100: How to Integrate Faith in your Design Business
Michele 00:01
Hello, my name is Michele, and you're listening to Profit is A Choice. Joining me on the podcast today are Erika Ward from Erika Ward Interiors and Veronica Solomon of Casa Vilora Interiors. Both of these women have a very strong faith, and they are showing it in their day to day transactions and how they respond to people. They're just very transparent with what they believe and how it drives their lives and their businesses. I invited them on the podcast to talk about how they integrate faith and business. Whether this is what you believe or what you don't believe, I want to invite you to listen with an open heart. Then maybe ask yourself, "What do you believe, and how does that fit into how you live your life and run your business?" Again, we can all respect each other, and we can believe different things, but it is interesting to listen and to understand. As I love to say, seek first to understand and then be understood. I just hope that you find today's podcast different and interesting, but also enlightening and that it gives you food for thought for your own business. Enjoy the podcast.
Michele 01:18
Every day empowered entrepreneurs are taking ownership of their company's financial health and enjoying the rewards of reduced stress and more creativity. With my background as a financial software developer, owner of multiple businesses in the interior design, industry, educator and speaker, I coach women in the interior design industry to increase their profits, regain ownership of their bottom line and to have fun again in their business. Welcome to Profit is A Choice.
Michele 01:48
Hey, Veronica and Erika, I am so glad that the two of you are jumping on the podcast with me today. So, thank you for your time.
Erika & Veronica 01:58
Thanks for having us.
Michele 02:00
The topic that I want to talk about with the two of you today is how we can have our faith, have our business, and how they intersect. We all three are believers in Jesus, and we all have a very strong faith, but we all have different types of business in the interior design industry. While they're not faith-based businesses, we're not like running churches or doing anything like that, it is an active part of our individual private lives, and because of that, we can't really separate it from who we are as people. It is who we are. Therefore, it plays a role in how we interact with our clients, how we interact with our vendors, how we interact with other people, and how we show up in business. I just really wanted to bring you two on because you both have been very vocal about your faith in a very kind way, and in a very understanding way, and I love that. It's very gracious. I wanted to explore this idea of how we can intermingle our faith and our business. To be the whole person. I remember thinking at different points in my life, where I don't want to be one person on Sunday and a different person from Monday through Saturday. It starts to feel like you're being pulled apart or like you're not fully you. I wanted to really make sure that I call it integrate. I want to integrate my whole life so that if you meet me on Sunday, on Tuesday, on Friday, on Saturday night, I'm going to be the same Michele that you meet every single time. That's what I see when I look at the two of you. I don't want people to meet us and think, wow, that girl's got like four personalities, who is she today? So, what are your thoughts on that? I mean, have you worked hard to try creating that whole heart whole person integration. Have you ever seen where it was opposite or all four out of alignment for you? Erika, why don't you start telling us?
Erika Ward 03:58
Sure. I think I've been consistently who I am. But it wasn't until I think I got more spiritually mature and became what I've heard another person call God Confidence. It's not just my own confidence; it is my confidence in who I am in Him. I wanted everybody to know about it because I wanted them to have the same feeling that I have. Even when every day isn't peachy keen, but with Him, it's all manageable. Being on social media, people share through their comments and direct messages, and that's a platform. Whether we like it or not, our businesses are like mini ministries, and especially because we operate in a personal service. We're up and close personal with the person over the phone, in their homes, handling their money, etc. All of those things come with responsibilities, to have good character, being honest, to practice discretion. Also, there's a balance between the whole look at me in how I can help you, like a scale. You want to look at me as people see what I can do for them. But then you also want them to know you have a heart for Him as a service. But getting back to how I became more vocal about it, I think I grew in my own confidence in my walk (journey), and my understanding of who I am in Christ.
Michele 05:28
I love that when people always ask, "Who are you? Whatever are you like?" But it's not just who I am it's whose I am. That's what defines who I am. The question of, "Who are you?" Well, this is my mom, and this is my dad is in earthly terms, how we would describe it because we are part of their family. But when you think about it in the bigger spiritual scale, then it's, "Who do I really belong to?" And then that defines some of the characteristics of who I am. How about you, Veronica?
Veronica Solomon 05:55
You said it. It's who we are. I don't feel like Veronica today and a different Veronica versus the next day, and also, it's the process of maturity. I grew up in the church, so I've always known Christ, but when I was younger, I was almost kind of, I wouldn't say a shame but you know, you want to be cool with your friends and didn't want to express who you are as a Christian. As I've gotten older, I realized that God has to go ahead and be the one who leads in whatever I do. I remember having a conversation with my pastor probably like 8-10 years ago, and he reminded me, similarly to what you said, Michele, "Whose you are, and that's who you are." Those words stayed with me ever since. Another lady in my church always said that we're Jesus only with skin on. The first time I heard that I laughed so loud because I thought that's silly. But when I thought about it, I agree, we are. Because if we are to be growing every day to be more like Christ, so we are His representative here on earth, and we have to go forward and show mercy, grace, love, and all that. Even when it doesn't feel good to us. We just have to be what Jesus wants us to be here on earth. For me, it kind of governs and conducts everything that I do in my life in my business. I try to pull from the thought of, "Yes, this is who I am, and this is how I conduct myself." There's no separation there.
Michele 07:11
We can tell when we're out of alignment, I know if I'm doing something that I am not supposed to be doing or that doesn't line up with who I want to be and continue to become. There's an internal screaming that goes on, "Michelle, you better get control yourself."
Erika Ward 07:29
Two words come to mind conviction and self-correction. Because each and every one of us, regardless of what we believe we have a choice. Even as a believer, you can choose to do right, or choose to do wrong. Christ doesn't make us do anything. It's a choice. He's already chosen us, but it's up to us to choose Him. That's another thing that I love about Christ is that He doesn't force us to do anything, He doesn't try to, like a human, guilt-tripping you into doing something right. You're doing it out of the love in your own heart for who He is and what He means to you. Just the same as we would do for someone in our human form who we love, whether it be a spouse or best friend or a mother. You wouldn't intentionally hurt your mother, your child, or your spouse. And I think sometimes people don't think of Christ in that way. But He calls Himself our friend, and God is our father. So, He's giving us terminology that helps us relate our relationship with Him as we would with other earthly beings. I was about to say little earthlings here.
Michele 08:44
It's interesting, I started this company, consulting business in 2013 after having some extremely traumatic things happen to me in 2012. I became a type one diabetic and had no pre-existing conditions for that. No family history for that. I had a stress-induced issue and ended up having bypass surgery on my arm. I was almost in a coma; I had to sell and stop a business. But what am I going to do now? When He was working in my heart it's a time for me to think about what I really wanted to do, which is coaching and consulting. I remember even at that time, because my business, The Scarlet Thread is an LLC business, it had been Scarlet Thread Interiors turned to Scarlet Thread Consulting, I always promised Him that I would not take Him out of my business. And so even in my coaching and consulting business, I pray over every client. Before I work with them, I pray over them out loud, and when I'm working with them. I don't require anybody to believe anything that I believe. They don't have to. But I do want them to know where I'm coming from. Because we all have a worldview and perspective on how we see the world. We have these glasses that we put on based on our hurts, our successes, tragedies, our life happenings, good and bad. They form our opinions of how we see things. And one of my Bible verses that I kind of have a love-hate relationship with if it's possible to do that, said that the heart is deceitful above all things. Which means we can't just trust our emotions and our feelings. I do think they're there to guide us, but they sometimes don't tell the whole story. If I were to only look at the world through my experiences, what about all these experiences I haven't had. It was important to me to let people know on my website that this is my worldview, you don't have to have the same one, but you need to know if you're going to work with me. I'm not going to help you cheat on your taxes because my worldview is not going to allow me to help you do certain things in certain ways. If that's what you're looking for, I'm not going to be the one for you. But, Erika, you and Veronica, use these words, if you want to be served, you want to be cared for, you want to be loved just like you are and just where you are, if you want to be helped with abundance, then I am probably the one that could work with you. But if that's not what you're looking for, if you want just that rubber stamp, yes, no, or where, then I'm not going to be for you. And I have to tell you, it took God confidence in, using your words Erika, to put that out and to be able to say, I don't require anybody to think what I think or believe what I believe. I respect that you could we can be completely different, but I want to be honest about where I'm coming from, so at least you know. Then I think it's not a Bible verse, but it's a great quote that says, "seek first to understand and then to be understood." That's kind of the way that I like to come out. Let me understand your worldview. Let me understand what you see. Let me understand what you do. Then let me let me share what mine is and where I'm coming from and what I see. Both of you, even if yours isn't as stated directly on your website as mine is, you both do that. I've noticed that from working with you or alongside you, you're willing to share the hope that you had. And, Veronica, you have courses that you teach, and then you also have a Facebook group. And of course, you're an interior designer. So, for all of the different people that you work within, that you talk to, how do you share the hope that you have? How do you pour grace on them in that moment, even if you don't on your website, say I'm a believer, and here's what I do, like how do you intermingle your faith but just the way you naturally do your job or do your business?
Veronica Solomon 12:39
The first thing for me is just approaching every client, every person with a servant's heart because I really genuinely want to serve people. I discovered that serving has such a negative tone to it, and people see it in such a negative way. But we're in a service business number one, so when you go and approach a client, that's what you want them to understand. First of all, you're here for them, you're here to make sure that their needs are met, you want to understand their goals, and you're serving their needs. So I approach it that way. There are some clients that I can sit down and kind of talk about my faith with, and some I don't, but of course, the way I present myself with the honesty and transparency when we talk about money, I'm always direct. No dilly-dallying, so people can kind of see that I'm somebody who has some great morals. That would be a fair word to use here. But I remember in the beginning when I prayed, I did not know what my purpose was, and I was asking, "how is this a purpose? How is it that you've called me to spend people's money?" That's the way I presented it to God. He looked at me and reminded me that every time He's putting me into the homes of people, it's an opportunity for me to share my faith. So, in every opportunity I get, I do so whether it's one on one sessions with my mentees or in people's homes, I try to bring that about in some way. I remember one of the first times I was able to kind of talk about my faith was with the people that had just moved into the area, and they did not know what to do with their kids over the summer. I started telling them about the amazing ministries at my church. Kids can come, don't have to be Christians or anything, just go, play, and have fun with the other kids. God was just opening these amazing opportunities for me to mention things just like that or talk about something in my own life that ties directly back to what He's doing for me. I've always just believed that God just puts me in the place at the right time, and that's how He wants me to serve Him. I just kind of go with it, see where it goes, and just leave everything up to Him. Sometimes I say some words while mentoring somebody, and I'll say something, but those words did not come from me. I promise you those words are God speaking through me somehow. I've learned to be that vessel and just be open to that.
Michele 14:48
What about you, Erika?
Erika Ward 14:50
I think it's a lot of what Veronica said it's, and how you conduct yourself, speaks of who you are without you having to tell them, "Hey, I'm a Christian." They can see that in your business dealings, your honesty, your communication on delivering what you say you're going to do. Then the other part of that is being you have a website and a public persona, so to speak. I share a little bit about my life there, and I'll meet someone then they'll ask me, "how can I even imagine. How did you come through with the struggle with your childhood? In cancer?" That gives me a wonderful opportunity to talk about my faith because that is how we get through any of it. Or, "how did you start your business," that gives me an opportunity again to talk about my faith. So anytime I definitely know when people feel comfortable, I share my faith. I've had several people tell me that I have a very disarming personality, which made them open up a little bit more. I don't mind sharing bits and parts about myself or elaborating on what somebody already has seen. It always gives me an opportunity and open doors, because you asked the question, so I have to give you the answer. All of it has something to do with my faith, or prayer, or scripture, or something that I believe. It's just in me, and it comes out.
Michele 16:07
Right, and that's where I love because in scripture, it does say that "the word will not return void." It says that if you're in trouble, He'll give us and the words will come, like to Veronica's, the words will come. I heard something the other day, as we're raising children, both of you have kids of different ages, and I remember saying to my kids, "this is what I believe who you are. This is how I expect you to act. Don't forget you're a Williams." And this is all the things that we say to our kids. Then I remember when the boys would respond to me, "Mom, you don't even have to say that anymore, we know, we know. It's already in us because your Word has been spoken over us our entire life. We know what you expect. We know what is right. We know how to represent the family; we know what we should do." And that's the same way that God's Word gets in our lives when we're reading and studying the Word, being around other people who believe those things then we start to drink it in. That's why He says to take your thoughts captive and be careful of your thoughts. Be careful of what you put in your heart and mind. When we're saturating ourselves with things that are of God, then that's what comes out. The Bible verses said out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. That's why the words come out. My kids can just about recite my entire parenting to me because my husband and I would say to them, down to all the little phrases. It's kind of interesting that it's the same way for us. There's a comment that says you are the top five people you spend your time with. I could always tell when I was raising the kids if they get a new friend that came into the friend group, because I'd start to see just little things and I would remark, "Oh, you got a new friend hanging out with you," and it's true for us as adults too. A minute ago, Erika, who said that, God through Jesus says, "I am your friend," and if He's our friend, we have to spend time with Him, then we're going to start to look and act like Him. Just like our kids' do, based on who they hang around in the school or neighborhood.
Erika Ward 18:16
That's a great perspective. I never even thought about Him as being one of my top five but He totally is.
Michele 18:26
Yes, because it's about relationship not about the list of rules of what we should be doing. He doesn't make us do anything. What we do is by choice, and it's because we love Him the same way that I obey my mom and dad when they were parenting me, it was because I loved them. Now there was a little bit of they were making me do it, but it's because they were parenting me. I have always said I want to be the type of person that people can tell that I've spent a little time with Jesus. I want them to know they can be better after being with me than before and that they should be able to tell where I'm spending my time. Because if they can't tell where I'm spending my time, I'm not spending enough time there. That's not always easy. So how do you keep your faith active day today? We have a lot of businesses, we have families, so it's not easy. How do you actively work on that?
Erika Ward 19:18
Well, because He is a part of my everyday life and because I wear a lot of hats, He is my business partner. Jesus, help is a prayer. Oh, Lord, that's a prayer. I'm laughing but seriously, that's what I do. If I have a dilemma, I'll pray about it or even call or text Veronica a question about something or another believer that will help me to not just give me the answer that I want to hear, but give me what they believe is the right answer.
Michele 19:52
The framework to think about it is with God. Yes.
Erika Ward 19:54
Yes, and even if they're not framing it up and it doesn't feel like the preaching moment per se, but I know that their response comes from them spending time with Jesus. I spend most of my time in the mornings. I get up before my household does, and I look forward to getting up and spending that time with the Lord. I've had people ask me, because, I think perfect strangers sometimes feel comfortable coming to another perfect stranger than asking someone in their own immediate circle and asked, "how do you know it's God? How do you know you're hearing from God?" It's the same thing as if I call you on the telephone every day. I'm going to come to know your voice. The more I'm coming, spending time and listening in quiet, anticipating an answer to a prayer, that little still voice in me that I hear it enough, because I'm coming on a daily basis, even more than once a day. I know who's speaking to me, and know if it's not.
Michele 20:59
The other thing that's true is when we're praying, reading God's Word, and worshiping in spirit and in truth, He's never going to tell you anything opposite of what is written in His Word. That the litmus test. If the still small voice ever tells you to do something that is not grounded in the Word of God, then you know immediately.
Veronica Solomon 21:25
For me, it isn't my decision. I can break it down day by day, we need Him, but it's decision by decision sometimes. For example, I am reading an email, and it's not a very pleasant one, then I'm starting to write but then God takes over, I reread my writing, and I started restructuring that email because those weren't the right words. I heard the words "be gracious here!" Just like you said, you learn to hear His voice. Push out the things that you're trying to do for yourself or based on your own perspective and to see it from His point of view. I dependent on Him every single day, and I have to just keep that active in my life and in my business.
Michele 22:01
That's why I love that verse is just pray continually. It's interesting because I had a friend one time who thought it meant that we had to like be on our knees and pray but it really is just about having a heart of prayer, to hear and to say, guide, teach, direct, and help me and I'm constantly doing that. Even now as a mom of two grown adults, 22 and 25. I love the Bible verse and held on to it for all those years, especially Erika when I have all the littles like you do, and the verse where it says, "pour out your heart like water before the Lord for the lives of your young children." And that's what it feels like as a mom or as a parent, you're pouring out your heart for the lives of your children. But what I've also realized is now as a mom to adults, I'm literally on my knees equally as much, because the choices and the decisions they are making are much larger than what it was before. I pour out my heart like water before the Lord, for the life of my business, and for the life of those that I'm serving. I pray hard for the people that I'm working with. I will see people on a Facebook group in your group and sometimes people in my own Facebook group or other groups. People will sometimes put out there some really heavy stuff. From a coaching eye, I've had to deal with some really heavy stuff that people have called and shared with me. And that discretion and that discernment. And I'm telling you, I may not even have anything other than a like or a short comment, but I'm praying for those people because I can see her pain, distress, and sometimes I will reach out if I think there is an opening that I can reach out with love and if that could be accepted in a certain way, I will do that. But I constantly am watching for those things. Even if I can't say something to them verbally or in written form, it doesn't mean I can't stop and ask for the Lord to be gracious and to be seen for them. So I think just having that heart again, to realize it's not all about me. And you know, it's not all about you, it's really all about him. And we're working our way to point to that direction with our life, our business, with everything but in a kind way, in a gentle way. It says what is the general Word turns away wrath. It's not the harsh Word that ever made anybody believe what we believe or see or respect what we respect. A kind gentle approach at least goes back to I don't have to agree, but I can hear, understand, and respect you. That's what I want to be able to give, but also hopefully I can get that in return. We don't have to agree, but we can respect each other.
Erika Ward 24:42
I think also when you have an opportunity to share your faith. Again, you may have someone that will understand but not agree. But I do think that you've had the opportunity to sow a seed. I think about how I was raised mostly with my grandparents, and I remember thinking that some of my grandmother's ways of doing things are so old fashioned. It was, she didn't want me to be out after a certain time, and you'd have to wait and let him call you. It's so old fashion, and this is, so that is so, but after she had passed away, I was an adult by that time, those things that she said to me, they had already taken root, but they started to grow. Right. And I started to understand it even in her absence, that Word is still in my heart. So I think, again, though, I didn't agree with her in the very beginning, I've got the fruit, to show that she was so right about what she said. And I just wanted to draw the parallel between being able to share with somebody, and it's okay that they don't agree, but at least you've sown the seed.
Michele 25:49
I was listening to a Bible study, I think I told you all before we came on, with Priscilla Shirer this morning, and she was cracking me up. She was talking about taking her kids to church, but they didn't want to go, and they're throwing their head back on the pew expressing, "I don't want to be here." And I can imagine that I did the same thing like her, it doesn't even help that their granddaddy is the preacher. They'd hope they want to be there. She said that she knows they're just being kids being kids. But what's been so interesting, and I think this goes back to kind of really putting an exclamation on what you said, Erika. If we look at it, just from the parenting and the grandparenting role, then from the role of reading God's Word to us, she said that she remembers when things would happen in her life as she aged. The truth or a Bible verse would bubble up or something would come up out of her that she never remembered memorizing or putting in her heart. She never remembered meditating on it or thinking on it or trying to hold on to it. It had just repeatedly been kind of spoken over and said over her so that it took root down in her heart. Then when she needed it, it was there. I think that is the beautiful thing. If we would even pull this back and just talk about it from a strictly design perspective, how much do we get, and I'm going to almost call it by osmosis, from reading in Facebook groups and learning by watching other people. We take what they are testifying to as the truth of their experience and design. We're taking it on to the point that we start to believe what they're saying, because we've seen an offer and acknowledged it. Then when we're in front of a client, we might not have the words, but remember what Veronica wrote in that post. Then we just repeat what Veronica said to them, because it sounded good to us at the time, until we get to the point that we can have our own act of faith to believe that, that's what we do. So, whatever we're choosing to believe in faith, you can take any faith system and put it into that construct. If you are pouring it into yourself all the time, it's going to come back at some point as what you believe or say. It's going to either ring true or not ring true, and you're going to be able to have hold on it.
Veronica Solomon 28:01
I am not very good at memorizing Bible verses, honestly, but I remember parts of it. The fact that I hear it a lot or it was quoted some other way, that will usually comes back to me instead of verbatim what the Bible says. That's why I constantly have to stay in the Word and just read other things outside of that. To make sure I'm listening to my pastor because that's some of the things I pulled back to. When I'm in a situation, I might not quite remember exactly what the verse says, but I know that this is the gist of it.
Michele 28:30
It's about the sentiment, not the exact Word sometimes as long as we're not misconstruing it. It is the sentiment of what it is that gives us that God confidence to keep moving.
Erika Ward 28:42
It's in the behavior.
Michele 28:44
Interestingly enough, we started the conversation with defining who we were and whose we were. So back in, I want to say late last year, I found a book that called Atomic Habits. The book really talked about what you do; your action is based on your identity, which is based on your belief system. So if you want to change who you are, you got to change what you believe about who you are, and that changes how you act, because it starts with your head and moves to your heart and comes out of your hands. Then I started looking at it from a business perspective. Who do I want my business to be? What are the actions that are happening in the sales process, the closing part, and all of these processes? And does that align with who I say that I am? Does it align with what I believe? And I started to find some things that were broken in there or shifting, or that I needed to be challenged on. Not bad stuff, but thinking of do you really believe you're worth this? That's a conversation we see showing up in business all the time. Then it started showing up because I'm doing this work from a business perspective with a business book. Then I get a Bible study called Your Identity in Christ that I started working on in January. I realized that God's really worked with me on my identity, albeit I'm in my 50s, I thought I knew who I was, but it was kind of really making some things solid again. Is everything and in alignment? Is what you're doing lined up with who you say you are, and believe yourself to be? Does that lined up on the truth or is there a lie somewhere in there that snuck into your life, that you now are believing? Are you believing what the world's saying over what He's saying? And how does all of these work its way out. It has been interesting to see that even as we continue to grow in our business, in our parenting, in our lives, and our relationships with friends and people. Then in our relationship with God. It's an ongoing growth. We're constantly growing into who we are becoming. I remember when I was 27 years old, making a decision of I can either move forward as a victim, or I can move forward as a victor. And both aren't going to be easy, but which would I rather choose to invest in? I chose to invest in moving forward as a victor and not a victim of my circumstances and of some things that had happened in my life. I remember then at 30, coming home and thinking, "am I the woman that I want to be? What is the legacy that I want to leave to my family into my children?" I realized I was not the woman, praise God at 30, I wanted to ultimately be, but it was never too late. So, I sat down and wrote down at the end of my life, who do I want to be? How do want to I win? How do I want to be represented? What legacy do I want to leave, as you said Erika about your grandma, the legacy I want to leave for all of those people that I have had any impact on in whatever way. And I wrote it down then asked myself, am I her? The answer was no, but the next thing is, I can still become her. I can work every day to become her, similarly, to working every day to be more like Jesus. Then along the way the more I will look like him, or the more I will look like her. I think that's the grace to say we can get it wrong but pick up and move on again. Have you ever done any type of exercise like that? Who do I want to be, and how am I going to become her?
Veronica Solomon 32:15
Legacy is a big thing for me too. I always think to myself, what do I want people to say about me at my funeral? What are people going to be saying about me? Many, many years ago, my late husband's mother, from French Guyana, came to visit. We're going to church, and here in America, we just kind of casually throw on jeans and T-shirt for church, but she was dressed to the nines with hat and everything. I said, "Miss Rosalie, you don't need to dress up like that for church; we just go casual." She responded, "don't you know, I'm a princess, and if I'm a child of the king, I'm going to go dressed like it." That's stuck with me because I think of myself now as a princess, a child of a king, of The King. I want my life to show that I am the heir to His throne, to His grace, to His mansion in the sky one day, and it might sound so out there. But really, if you see yourself and identify as co-heir with Christ because that's really who we are, we then live our life with something grand to look forward to, which is the real hope of why we're here on earth and we're working towards this wonderful kingdom to come. So, for me, that story stuck with me.
Erika Ward 33:28
It's going stick with me now too.
Michele 33:30
My mother said, "well, my father owns cattle on 1000 Hills, He owns everything." If I could steward when He gives me the ability to steward because He has access to everything yet not wanting anything. So therefore, I'm going to have what I need. He said that He's going to give me what I need, and I'm going to trust and move forward. I'm going to do my part for whatever he calls me to do. So, we are in a time right now of COVID-19 business disruption, and there's a lot of yuck that has been going on and for lack of a better word. There's sadness, there's anxiety, and so many people are feeling it in so many different ways. Even some of us who maybe that's not normally what we have, a bent towards feeling, but I have shared on the podcast that I felt fear and overwhelmed. It's not a normal thing for me. I don't live in that space. I certainly am familiar with people's struggle that they have on a continual basis. It's not normally been my struggle, but I have felt the weight of all of this. I don't think anybody has gotten has found the ability to escape from that. But I know one of the things that I've done in my prayer life is I pray scripture. I was taught to pray God's Word back to him. Say what you want to say but the whole thing about prayer is Him prompting our heart to pray back and to come into alignment with His way of thinking. I'm constantly trying to do that and make sure that what I'm saying and asking for is in alignment with His Word again instead of the Michele's voice that is having a conversation in my head. I have found for me just a really active thing is after I've done my Bible study and have my quiet time to start writing some of these things out. You both kind of said it, on a day to day, or a moment to moment or an email to email basis. This is kind of what I've found regarding Him being the light unto our path, there are times that I've wanted him to light up a football field but He's lighting and showing the next step. Because He also knows that if he showed me the whole football field, I'd be running around doing my own thing trying to get to the other side. Not taking the path that He wants me to take and without that total dependency on him and without recognizing that I'm under the shelter of His wing. I'd be running out from under it like a little four-year-old on the field somewhere. And I've found that in these times of being afraid, disconcerted, and overwhelmed, I have just been running to try to read my Bible. When I can't read my Bible, because sometimes let's be honest, sometimes it's hard to pray because sometimes it's hard to do those things we know we should do. One of my girlfriends said to me to turn on praise and worship music and sometimes to have somebody else put words to what I can't put words to, helps. By the end of it, I'm usually able to pray or pick up my Bible. I don't know this halt in my spirit, and f I can turn on some good praise and worship music, throw my hands up, dance around my house, or just sit still and do nothing but listen, it shifts my position and my feelings. And I have a Facebook group, and we'll list all of your groups and all of your websites at the end, but I've one called Faith in Business, and regarding the conversation that we've been having today to really say, "how do I merge these two? And how can I be 100% me?" We have a whole Spotify playlist of praise and worship music that's all wonderful. People kept dumping in and going, "here's what I listened to." Then I've got it on my phone, and I could just turn that on because there are times in the middle of the day I just got to stop. I got to get out of my own head. What are you doing? Are you doing anything like that?
Veronica Solomon 37:37
People asked me all the time, "how do you find time to do all the stuff you do? You write, you do this, that, whatever." Honestly, that is it for me when I'm overwhelmed or I find that fear like you mentioned, we all are feeling some level of what's going on, I pour it out instead of bottling up inside. I don't have a spouse, and my children don't necessarily want to talk about this with me all day long. But I have to get it out of me somehow, and that's how the writing comes about. Whether I'm writing out to my email list or writing it down for myself to revisit it later on, it's a way of me dealing with what's going on or just challenges in general. And I have a Bible app on my phone, which is the best thing ever. I pull it out at night, because my alone time with God is usually late at night. You'll see in my Facebook feed, that's when I post my Bible verses and things like that. So that Bible app just really helps me to get some of the Word and then refer back out somehow in my writing. That's really been a way for me to deal with everything that's going on.
Michele 38:36
How about You, Erika?
Erika Ward 38:37
When I've traveled most, and this time that we're in would qualify as most, I'll write a letter to God. Then I'll go back and highlight what I call my trigger words, my Holy Spirit trigger words, so to speak, then I'll go to find a verse that speaks to whatever that just kind of caught me after I read through what I've written. Last week, I was fretting about the future because I've made some decisions from working on opening up a showroom, and I've got a lot of expenses out there. We can't go into client's house like we had been before, and the Lord told me, "You know what, there's enough traveling today. Let's just worry about the next best thing to do today." Because I have those who are outside of my business. I've got my family around, my husband, myself, my parents, the other people around me that I have to be there for as well. It freed me up so much, it was like, "cast your cares upon Me and I make your burden Mine," so I thought about all of those things. When you journal, you could go back to what you've written a year, two years ago, through your toughest times. You can remember how Lord brought you through. That's very instrumental for me. Now, and in the past. Being able to write down my feelings. Just be completely transparent, I'd say, "we're absolutely disappointed," then reflect, "What is this? I didn't say this. Come on. You [God] didn't even give me a heads up about this, I thought we're cool, what's going on?" He wants us to be transparent because He knows our hearts anyway. I confess to him that I'm angry right now. I'm disappointed. I'm hurt. I'm anxious, and it's not that I want to stay in that place, but when you tell your child, and I keep using the parent-child relationship because that's what it is. When your child comes to you, "mom, my stomach hurts, I'm so afraid of the dark, I had a bad dream." You want your child to be completely open, so you know how to pray for them, and you know what they speak over to them to comfort them. And I love that, and what more would God do for us?
Michele 40:57
I love that, and in my prayers that I've been writing out in the morning, it's the same kind of thing as I'm writing when I when I'm feeling. Then I'm going back and seeing all the scripture that aligns with it. When you were talking about your Holy Spirit phrases and words, it's that same kind of thing. It's trying to get my heart aligned with him. Today, I actually wrote on unity. It was about God's not calling us to be the same. He's calling us to oneness of purpose. which is to glorify Him. So how do I love You and love people, right? The commands can be boiled down to love God and love people. So the next things is, how do I love you, and how do I love people? I try to keep that in the forefront because some days are better than others. I am not perfect. I probably mess up as much as the next person. I just try to catch myself and not mess up the same way or try to catch myself as it's coming. But thinking about what's the next best thing to do? In this next moment? Because sometimes that's all I got. That's the light to my path. Not the football field that I keep asking. Clearly, Erika, He didn't light up your football field and give you the heads up.
Erika Ward 42:15
No, He wasn't. I found myself trying to make all these plans. And that's when he told me to worry about today. Then also, when I surrendered, I also found a scripture where it talks about, it's a wise person plans, but then they submit their plan to God. Then I felt like okay, thank you because you know, me, Lord, and You know, I'm a planner.
Michele 42:52
I think you're talking to two other planners on the call here.
Erika Ward 42:58
Yes, [laugh] it's my nature, but what He said is you can plan, but give those plans to Me.
Michele 43:04
Some of the pictures in my mind that kind of represents that actually was even explaining to a client yesterday is, I'm a planner. My whole career on coaching is around helping people plan. And He knows, maybe my kids will tell you, when I did Strengths Finder, my lowest strength was being able to be flexible and spontaneous, because that's not a planned thing. I planned to be spontaneous. But the vision that started coming to me yesterday was a good representation of what you said Erika. I felt like I'm kind of holding my hands closed. I'm holding my business in my hands, because I'm trying to keep everything between the ditches and to keep my clients' companies between the ditches and all that. I feel like He's wanting us to do that. But I also feel like He's wanting me to open up my hands and to say, not my will but Yours. Tell me what You want me to do with that, and I'll do what you've called me to do. I'm going to do the financial plans or restart plan. I'm going to do all the planning I'm supposed to be doing. I'm going to be as good steward with what you've given me as I can be but ultimately know I got to come open-handed. I can't grab on with my fist. Because then I'm not flexible, not teachable, not in a spirit of bending and rigid, and that's going to be a lot worse.
Veronica Solomon 44:22
It's kind of like what Erika just mentioned, it's the same thing. I was in the middle of my grand plans too before all of this happens. Then I have to say, "God, what are you trying to tell me here?" It was for me to just sit back and just wait. To really think about what He's trying to tell me. Maybe He wants to give me the desires of my heart. But He also wants me to do it according to His will. To trust Him and follow His step by step guide and not see the big picture. Because if we see that big picture, like you said, Michelle, we're just going to go crazy for it. He wants complete dependence on Him. And so right now, I said, "Lord, I'll just wait for You to speak to me." I'm just going to chill for a while because this maybe is You telling me. And that's what I'm doing right now is just waiting because this is this is a season and I'll just wait on more.
Erika Ward 45:00
How many times have you thought to yourself, "Oh, I wish I had some more time to spend, in prayer, in ministering to others."? He's giving us the greatest gift of time. Again, I know there is a lot of hurt, a lot of struggle, a lot of pain going on outside a lot of homes. A lot of homeschooling. Yeah, sinking down in my chair thinking about that. All that other stuff is going on too, but I can't let that overshadow the gifts that He's given us of time.
Michele 45:39
And I keep feeling that I'm getting a new gift of perspective, because in January, February, in business, we were all in that upward crazy route. For the business that I was working with and I'm still working with this year, it was poised to be the best year ever for them. So, we all feeling the proverbial brakes got slammed. We were all taken aback. We were all shocked. What just happened? He knew before time began that this was coming. We didn't know. Enough. Another thing that I think is so interesting here is Erika, you are knee-deep in the process, maybe even past knee-deep. You probably already around the neck. Are the signs for your brand new design center up? Veronica, we just talked about it on your podcast. You were getting ready to move out and get a much bigger space that totally changed up some of the income streams and everything in your business. What I think is so interesting and cool about that is He may have told Erika to keep going, and He told you to wait. And I think that's an important thing for us to realize is that He's got different plans for each of us. Erika's plan is not Veronica's, Veronica's is not Michele's, and Michele's is not Erika's. We're not all the same. That's where I love to see from coaching is that each of us are unique, with strengths, abilities, gifts, plan, and hope for our future. We don't have to emulate exactly the same thing each other does. It's okay for God to say, I need you to trust Me in the move forward, Erika. Veronica, I need you to trust Me and wait.
Erika Ward 47:31
Both are challenging.
Veronica Solomon 47:34
Exactly. He knows that so well. I've been reading this book the series. These Final Days by Ryan Speakman. They were a little bit scary for me to read because they were talking about the tribulation and of times and stuff. I bought these books a long time ago, and I probably wouldn't have picked these knowing this would happen. But what I've learned is how God protects us no matter what. Look at the children of Israel; they went through so much stuff to the point sometimes when I'm reading in the Bible, will these people ever get peace. The common thread has always been God's protection, God's provision. And this is a period of time where God is reminding me and showing me just how much He's providing for us. And that's what we just have to believe that because I know people are experiencing hardships right now and a lot of people lost their jobs. But throughout all that, we have life. We still have so much going on that we tend to ignore and not realizing that God is still providing for us somehow. He's still taking care of us.
Michele 48:38
It's made me realize a lot of the things that I had taken for granted. I've been taken for granted the fact that business was going well, that I could get up and leave my house whenever I wanted to that I could go to any store I wanted. When I want to do that I could go eat at any restaurant. I'm immunocompromised in two of the main ways I have asthma and type one diabetes. I'm also allergic to one of the drugs that they give to help it. So, I have to stay away from everybody, probably for the next six years going to be a hermit in my house. I am trying to make peace with that. You don't realize sometimes the things that you have until you've lost them or don't have that same access to them. But what we do still have access to is prayer. We do still have access to God because He doesn't move. And I feel like in my heart and in my life, I'm finding that I want to move my get up time back to earlier in the mornings because I want to spend more time with Him. I want to watch the sun come up, every day now when I'm hearing the birds sing, I feel like He's singing a song over me. And you know that verse in Romans that says that the whole earth like shouts His praises. There is no reason that we can't know Him if we are looking at His creation. And I just keep saying, "okay, God, so I can't do all of this, but I can do this." To your point, Erika, I got time for this. I've been honestly asking for Him to give me a passion in my heart to spend more time with Him. Not to be so busy and to realize that my busyness was robbing me of a relationship with Him, my husband, my children, my friends, with anybody, because I think many of us have gotten so busy that it was becoming a trap. That in some ways, we equate business to success and business is just exhaustion if we're not careful. I also tell my clients, we can't be on a peloton going full speed all day, at some point, you got to get off the bike. We've got to calm things down. I kind of feel that He's given us a chance to reset some of that. And some of it's very painful and for some more than others. I don't want to diminish that. But there is hope, even in that pain, in that difficulty, and in that frustration.
Erika Ward 51:01
When you ask Him to give you that thirst, put a little footnote there without someone being sick, because I had the same prayer. And I had somebody very close to me become ill and I was waking up everyday thirsting to spend time with the Lord and pray for my friend. So now my prayers are, "Lord without anybody being sick let me, you know what I'm just going to get up right now."
Michele 51:32
Let me just go ahead and do this right now.
Erika Ward 51:33
Let me just do this because I don't need any of those things to happen to make me. Not those type of motivators. We're doing it out of love and just think about the goodness of God. That really pushes and makes me want to spend that time.
Michele 51:47
Who in your life poured in the hope of Christ to you?
Erika Ward 51:53
For me personally, I believe my grandmother did and even my husband. When we first got married, we didn't have a dime. But he just had a way of being a visionary. To look beyond whatever current circumstances we're at. At that time, we weren't both entrepreneurs like we are now, and that's a huge faith walk on his own. I think most people have a false sense of security even thinking because they've got a 9-5, that they have a steady job, but even that's not as stable. But as entrepreneurs, we have to earn every dime that we get and not only for ourselves, but five children and a dog, and everything that goes along with it. What I would advise for anyone that has doubt, because I used to feel like my husband just looked through life with rose-colored glasses on. Not even living in reality, like what are you talking about? And that I was a believer too, but I also felt like I was being a realist. Instead, I basically put his glasses on and try it out. Then said, "okay, let me change my perspective and try to figure out what he's saying." When you do that, the Lord wants to show you, and I really feel that He puts all the fireworks and everything for new believers, because He wants to show you, "Yes, I'm everything that they say that I am." And I love to see the miracles that the Lord works in people's lives when they're first coming to Christ. So, I just I try them. Just try it in Jesus. What does it mean? Start off with just praying and recognizing that there is a God who is bigger than you and made you and made this earth. Who cares about you and loves you. People need to feel loved. And I think some people do what they do because they don't feel loved or haven't felt love and they don't love themselves. That's a big part. They don't love themselves, and they just can't seem to be happy. To their credit, there is a lot of negativity around this, whether it be other friends of theirs, or the news or social media, and maybe because bad news travels faster.
Michele 54:12
Division sells. If we're all unified then they don't have anything to say. The world is good. Have a good night.
Erika Ward 54:20
Exactly. It's not to diminish anybody's struggles because I had major struggles, but I'm only speaking about what I know and how I got out of those struggles. It was through my faith in Christ.
Michele 54:39
Veronica, who poured faith into you?
Veronica Solomon 54:43
I've always been a Christian, and my mom did a really good job I believe of raising us up as good kids, but it wasn't my later years. The Sunday school teacher about 12 years ago is when she took me under her wing and poured into me, so I got to understand scripture a little bit better. She was the one who pushed me and said, "I think you really have a good...Your spiritual gifts are discernment." I didn't even know what's that. All these years, I was able to look at stuff and said, "I'm not sure if that's quite right." And I questioned things. She was the one who identify that it can be done in a Godly way. Her name was Miss Linda, and she poured into me, and she's since moved away from here. But sometimes I would say to myself, what would miss Linda say in a situation like this, because she was that spiritual leader for me. And a lot of times, I find strength in the things that she was in. I still communicate with her on Facebook, actually, and message her to say, "hey, how is it going and tell me what to do in this situation." So, it's good to have somebody like that you can reach out to every once in a while.
Michele 55:45
For me, it was my mom and my mom's mom. They were the two really strong influences. Then I've been in church since while my mom carried me when she was pregnant. So, I've been to church, like when we had our kids. I just was surrounded by a group of men and women who loved me. They loved this little girl coming who was very inquisitive. I am a questioner, and they let me ask all my questions. They showed me the love of the Lord and the love that Erika and you mentioned, and we're talking about. Then when I was older and moved to Atlanta, some of the people that have poured into me. Some of my best friends. I've got one of my best friends Barbie, and she is just so good. You know, when you made the comment about kind of friends to call that they are going to tell you what the Lord wants you to hear and then you got those who will tell you what they think you really want to hear. So Barbie's been one of those for about 26 years who brings me back to the Word all the time. Then a lot of women at my church. I've taught Bible studies for years, and I've had other women who taught Bible studies to me. We even mentioned right before we came on the air in Titus chapter two, it talks about being a woman who teaches the younger women. One of the things that Priscilla Shar mentioned in the Bible study I was doing this morning was that, we're the older woman and the younger woman at the same time. Which means whatever age we're at, there are women, people younger than us that we can pour into who have not yet traveled the road we've already traveled. But then when we were to look the other direction, there are men and women who are ahead of us who could have been poured back into us. Being willing and we could use the term be that vessel. It's just being the vessel to say, "I'm going to look one way, and I'm going to pour out what I have to give you. And then I'm going to look the other way, and I'm going have teachable spirit for what you need to teach me." Because we're all on this where humans have any human experience? And we're all here trying to help each other get through. To kind of linking arms, loving on each other, and just showing love. I sometimes think just create a holding space and loving somebody is so much more than any answers that I could give. I don't have the answers for all the world's problems, but I know who does. I also know that they're all grounded in love. Every single one of them is grounded in love that will never be grounded in hate, will never be grounded in ugliness and divisiveness. It's going to be grounded in love every single time, and that's what they say, "and they'll know that you're one of Mine because you love." We are commanded to love your neighbor as yourself. Who's your neighbor, everybody's your neighbor. Oh, well, there you go. I gotta love everybody, now? [laugh]. And that's what we're called to me, we don't get to pick and choose. I do think that is also what influences our business and how we can react to the people that reach out to us. How we can respond to them. What they believe we believe we did. It didn't say love the people who believe what you believe. It doesn't say love the people who think what you think or love the people who act like you. It said, love people.
Veronica Solomon 59:03
I mean when He was here on Earth, He was hanging out with some unsavory characters. Some people will judge, but did he come here to be with the holy one? No, He came here to save the people who others considered bad people. If we kind of look at the world like that, then we're not necessarily called to go hang out with perfect people or people that we think, match our version of what Christianity should be. We're just called to love everybody and if we come from that place, it should be a little bit easier.
Michele 59:35
Absolutely. Well, I just want to thank you both for sharing your time today. And I want to ask you, as we're closing, if there's anything else that you want to share with the listeners today, in regard to your faith. A Bible verse, to just support, or advise. We've shared a lot of just kind of our own journey, and our own faith, but if you have anything else in your heart that you want to share, I want to give you a chance to do that.
Veronica Solomon 60:01
I think for me, there's one quote that has really stuck with me. I heard it many years ago, and I think it's for this time right now with some divisiveness going on. It's, "whatever you need more of, give that away." Although it seems to be contrary, "Well, I don't have it how can I give it away?" Well, we all need love. We all need somebody to listen to us. We all need to be heard and all that, give that to somebody else because that's what you're yearning for. And I promise you, if you did that, you'd find that we're a little bit more open to hearing each other out to loving each other without judgment, and, you know, some of all of what's going on right now will just like cease, because we're caring about each other.
Michele 60:43
I love that. That is very true. Erika?
Erika Ward 60:46
What I have is not biblical, but you may have heard this before. So, when you're down to nothing, God is up to something. And I think it's true that you don't have to be down to just zero. But you can recognize, "Hey, this stuff is changing here. And you know what? God is in control. And He knows way more than I do. He knows how this story going to end." And I'm going to give Him all of my care, all of my burdens. To do the next right thing that I know to do, and just live my life day by day, and we're going to all have some bad days, but know that joy comes in the morning. Go to bed, leave it all to Him. Or even sometimes I'll do a brain dump and write down another letter before I go to bed. And then just leave it all out. Get it out, go to sleep. And usually in the morning, I feel like, "oh, okay, it's a brighter day!" Your circumstances did not change, but your perspective change, and your mindset shifted, but then you got to hold on to that. You got to figure out how to hold on to your peace because everything around you is trying to yank it away from you.
Michele 61:59
Yeah, so true. And I think one of the things that I would add to that after I give you both the high five because I agree with both of what you said, I just want to encourage people with is that none of us are an accident. We're all here because God created us, and He created us and in our mothers' womb with a plan. And He knows the hairs on our head. He knows our days that are numbered. He holds our tears in a jar, He hears and knows every single thing about us, and He loves us anyway. I think that's important because sometimes we might think we're unlovable, or think we've done something that makes us where nobody would care about us. The God that created us said, "I know every single thing about you, and I love you anyway, and I'm here for you. And I made the choice for you." I think that is important because it's so inclusive, nobody's left out. That is such a beautiful reminder that there's nothing can separate me from God. From the east from the west, neither height nor depth, nothing can separate you from the love of God. When we take our human characteristics and feelings, and try to place them on a sovereign God, they don't fit. He's saying, "don't put your clothes on Me. They're not going to fit me." And there is absolutely nothing we can do that can separate us from the love of God. And I have to hold on to that. And that's a free gift that I'd like to give to people is that you are lovable. Every single person has something that God says, "you are worth it to Me." And that's worth remembering. Well, again, I just want to thank you both. Veronica, tell everybody, your Facebook page if they want to come hang out with you or your website, and then Erika, I'll have you tell yours right after.
Veronica 63:50
Sure. So, my Facebook page is What They Don't Teach You in Design School is open to designers and decorators, stagers, architects, and my website for mentoring is www.veronicasolomon.com.
Michele 64:03
Excellent. And Erika?
Erika 64:04
My Facebook page is Mrs. Erika Ward, and I'm the same all across social media, Pinterest, Instagram. And my business website is www.erickaward.com.
Michele 64:18
Excellent. And I've got a couple of Facebook pages just if you want to jump in one is Build A Profitable Business for Interior Designers And Work Rooms. And then I have a Facebook page called Faith in Business. If anybody wants to talk a little bit more about how to keep these integrated, to work through that, and to have a support system, we'd love to have you there. Erika and Veronica, thank you again for your time. Thank you for sharing something that is near and dear, that is an integral part of your life and your being and your hope for your future. I know it's not always something that everybody wants to allow us space to talk about, and we want to be respectful, but I just love that you're both very honored, honest, transparent, and so sharing and kind with how you're living your life. I would like to say thank you for that. I hope that everybody has something they can take away either how to deal with fear and maybe some ideas about hope or just the overwhelming feeling of being loved. I think that is just something that we also need. I also just want to invite you if you want to talk about any of this or if anybody wants to reach out, feel free to go to www.scarletthreadconsulting.com. Or reach out to either Erika or Veronica. And thank you so much for your time today. Just like with everything, we need to be intentional about our faith, intentional about our choices, and I hope that this has given you something to think about