Jenevy Sims, Author of Proverbs and Profits | The Jeff Crilley Show

On this episode of The Jeff Crilley Show, Jeff sits down with author and serial entrepreneur Jenevy Sims to discuss her new book Proverbs and Profits, which argues that entrepreneurship and ministry were never meant to be separate. Jenevy shares how the book grew from a small women's Bible study into a networking movement and eventually a published work, all following what she describes as God's step-by-step instructions....

Show Notes

Most entrepreneurs keep their faith life and their business life in separate boxes. Jenevy Sims thinks that's exactly backwards—and she wrote a book about it.

Jenevy is the author of Proverbs and Profits, a serial entrepreneur who runs The Evolve Firm (a visual communications company), and the Vice President of Business Professionals of San Antonio, the city's largest networking group. She also sits on the boards of Fashion for Life and Children's Rehabilitation Institute Teleton (CRIT).

In this conversation, Jenevy explains why she believes entrepreneurship is "spiritual warfare with a business plan" and walks through her framework distinguishing purpose, calling, and assignment. She gets candid about the pandemic-era betrayal by a business partner who left, stole half her clients, and told them she quit to be a mom—the painful chapter she calls "The Wound That Woke the Assignment." She also talks about how Business Professionals of San Antonio has given every dollar raised directly to local nonprofits since 2017, and shares a blunt call to action for anyone hiding behind excuses instead of stepping into their next season.

Learn more: https://www.jenevysims.com/

What is The Jeff Crilley Show?

Jeff Crilley is a former news reporter, who spent more than 25 years in newsrooms across the country. He’s an Emmy Award winning journalist, who decided to make the jump from news in 2008, when he founded his own PR Firm, Real News Public Relations.

Today, the firm has more than 100 clients, and Jeff continues to tell the stories of interesting people he meets along the way.

These are those stories.

Coming up next on the Jeff Crilley Show, you're gonna meet the great Jenevy Sims. She is the author of this new book. It's called Proverbs and Prophets. She's gonna teach us all how to use our business as a ministry. Next. Many are predicting that the worst is yet to come, which is unfortunate, said one person here. Until now, they've enjoyed the reputation of being the nation's icebox. Watched a burglar in his home this morning by webcam. As a journalist of over twenty five years, stories are what make my world turn. Reporting live from The Dallas News, I'm tonight Jeff Crilley, Fox four news. But in 2008, I took the jump from my familiar life and started a PR firm from my home. We're talking about anyone with a camcorder like the one I'm using becomes a television network. We started slowly growing the company and we now have over a 100 clients. And we've branched into the world of live digital broadcasting. I now own eight different TV studios and have a huge team. And the stories that I now get to share are sometimes the most important of my life. Life has a funny way of coming around full circle. This is The Jeff Crilley Show. Well, when you go to your favorite house of worship on the weekends, you're taught a certain set of rules, do unto others, the golden rule, but then Monday through Friday you're in business and often the two conflict with each other. My next guest is Jenevy Sims. She is the author of this book. It just came out a month ago. It's called Proverbs and Prophets and she's going to talk about how to marry your business and your ministry. Jenevy, thanks for thanks for coming on the show. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to Me be too. Well, you have this amazing smile. The studio got so much brighter when you came in. So tell us about the book. Well, know, when this project came around, honestly, it started off as a bible study. And when God put it in my I was actually at a motivational seminar. And in the middle of it, God just whispered in my ears, start a woman's bible study for women business leaders. And I was like, you know God, I'm not quite there yet, I'm not you know how that conversation in your head, million reasons not to. Yes. And opportunities after opportunities kept coming up and he said these are the 12 women you're gonna start the Bible study with and we did and it's grown and it expanded and then God said next step we're going do a networking event. And with that we had guest speakers come in, phenomenal guest speakers and the whole point of this is to showcase that entrepreneurship and ministry is not meant to be separate. The business is really just a spiritual warfare with a business plan. Yes. And the God that gave you those ideas will give you the provisions too. And when I first started my first business, The Evolve Firm, I was doing it backwards. Even though He gave me the vision to do it, I was like, let me plan it, execute it, and then God come and blessed it. And God is saying, no. Women of God, there's a calling on your life. You gotta do it differently now. Put it in the middle, make all decision, your entire decision making process should always have God in the center. Amen. So beautiful. Give us one of the takeaways from the book. Do you want people Absolutely. To You know as as women entrepreneurs we're often taught to chase goals after goals and that goalpost keeps moving and moving and what we end up finding out is that we get burnt out at the end and that's because we built it on a fractured foundation. Like entrepreneurship is really an act of worship when done with excellence and integrity. That's what a Proverbs 31 woman is. She is an entrepreneur, she's a builder, she's an investor. When Jesus first started his ministry, he didn't recruit priests and scribes, he recruited people that were in the ministry, fishermen, tax professionals, business leaders, and right now there's a revival happening in the middle of our marketplace. And that's because God is creating an opportunity and a space for us to go into this area of marketplace to be ready to pretty much receive that harvest. Yes. That economic harvest. And so one of the quotes in my book is God won't multiply what you mismanage. And that's where that that part of profits comes in. See King Solomon, he asked for wisdom and wealth followed his obedience. So your your profits and your business is actually the fruits of your alignment with God. And so, know, when we talk about profits normally in the business where that's usually your p and l statement, but it's so much more than that. It's your stability and your ability to fund the kingdom of God, to advance the kingdom of And so when we talk about stewarding this business that God placed in front of you, We have to understand too that there's three parts to it. You know, there's a distinction between your purpose, your calling, and your assignment. Your purpose is why you're here. Your purpose is to serve God and make him known. That's your anchor. What your calling is, how you choose to serve him with your unique giftings and talents and your unique testimony. That is your calling and that is the direction especially for your business. And now the assignment part of it, the assignment is what God's asking you to do right now in the city and in the job and the position that you're in right now. It's a temporary assignment for an eternal purpose. Wow, so powerful. We're gonna pull up your website and as we scroll down your website, I know you're a serial entrepreneur, you have three companies and you probably invented a fourth one. Are you a Probably, I think I'm just talking to you. We got another new business. So tell us about the kinds of people you like to attract into your life. You know that's a great question. God has a way of aligning the right people in your path at the right time like you Jeff. You know we just met today but there's there's a synergy there because there God is in the center of it. And I love the opportunity to help other entrepreneurs especially also in the philanthropy in our nonprofit sector. Yes. I have the great distinct honor to be part of nonprofits to sit on the board of Fashion for Life and that is a nonprofit that helps survivors of domestic violence through the art of fashion. And then I also got to sit on an advisory board for Children's Rehabilitation Institute Teleton, CRIT, which is a one of a kind rehabilitation center in San Antonio for children with neurological disabilities. And so the kind of people I love to work with and to attract are people who are just as passionate about helping other people. If you want to be a great leader learn how to serve especially in your community. We're going pull up your Instagram page because you're very very busy and you are kind of the networking queen of San Antonio. I love that! I think we should put that on my business card. So as we scroll down these pictures, talk about the success of your networking group. Absolutely. I, one of my greatest joy is to be a Vice President of Business Professionals of San Antonio. They are the largest networking group. We meet on the second Wednesday of every month where we feature a different local nonprofit every month, and we choose a venue that either just opened up or needs that exposure. And everybody that comes to the door, it's $10, it goes directly to the nonprofit. So beautiful. Our organization has been around for since 2017 and we've never touched the funds. So the ability to be able to showcase nonprofits to give them a platform and you know it's been growing Jeff. It has been tremendous. January, we had over 400 business professionals coming. And the location we had was a brand new Lamborghini of San Antonio. Wow. Oh my goodness. Yes. And they just opened up the Bentley side of it, so we had 400 Santonians come in. That doesn't get any better. Yes, and it was for a great nonprofit that was brand new called Ramhart Foundation, and they help us serve children in unserved communities. They did a huge backpack drive, gave huge donation to the food bank. Those are the kind of non profits that we give the platform You were sharing with me before the show that you've had some setbacks. Mean people see you for the first time. You've got this amazing, you know, thousand watt smile. People would not necessarily know that you've had some Yeah. You know, some obstacles to overcome. Yeah. But those difficulties didn't define you. I know there's a lot of people watching this who are probably also going through a difficult time. What words of encouragement would you give to people who are struggling? Absolutely. For those of you, actually in my book, it was the hardest chapter to write but it was so vital and so important especially because it's what got me to where I'm at today. In chapter three, title of that is The Wound That Woke the Assignment. And sometimes God will use the deepest wound to waken the deepest assignment in your life and that's because pain has a way of uncovering your purpose. Now it never feels like it in the moment, but that's what happens. The one who broke you or broke your heart may have accidentally revealed what you were born to do. The enemy, you know, thought that heartbreak would silence you, would end you, but God allowed it to shape you. Not to harden your heart, but to give you a language of compassion that only brokenness could have taught you. And one of the quotes that I put in there is, don't let the sin done against you produce sin in you. And that's what you know I talked about in my book how I had a business partner seven years ago, we rebranded the Evolve firm and it's a visual communications firm where we help businesses with the branding and the marketing. And during the pandemic, that business partner decides to tell me he wants to go back to school to get his PhD. At that moment, I was like, really right now? We just scaled where and then we're trying to navigate through this pandemic and you wanna leave me? It really felt like a breakup Sure. Because we built so much. And so when he left, I mean, Jeff, I was I was depressed trying to figure out what to do during the pandemic and now I've got to take care of everything by myself. And a few months later, it turns out he started a whole new business with half of our clients. He took half of their clients. And when he did that and I contacted those clients, you know, he took it a step further and he told them that I quit the business because I wanted to focus on being a mom. So now he weaponized my children as well on And top of it was heartbreaking. And it was then though that I realized that God was not using that that person to hurt me just so that I could feel pain. He used that person as a mirror, not a mistake, because that exposed where my boundaries were still weak. Yes. That exposed where I was still leaning on a person and not on God. Yes. So that person was a mirror, the very mirror and that's what actually launched Proverbs and Prophets. Because being with that person, I was unequally yoked. I was very much unequally yoked but I was so dependent and so hungry to scale and I thought he was what I needed for that moment and I stopped leaning on God and I started leaning on somebody that wasn't even supposed to be in my life. And so when I talk about that in my book about how it helped become a catalyst because what it did was it showed me what my capacity was. So, so powerful. We have about two or three minutes left. So I want you to talk to the viewer who really wants to incorporate their faith into their their business life. What's an action step? How can they begin that journey? Absolutely. If you're in your business and you're trying to feel or figure out what your next step is, we've all been there, right Jeff? We feel like we're stagnant, we feel like we're stuck. You see everyone else's highlight reel on social media and you're like, have I not gotten to that point yet? And here's what I want to share with you is that God can't order the steps that you don't take. He is a God of action not stagnation and you want God to light that path but you choose not to be obedient. You choose not to go to those networking events. You choose to not even follow your Google calendar or wake up on time. That's not faith. That's fear dressed up in a spiritual language. And God is saying it's time. It's time. Stop making excuses because your business is your ministry. And he's given you this tool and to stand behind it, know, you gotta understand again entrepreneurship is just a spiritual warfare with your business plan. This is a platform that God is entrusting with you to steward people, to point people in the direction, to make sure that God is in the center of everything. So to give him the glory, not for you. This is where, you know, entrepreneurs, I mean entrepreneurship, that's not for the faint hearted. These are warriors. Disciples are made and God is entrusting you with a platform of leadership and influence. So what are you gonna do with it? And, know, this this is really just an honor just to be with you Jeff and the show to be able to talk about this and to encourage other entrepreneurs out there. The honor is mine. We're gonna end with your website, jenevysims.com is the website. Thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing your faith with us. Thank you. That's it for now. We'll see you next time.