Recently, Amanda was interviewed on Amy Wine’s Couch Time podcast. This very personal and inspirational conversation centered around the essential nature of community and following God’s call for your life.
Here are some of the key pieces from the interview to encourage you, as an entrepreneur and business owner, to keep showing up and pouring into your community. And, if you don’t have one, we invite you to join ours at SOWBO!
Entrepreneurship Can Be Lonely
As an entrepreneur, you can feel like people don’t get you and don’t understand what you are doing. You can be surrounded by people but feel very isolated and lonely.
Maybe you use the grind of work to put a wall up between you and real human connection. Or, maybe you find that you aren’t really putting yourself and your ideas out there because you are afraid of rejection.
If you want to run your business into the ground, isolate. But, if you want growth and impact, root yourself in a community because community lifts loneliness and inspires passion.
Community Inspires Passion
The meaning of the word “passion” has its root in the experience of pain (think of the passion of Christ that we talk about at Easter). When we experience pain, something in us begins to stir up and change.
Our passions often come from what we want to change and make better for others. And, many women have started their businesses out of this passion.
At SOWBO, when people tell their story about why they started their business, they light up. We talk about our initial passion as well as our present pain points. For some, business has become a machine that makes just money.
Sometimes people have lost their sense of passion, their creativity, and their urgency to transform their team and clients. Without passion, we can’t impact the world in the same way. We can’t have the same level of success or build the same legacy.
We need others to inspire and refuel that initial passion.
Conversations that happen in a community of like-minded people remind us of our own passion—our “why” for starting our business—and stirs passion in us and others, too.
The truth is: community has power. We can receive wisdom and encouragement AND we can pour wisdom and encouragement into others.
Community and God’s Call
It is easy to fall into following what the world wants us to do. We are tempted to measure success by the standards of the business world or by comparing ourselves to others in our industry. This can be discouraging.
Instead, measure your success by what God has called you to do. Are you doing this now? You must focus on God and get to know him in order to know what he is calling you to do. And once you do, you can rest in his calling and on his provision.
Do you know the story of Elijah being fed by the raven’s during a famine from 1 Kings 17? That’s a picture of us: God provides; we just have to be obedient and follow his call.
Being in community can help you to feel loved and accepted. Remember, life is short, the world is passing, and what people say or think about you is gone tomorrow.
Did you know that Jesus was rejected in his hometown? They just couldn’t believe the kid they had known since birth could be the son of God, teaching with such power and authority.
Sometimes we are so busy looking for the approval of those we grew up with, people we worked with early in our careers, or our first mentors. But, we may never find that approval.
If you use the gifts God has given you, stick with your original mission, and stir that original passion, the money and the success will follow.
What’s on Amanda’s Bathroom Mirror?
“Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 43:18-19
These verses have been on Amanda’s bathroom mirror for months!
Amanda shared that when she moved from Nashville to Lakeland, she sold everything she owned, out of obedience to God. She let go of all the things she was white-knuckling. Suddenly, she had more time, less stress, and was seeking God in a big way.
But, then, in the fall, it felt like things were coming unglued, and she automatically went back to past pains and felt them all again.
She realized that what she had been through was equipping her, but, instead of drawing strength and wisdom from the past, she was dwelling on it. It was dictating her mood and her relationship with God.
Then, just like Isaiah 43 encourages, she realized that God was doing something new. He was making streams in the wasteland and the streams are turning into rivers.
It encouraged Amanda to not dwell on the past, but to seek God everyday and let him speak.
God can do this for you. He can give you the proper perspective on what you are going through, he can stir your passion, and give you all you need for each day. And, he often does it through community!
Join the SOWBO Community!
We would love for you to join us on Instagram, Facebook, or as a SOWBO member. We are all about building community, inspiring passion, and walking with each other through “dry seasons.”
