.
I also was burdened.
I began to take on theresponsibility for the success
of Grace to Lead as a personalthing.
(21:24):
I have to make this work.
I lost sight of the fact thatthis was a God-given vision and
God is responsible for thesuccess and my praying and being
intentional about Lord, what isit that you'd have me to do in
my business?
What would you have me to do asa leader?
Gave me permission to rest.
The stress I didn't even realizeI had began to melt away.
(21:49):
I don't know who this is for,but somebody right now is so
stressed out you don't evenrealize it, but your body is
aching, you're having back painand shoulder pain.
You're getting short withpeople.
You don't understand why peopleare so frustrated.
(22:10):
Sometimes it's not the peoplethat are peopling, it's our
response to the situations thatare occurring with the people.
Because we're not properlyrested, because we're not
properly, we're not, we don't,we are carrying burdens we
shouldn't carry.
And so, in this process, I haveless stress because of a couple
(22:35):
of things.
One I am confident now that thesuccess of Grace to Lead is
partially on my obedience, ofcourse, to God.
But it lies in the hands of God, and what success looks like in
God's view may be differentthan my thought of success.
It may not be that I'll everhave millions and millions of
(22:58):
downloads on the podcast ormillions of books sold or, you
know, huge corporate contracts.
That may never be it, eventhough that's my idea of success
.
That may never be what Godwants from this.
Maybe God just meant for someone person to experience
whatever the message was thatday.
Maybe it was for one person toread the book and see themselves
(23:21):
and realize that, yes, eventhough you've been through these
things, there's a plan for yourlife and God can help you lead.
It may be that it's just theone place that I go to speak or
facilitate.
That brings people together andthey see God.
There's no more pressure, right?
(23:41):
And I know what you're saying,belinda.
If I started a business, I didthis to make money, especially
if you're an entrepreneur andyou're not working a corporate
job or you're not working a job,you're just.
Your business is your primarysource of income.
I get that, but I also believethat God, one of them, first of
(24:02):
all, god is a provider, and theword says that never have I seen
the righteous forsaken or hisseed begging bread, which means
that as a child of God, as abeliever, right, god will
provide for your needs.
That's the first thing.
The second thing is that if Godgave you the business, then God
(24:33):
will give you the strategy forthe income that you need, and
this is easier said than done.
I am walking this thing outwith you, but I am telling you
two contracts so far that Ididn't solicit, I didn't market
(24:55):
to them, I didn't post X numberof posts on social media and
have a huge following, y'allgracefully, my Instagram page
has like a little over 400followers.
My children have more followersthan me, right?
But God provided he knew what Ineeded and he worked on my
(25:17):
behalf.
I wanted to share that I amless stressed, I am less
pressured, because I'm followinghim.
All the pressure is on him.
Well, lord, you told me to dothis, so now what?
And the last thing that I willsay is a big lesson for me in
this time of asking God forstrategy, with the vision he
(25:40):
gave me, is that he will giveyou strategy.
I may not have all of it, Idon't think I have all of it,
but I know the next two or threethings that I should be doing,
and each day it requires a levelof commitment, it requires a
level of obedience for me.
(26:00):
So if God says to post a reelabout this topic, I can't not
post the reel.
If I'm asking for, if that's thepart of the strategy, then okay
, lord, here I am, and if you gothrough this process, I
guarantee you he will answeryour prayers.
(26:23):
He's also clarifying somethings to me.
There are some things that Ithought that grace to lead was
about.
That it's not, and so I want toencourage you that, if this is
resonating at all with you, thatyou have a vision that God has
given you and you want to knowthe strategy, to take a
(26:51):
dedicated amount of time andevery day, pray, god.
What would you have me to do?
It doesn't have to be, you know, it could be a couple of days,
it could be a week, it could betwo weeks, but set aside time
and pray specifically about whatyou lead right, and know that
you're going to be uncomfortableat first, but know there is
(27:16):
beauty in the pause.
Know that he will provide foryou, know that he will give you
strategy, but that strategy willrequire obedience, even if it's
somewhat uncomfortable for you.
I want you to do it and then Iwant you to let me know how it
(27:38):
goes, because I believe thatthis shift for me is changing my
business and it's changing myleadership.
It's changing how I lead othersand it's expanding beyond grace
to lead.
I'm finding that I'm prayingeven in my corporate job, every
(28:01):
day.
Lord, what would you have me todo on my job today?
I'll tell you what that's done.
It's changed how I relate topeople.
It has.
I have more patience, I'm moreflexible and I think I've always
been pretty flexible.
But it's different because Iknow that the God priorities of
(28:25):
the day are the God prioritiesof the day.
I've also started doing thiswith my family.
God, what would you have me todo with my family?
Is there something I'm supposedto do or say to my husband
today?
Is there something I'm supposedto do or say to my children
today and I'm in transitionright now my son has moved on
(28:47):
campus and so now I have twocollege students and one middle
schooler.
The dynamics has shifted right.
But, lord, what would you,would you have me text today to
my college kids?
What would you have me saytoday to my middle schooler?
What action would you have medo today for my husband?
(29:10):
I am telling you that if you gowith a process and you can get
past the discomfort of notknowing because that's a whole
control thing, which is adifferent episode altogether but
if you can, if you can go withit, I guarantee you that God's
(29:35):
going to meet you and show youwhat he has for you, what he
wants you to do, but he'll alsokind of show you yourself.
There's some areas I had torepent in, quite frankly.
There's some areas I had torepent in as a leader,
(29:58):
complaining, complaining aboutthe blessing, the blessings of
God.
You know, god gave me a job.
Why would I?
Why am I complaining about whathe blessed me with?
What's that about?
Instead of saying God, howshould I lead in this workspace
Complaining about the work thathas to be done for my business
(30:22):
instead of Lord?
What would you have me do today?
So, if you do it, let me know.
You can reach out to me.
You can send me a text message.
It comes directly to me andI'll respond.
You can send me an email or, ifyou're watching this on a
platform, you can put it in thecomments.
But I want to know if you'regoing to take this challenge, if
you're going to do this, sothat I can pray for you as you
go through the process.
That's all for today on today'sGrace to Lead podcast.
(30:46):
Thank you for joining.
I don't take your listeninglightly because you could.
There's so many podcasts youcan be listening to anything you
want.
Come back next week with myspecial guests for our finale
for season two and remember toshare the podcast.
(31:07):
Follow us and share withsomebody who you think might
find it interesting or helpful.
And until you hear me againnext week, remember you are
indeed graced to lead.
Bye-bye.
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Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com