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The Estherpreneur is a weekly chat about doing business and life God’s way. Join your host, Edna Harding as she offers biblical strategies and practical applications to improve your mind, business, spirit, relationships, and finances. Listen along as she talks with guests on how to thrive in all areas of life. Edna is a Wife, Mother, Growth Strategist, Author, Minister, Certified Maxwell Business Consultant and Executive Coach, an accredited Master Mindset Coach, and Speaker whose message of hope, truth, and wisdom reaches people all around the world. FavorandWealth.com Estherpreneur.com
Edna Harding [00:00:03]:
Welcome to Estrepreneur, a podcast for entrepreneurs and leaders doing business and life God's way. Each week we discuss biblical and practical tips to improve your mind, business, spirit, relationships, and finances. Listen along as I speak with special guests on how to thrive in all aspects of life. Hi, I'm Edna. Like many of you, I wear many hats. I'm a military wife, mother, author, certified John Maxwell business and executive coach, trainer, and founder of Favor and wealth, where we help the good guys win. So tune in as we bring on the light. Well, hello everyone.
Edna Harding [00:00:47]:
Thank you for tuning in for another episode of the estherpreneur podcast. My name is Edna Harding, and I just want to welcome all of you who have been just faithful in listening to the episodes. And even though I know that you have so many choices out there, I truly am so grateful that this is resonating with you guys, especially when it comes to business God's way. This is something that's been dear to my heart for a very long time. If you ask anybody who's known me even out of college, I've always said that business God's way is something that, you know, I truly believe in and the results followed. And so I just want to open up in a word of prayer. Today's episode is something that is also exciting for me to talk about because I think this is an area that a lot of believers tend to not really take seriously. And I think if you actually start taking this seriously, you're going to start seeing acceleration in your business.
Edna Harding [00:01:51]:
So let's just pray. Father God, I just pray for my brothers and sisters who's listening on the other side of this airwaves. God, I thank you, Lord, that their eyes will see and their ears are healer. Hear what the spirit of truth is saying this hour in Jesus mighty name. All right, so today we're going to talk about divine order. Divine order. What exactly is divine order? Well, specifically, it comes with the partnership between organization and excellence. Organization and excellence.
Edna Harding [00:02:27]:
Okay. And so I wanted to. Before I go into that, let me just tell you a little quick story. I remember walking into an office of one of the most successful business owners I've ever met. Okay. I expected to see, you know, chaos, like multiple screens, sticky notes. Right. Scattered papers, you know, the classic creative genius zones where there's like post its on the wall and there's like board, you know, just like, just like movement.
Edna Harding [00:03:04]:
But what I saw was very different. What I saw was organization. What I saw was every paper in place, every file precisely organized, every process documented, every Team member align. They knew exactly what they needed to do and what time. Like, it was very, very specific, right? And remember, I remember having this conversation. I was like, well, you know, how, how. How is this, like, possible? Like, you know, you, like, for example, like, you could go to a house and they have lots of kids, and yet their house is squeaky clean. Okay? Now, mind you, I'm sure they probably had some help, which is what we want to do is generate income so we could have some help.
Edna Harding [00:03:54]:
But it's like, I wish, like, my house is not there yet. Like when it was just me and maybe one kid. Yeah, it was like that, but with two kids. Oh, my goodness. I kind of give up sometimes, right? It's like I go through, like, seasons of like, not seasons, but, like, specific days. I would clean the house, whether, like, let's say a Saturday or Sunday. I'll do it first thing in the morning, like on a Wednesday. Like, I can't do it every day.
Edna Harding [00:04:15]:
I want to get to that point. But when it comes to my business, I am pretty organized and I am pretty structured. And it's so funny because that is like, probably one of my gifts is I'm very, very organized to a point where it drives me crazy. Like, I can't focus if something is not in order. You know, that's like my mentality. But lately, because of all the different challenges and a turmoil and the annihilation of the enemy against myself, sleep against my mind, you know, like just the past, like in June was like the worst, actually. I've never felt that tired in my life. I kind of have to play catch up, right? And so I say all this to say that, remember that when for things to be in order, it's not a coincidence.
Edna Harding [00:05:00]:
It's not by accident. It's actually a habit, okay? You can't just expect everything to be in order without actually making it a discipline for you to keep things in order for. On a regular basis. Does that make sense? And one thing about organization is it's not. It's not optional. It's actually worship. I truly believe that the Lord sees. Are your.
Edna Harding [00:05:26]:
Is your car clean? Oh, come on. This drives me crazy. It's like I go to the car wash. I'm venting right now. This. I don't know if this has nothing to. This is even part of the message, but I go to the car wash, get it squeaky clean, and then my kids come in, pick them up after school. All of a sudden, all that cleanness, all of a sudden it's just from like the 20 minute drive.
Edna Harding [00:05:49]:
Is anybody else relating to me? Like, this is ins. I don't know how they do it. I feel like I don't know how, how. And that's the thing too. Okay, I'm venting now. Can just let me get off my soap opera, my soapbox after this, you know, I could spend the whole morning, half a day cleaning the house and my kids come home and they like, just like hurricane Elaine hurricane. And I goes through it. I don't understand it.
Edna Harding [00:06:13]:
And I'm still working on that. And I feel like God is working on my patience, but I just don't know how that is possible. But. Okay, I guess let me get back on track. The organization is actually, I believe it's worship. You know, we keep things in order so that, you know, if, if you want a bigger house, you got to make sure existing house is clean, right? If you want a nicer car, you want to make sure existing car is clean, right? If you want a, a, a a bigger company with more customers, you got to make sure that you're faithful with a little meaning you can handle your current customers before you're faithful with much, which is why systems is so important. Okay, so, you know, I want to say something that this episode isn't about timing. Manage timing, manager, time management, or filing systems.
Edna Harding [00:07:01]:
It's actually a kingdom strategy. And this specific strategy is going to help you unlock, favor, flow and breakthrough in your business. All right, so let's start off with this. Point is that God is the God of order. We know this, we've heard it, but I don't think we really understand this. God is the God of order. Organization is actually a reflection of God's character. Okay, First Corinthians 14:33 says, For God is not a God of this order, but of people.
Edna Harding [00:07:33]:
Peace. From Genesis, we actually see structure in creation, right? Days of the week, separation of light from darkness, sequence and rhythm. Did you guys ever pay attention to that? There is a structure. Even when he was creating things. The tabernacle itself has specific dimensions. Have you guys ever read. I think it was Exodus. Exodus, all the numbers, like how many? Like this type of wood.
Edna Harding [00:08:01]:
Like, it's ridiculously how specific it is. You know, they have specific dimensions, specific materials, specific procedures. Why? Again, because God is in the details. He values order. And in your business it's the same thing. Chaos isn't just inefficient, it's actually unbiblical. Okay, I think I could end the podcast here now. It's unbiblical for your business to be chaotic.
Edna Harding [00:08:26]:
And one thing for sure is when you actually align with the spirit of excellence, which is the spirit of God, then all of a sudden, things will flow faster, clearer and cleaner. Right? All of a sudden, you're. You're making room for more. Okay? So first thing I want you guys to do right now is audit your workspace. Audit your business workspace, your digital workspace, your computer. This is why I always tell my clients the very first thing I ask them to do is to clean up their desktop, clean up their laptop, keep things organized, because it makes a difference, especially if you're making room for more. Does that make sense? Is it confusing? Is it cluttered? Is your office space like. And I'm not gonna lie, as I look right now, my children's toys are in some parts of my office.
Edna Harding [00:09:13]:
They. My kids love to take my things and pretend to be me, which I love right now, right now, at this moment. But that time when they're doing it, I'm upset because I like things in a specific order. But you know what? I'm embracing that motherhood of children because I know that this, too, shall pass. And I'm going to miss these moments. So I'm okay with it being messy. But, yes, I love to keep things in its proper place. Okay.
Edna Harding [00:09:39]:
And I want you to audit everything. And if it's confusing, if it's cluttered, I want you to really think about this. If God gave you, like, let's say, 100 new clients today, could you onboard them smoothly? Could you. Could you? Like, for me, right now, I could onboard at this moment, if I had 50 new clients come join me today, I can onboard them smoothly. I could probably onboard more, but easily 50 new clients a day. Why? Because I have systems in place so that these 15 new clients can be onboarded properly. Does that make sense? All right, now let's talk about Nehemiah's strategy. Nehemiah was called to rebuild broken walls under pressure.
Edna Harding [00:10:29]:
Think about this. He had enemies, he had limited resources, and he had a tight timeline. But what did he do? He got the wall done in 52 days. 52 days. How many of you guys have been building your systems for your business for more than 52 days? If he can get the wall done. Broken walls under pressure had loss of enemies, limited resources in a tight timeline, 52 days. You can build the business God gave you in 24 weeks. Six weeks, or God wants you to build in six weeks? I mean, 24, six months.
Edna Harding [00:11:07]:
My brain's going blank. Six months. How did he do it? You guys ready? Okay. Nehemiah 213, he inspected before initiating. You have to assess before you take action. What does that mean? If you're building a new product or course or anything, Assess your systems. Are you ready? Look at your existing operations and ask yourself, are you ready for the customers? The second part, he had clear communication. Nehemiah 2, 17.
Edna Harding [00:11:43]:
Okay, the first one is Nehemiah 213. Nehemiah 2 said he had clear communication. He cast a compelling vision. Okay, so here's my question to you. Is your team clear on your why? Is your team clear on your why? I can tell you all my team members know exactly why I am doing this. And they're very clear on their roles and what they're responsible for on a weekly basis. They're really clear on the deliverables and they're really clear on how I measure success. Does your organization reflect that clarity? Do they know what is expected? Like, they know their.
Edna Harding [00:12:22]:
And this is key, my friends. Oh, my goodness, my friends, this is key. And it's the same way when you're working with your customers, with your clients. There's clear expectations on what I expect from them and they have clear expectations on what they can expect from me. Okay, Nehemiah 3, another strategy, strategic assignment. Each family worked on their portion of the wall. That means you want to assign specific tasks based on capacity and calling. Okay.
Edna Harding [00:12:55]:
Capacity and calling. So for example, I'm not going to give a sales role to someone who's not a salesperson or a sales task, who's not creative. Right? And I'm not going to give, like, for example, I have Wes, who's my website guy. I'm not going to give him like the admin work because he absolutely hates mundane. Let me give you an example. So I remember. So I told him I needed him to update my website and I gave him examples of like, websites I like and I love. Like this is the type of environment you want to create.
Edna Harding [00:13:28]:
So on our weekly call, he, he, he said, hey, Edna, I, you know, I, I, I got all your examples, but I have my own ideas. And for someone, for someone to be like, hey, Edna, I like your ideas, but I have my own ideas. I love that. That means I created a self, a self, a safe environment for my web guy to be open and share his ideas because I created that expectations from the beginning. I told him that I want you to challenge me. I told my team members I want you to challenge me. I don't want you to do everything I say because the sake of doing. I want you to give me a different perspective.
Edna Harding [00:14:09]:
Do you understand? All right, the last part, systematic protection. Nehemiah 4, he created guardrails before construction, which means you need to have processes in place to prevent breakdowns as you grow. Okay, So I have. One of the things I, I tell my clients to do is to understand, like. Okay, like start little by little, right? So what you do is you're. You. You. You like, shoot for your.
Edna Harding [00:14:36]:
Your first three sales and then your. Your first 10,000, your first 100,000. Why? Why do you do that? Because you want to make sure that as you grow, you have systems in the place to support that growth. And we were proactive. We make sure that the process we have in place can handle the current phase they are in with their business. So whether they're. They're a paper airplane, commercial plane, or a rocket phase, we want to make sure we have systems in place to support the level of business or the stage of business they are in. Sorry, like my lip got touched to the microphone.
Edna Harding [00:15:13]:
All right, so this isn't just like project management. This is actually prophetic productivity. Right? You're producing based on what you see prophetically, what your business is going to become. Does that make sense? Okay, and the third part I want to talk about is excellence is worship. Daniel 6:3 says that Daniel distinguished himself because His Excellency, because of his exceptional qualities, which means Daniel's excellence promoted him, it protected him, it positioned him, and that same spirit of excellence lives in you. Now, I want to say this and make it very clear that excellence is not perfection. It's actually stewardship. I'm going to say that again.
Edna Harding [00:16:03]:
Excellence is not perfection. It's stewardship. So there are three ways excellence, open doors. Number one, it reflects God's character. Romans, Colossians 3:23. Do unto Lord. Do it unto the Lord, and not for man. That means you're not doing it for likes, you're not doing it for followers, you're not doing for claps, you're not doing it for comments.
Edna Harding [00:16:25]:
You're not doing it for the algorithm. You are doing excellence to reflect the God that we serve. It also builds trust because people trust what's done well and done consistently. It also attracts opportunity. Excellence attracts opportunity. Like Daniel, you don't need to chase promotion. It actually finds you. Right? It actually finds you.
Edna Harding [00:16:50]:
Ever since, I've been consistent because now I have a team and I could focus on what I do, which is, like, the creative side of me, like, now I'm. I'm gaining. I'm gaining attraction. When I say attraction, I'm talking about, like, people are seeing, like, wow, you're different. You're not. You have, like, a niche, like a special. A special way of doing things. And not to say I'm the best thing out there, but I do have a different way of doing things.
Edna Harding [00:17:17]:
And what it does, it attracts the right people. Right. Because of the excellent spirit that I am operating in. So as an. As a challenge for you for this particular piece, I want you to choose one area in your business this week to raise the standard. Raise the standard in one area of your business. Whether it's emails, whether. If it's client onboarding, whether it's social media presence, whatever it is, make it excellent.
Edna Harding [00:17:43]:
Just focus on one area and be consistent for seven days and see what the Lord does. Okay? The fourth thing I want to talk about, and actually the last thing we want to talk about is the Proverbs 31 productivity model. The Proverbs 31 woman is something that we hear about all the time in church. And, and one thing I love about her is she wasn't just virtuous. You know, she was a CEO in her own right. She rose early, she evaluated investments, she organized her household, and she ensured profitability. And that's the area that the Lord has been really working on me lately. These past few months.
Edna Harding [00:18:23]:
I. I am a very generous person, and a lot of times I tend to be Jehovah Jireh for my clients, and I can't do that anymore. He said, not anymore, my child. I shouldn't be carrying burdens that are not mine to carry. And so for a while, for a very long time, I've been operating at a loss. I've been operating because I want it to be a blessing to my clients where my family is needing my gifting to create wealth for them. Right? Because we are. We.
Edna Harding [00:18:54]:
We have more risk, more bills, right? We have more, more responsibilities because of our properties and things of that sort. And the Lord told me I have to stop lowballing myself and I have to stop trying to do, like, if, like, for example, like if a client can't afford something, I would pay for it. And, and. And sometimes I'm thinking it's God, but really it's not God, it's my flesh, because I just want to be a blessing. And so, you know, a lot of times the enemy disguises itself as, like, good instead of God. And so where instead of paying my bill, I'm paying some other People's bill. But in reality, God wants to ensure that we take care of our family first because we can't give something we don't have. Right? And so one thing the Lord told me is like, as much I want, as much as I want to, you know, create security for my clients so that they can, you know, sustain themselves and their families, I need to do that for my family first.
Edna Harding [00:19:48]:
And so the Lord has been working with me on that. That before I used to, every person that needed help, I just helped. Now I'm being, I'm learning how to be led by the spirit of God and not, you know, like the Edna spirit, the spirit that just wants to give, give, give, give, give, and not receive, receive, receive, receive. Because I truly believe that that's also a religious spirit, a religious mindset thinking that God wants us to be a blessing all the time and he doesn't. We're supposed to be a blessing being a blessing when reality, he also wants us to receive a blessing. Right? So why do I say that? Profitability is important. You need to be profitable in business. Which is why I had to raise my prices from a business unlimited group, because I wasn't making a profit.
Edna Harding [00:20:33]:
Even though in their mind of thinking my clients think that they're making, they're. I'm making a lot of money off. I am not, I'm not charging. Even now as I raise my prices, it's still not enough. I should be charging way more. My peers who are charging $25,000 to $30,000 for not even a quarter of what I give, like, they're, they're, they're charging it just for. And they have to pay, you have to pay in advance. You can't even like, you know, monthly payment is like, you have to get like a loan out through Klarna, whatever.
Edna Harding [00:21:05]:
And here I am, you know, making it so easy for my clients where they can cancel any month. I, you know, there's a seven day, you know, free period so you can see if you like it before you sign something. There's just so many different options that a lot of my parents are not doing. And so, and I believe God wants me to be a blessing, but not to the point where it's coming to the expense of my family. To the point where we don't have groceries, right? To the point where we can't even afford to fix our car because I'm just, just giving it all away and not taking of my family. And so there is a commandment of God for his people to be Profitable. Which is why I tell my clients, you need to charge something, you can't make it for free. I did it for free for a very long time.
Edna Harding [00:21:50]:
Some were led by the spirit of God, and some. A whole lot of them weren't. But I was just trying to be a blessing. The point of the matter is, I guess I feel like the Holy Spirit wants me emphasize this, like, you know, let God be God in their lives. You're not God. Let God be God of their lives. And if they have trust issues, that they trust man more than God, that's not your problem. That's theirs.
Edna Harding [00:22:11]:
All right, so let's talk about Proverbs 31. Woman again. She planned, she built, she evaluated, and she multiplied. Okay, you can be spirit led and spreadsheet literate, right? A lot of times people are like, okay, I'm just gonna let God take control. Let God just do his thing. And then you're not good with your numbers. You. You have to do both.
Edna Harding [00:22:40]:
You have to pray and plan. You have to pray and plan. You have to plan and pray. You can't do one or the other. You have to do both. That's biblical balance. All right, all right. So here's your challenge for this week.
Edna Harding [00:22:55]:
Audit one area, what system needs order. Elevate one standard. Where can you add excellence? And the third one is acknowledge the source. Thank God for the wisdom and strength to steward well, because gratitude will make room for more, I promise. You start your day with gratitude. I do this every single morning. Saturday, Sunday, as well. I start with gratitude.
Edna Harding [00:23:17]:
Okay. All right. So I hope that blessed you. Remember, the organization isn't just administration. It's actually alignment with God's character. Excellence is not just branding. A lot of people want to look the part. It's actually obedience to what God wants you to do.
Edna Harding [00:23:36]:
You're not just building a business. You're stewarding a vision from heaven. Okay, now, if this stirred you, I want you to screenshot the episode and tag me with one area you're bringing into divine order this week. Okay? Tag me on at the Estrepreneur, on Instagram, and if on LinkedIn, tag @edna Lynn Harding on LinkedIn. Let me know you're listening in. I really want to hear from you. I really want to. I want to get more engaged because I feel like.
Edna Harding [00:24:07]:
I feel like I got to do better on that. And now that I have a team in place, I actually have time to respond and time to connect with each of you. So I'm super excited what the Lord is doing. In this particular season of my life. Okay. All right. So until next time, remember, organize like it matters, okay? Lead like it's worship and build like it's eternity. Because let me tell you, my friends, you have to have eternity in mind.
Edna Harding [00:24:32]:
What you're doing now is actually making an impact in eternity. Because if people see accidents, if people see organization, guess who they're going to see? They're going to see the God that you serve. All right. Blessings, my friends. And I'll talk to you guys soon. Take care. Thanks for joining us this week on Estrepreneur. Make sure to visit our website, favorandwealth.com for more information on our services.
Edna Harding [00:25:01]:
While you're at it, if you found value in this show, we'd appreciate a rating on itunes. Or if you simply tell a friend about the show, the that would help me out, too. Also, check out my book, the Ugly side of Sales, available on Amazon, where I share seven of my secrets on how to win and grow business the right way. Until next time, keep shining.