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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 [00:00:00]:
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.
Edna Harding [00:00:23]:
Like many of you, I wear many hats.
Edna Harding [00:00:25]:
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.
Edna Harding [00:00:41]:
Well, hello everyone. Thank you for tuning in for another episode of the estherpreneur podcast. My name is Edna Harding, and I'm nothing but a messenger of life. For those of you guys who are new here, in this podcast we talk about business and life, God's way, where we work on your mind, your business, your spirit, your relationships, your finances, all that good stuff. This is the podcast where we talk about biblical truths and how to improve every area of your life. I truly believe that each believer, son and daughter, young or old, can receive wholeness. And that is through the grace of God. And doesn't mean that your life is perfect, but it means you will have the joy and the peace that passes all understanding every single second of your life because God is a good God.
Edna Harding [00:01:27]:
And, and it's been so long that the church have been defeated. We've been abused, used defeat, you know, I don't know, like all the negative words that you think of. And the Lord has more for his people now. Not to say there won't be any persecution, obviously that you can't go away because that's biblical. But I truly believe that he wants his children to enjoy life more. And so today we're going to talk about how to simplify your business so, so that you can enjoy your life more. Are you guys excited about that? I know I am. Because the Lord does not want his people, like, struggling.
Edna Harding [00:02:04]:
He wants his people to build with joy. Because I think for a season, for a while, I know for me, I've been building for a ended. So I went through a 13 year journey where it's been such a challenging time for me. And then my family were part of it too, just because they were dealing with the things that were going with me. So I'm saying all this, saying that I think it's time for some joy in our lives. I think it's some time for some fun in our lives. And I pray that those who are watching this can relate because I know you're excited. Okay.
Edna Harding [00:02:38]:
Because I am. So one thing I can say is that God is not impressed by complexity. Okay? He's not impressed by, you know, layers. I remember it made it so difficult for me to work with people because I had got a step one, step two, step three, step four. And the Lord told me, like, simplify it, make it easier. And so I have to redo a few things in my business business so that it's easier for me and easier for my clients, easier for my team. But I also do not want to water down what he showed me. And so, yes, it's still going to require work, but I have to go through it actually with fresh eyes sometimes.
Edna Harding [00:03:16]:
I'm gonna do it this weekend is to go through every single thing and say, okay, is this really necessary? Is this something that you can wait on later on and doesn't have to be done now at this moment? So the purpose of this episode is to help you founders and entrepreneurs, especially startups and small businesses, to what, release unnecessary complexity, to return to God's original business instruction, and to build from obedience instead of overextension. All right? First and foremost, that set the spiritual atmosphere by asking the Holy Spirit to come over and take over because I am hungry, Father God, I just. Holy Spirit, Jesus says, I love you. I thank you, Lord, for this time. I thank you for giving me the grace to finish these episodes so I could get through the weekend, Lord, and just do the mom thing. Lord, we love you. We honor you, Lord. Just take over.
Edna Harding [00:04:10]:
Hey, I'm your vessel. Speak, Lord. We are listening. All right, so if your business feels heavy, if it's confusing, if it's constantly demanding more of you, it's not because God wants more. It's because something is out of order. Goodness gracious. If you're not experiencing the peace, if you're not experiencing the joy, there is something that is missing. Something is not in line.
Edna Harding [00:04:35]:
Because God is not an author of confusion, but he's an author of peace, according to First Corinthians 14:33. Okay, today we're not going to talk about productivity hacks, because I've been through a lot of those. We're not going to talk about that. We're going to talk about returning to God's design for your business so that you can breathe again. Okay? So I talk about this a lot with my clients. If you're not a client, you should be one, because we focus on this a lot. But it comes down to identity. Simplicity begins with identity.
Edna Harding [00:05:06]:
Who you are before what you build. Who are you? Okay, you don't simplify systems first. You simplify self definition first. The ones that I saw succeed were the ones who knew themselves outside of their business, like, who they are. This is why I do personality tests for my team. This is why I do personality for my clients. This is why I do this, because I want to know how you think. Okay? The scripture talks about in seek first the kingdom of God, Matthew 6:33.
Edna Harding [00:05:37]:
It didn't say seek the kingdom. I'm sorry, seek the income or seek the audience. He didn't say seek the expansion. He says, seek first the kingdom of God. And what happens is, many businesses are complicated because the founder is trying to prove something. The reason why. And this is why I always tell people, you can't have too many offers. You got to have two offers.
Edna Harding [00:05:59]:
And actually, I'm speaking to myself. I may need to get rid of some stuff here. Simplify your offer. Less is more, right? So when we focus on simplifying our offer, and thank you, Holy Spirit, when we try to say, okay, well, you know, like, that's like Jack of all trades, master of none, or something like that. Like, when you do too much is because you're trying to prove something to someone instead of, like, this is what I do. These are two things that I do. And so for me, specifically, the two areas he wants me to focus on for this year is my business. I'm looking at my chart here.
Edna Harding [00:06:29]:
Business unlimited program and my consulting. That's it. Where we do the work for them. All right? Business unlimited and consulting do the work for them. And in podcasts, that's it. That's what he wants me to focus on this year, to help me build what he's telling me to build. Okay? So when you're trying to prove something, we overcomplicate the process. So identity confusion creates operational clutter.
Edna Harding [00:06:53]:
Okay? If there's too many things going on, too many moving parts, things are out of order, it's because you're trying to prove something instead of knowing that you're already approved. When you know who you are, you stop chasing what's already assigned to you. Who did God tell you that you are before he told you what to build? So good. By the way, I forgot to mention it. Guys, I have an app. Edna harding. Go to ednahearting.com, download the app, and you're going to be able to interact with me on my app. Because in the app there is a section if you.
Edna Harding [00:07:26]:
I'm just gonna pull up Edna Harding. There is a button that's. Or something that says join Our community right here. If you could look, click, join our community and there's an entrepreneur one. So for this particular podcast, you could join it and you could chat with me and then we'll be able to talk and interact and I could get your questions. If there's any topics you guys want to learn about, you're going to put it in there and you could ask me anything. This is a way for me to engage with you. Also, if you're on my YouTube, you can also comment me below and just talk to me, talk to me, speak to me.
Edna Harding [00:08:01]:
Tell me what's going on in your life and tell me how I can help. And thank you guys for understanding. This is a season that I'm in. I look forward to going live in the future. Okay, back to what I said. Okay. Who were you before he told you what to build? Number two, alignment removes excess. Okay.
Edna Harding [00:08:17]:
God never called you to do everything. Okay. If you're doing everything, that is not God. Okay. God called you to do one thing. Well, okay, I love. What I love about the Lord is he tells me to focus on one thing, then he tells me to build another. He tells you to do another thing and then build the other.
Edna Harding [00:08:35]:
So we need, we as believers, we tend to, like, have multiple hands. Because, you know, there's a scripture that says, what is that called? Something about seven streams. Like, you don't cast your seeds everywhere because you don't know which one's going to sprout. It doesn't mean do it all at once. It just means do one and then do another one and do another one. That's how I believe. I believe God doesn't want you to do it all at once. He wants you to build one, fix that, go to the next one, build that one, next one.
Edna Harding [00:08:59]:
So that the reason why I'm saying this is because, for example, I have my trainings all, like, done. I have like, different service offer. The reason why I have so many offerings is because I perfected all the other ones already. The only thing that I haven't done yet in full transparency is the one where it's like a two, two to three day retreat with me and your. And your key leaders routine that I haven't done yet. But everything else I have done and, and I have a system and a program and a framework for that. Okay, so what am I saying? Why am I saying this? Because what happens is, for example, in Luke 10:42, it says, Mary has chosen the good portion. Mary Martha wasn't wrong.
Edna Harding [00:09:43]:
She was just distracted. So here's the deal. So there is. We have a choice to make. And we could pick the best choice or we could pick the choice that we think we're supposed to pick. Right. Because we're distracted, we're busy. We want to keep ourselves moving, moving, moving.
Edna Harding [00:10:00]:
Like when you do too much stuff, you're not able to produce quality stuff. Okay, so here's a teaching point that I want to make for you today. Over offering is often disobedience disguised as service. So when you're doing too many offerings, it's not. And speaking to entrepreneurs, because this is my, primarily my audience. When you're doing too many things. Oh, thank you, Holy Spirit. I like that.
Edna Harding [00:10:24]:
Okay, so funny thing is, the Holy Spirit just told me, it's like I could do one also for Esther's Oil Ministry. So for those of you guys who are not business people people, and you are like regular people, non business people, I'm going to do a series, teachings for Esther's Oil Ministries, which was the original ministry that I launched back in 2017. I know that I'm going off script here, but I am going to do some teachings, like biblical teachings, specifically for like healing or deliverance for wholeness, all that stuff separately. So if you guys are interested in that type of teaching, I want you to subscribe to my YouTube channel or. Yeah, subscribe to my YouTube channel because I'm going to do a separate series that's going to be on YouTube, not via podcast, because this podcast specifically for business folks. All right, back to what I said. So when you over offering is disobedience, disguise of service. Number two, complexity grows when you add what God didn't authorize.
Edna Harding [00:11:19]:
So it becomes complicated when you add a bunch of stuff that God never told you to do. All right, sorry about that. All right, so complexity grows when you add what God didn't authorize. So if you really want to know if you're aligned with God, you need to really sit down, look at your journals and put write down, what did God actually say? And so that's what I had to do last year. He gave me an instruction over the summer and I had to go back to like, what did he actually say? And for me, he told me he's calling me to intelligent people. He's calling me to the other side, meaning the non believers, unbelievers. I don't know how that's going to work, but he's going to calling me to that group. And I don't want to use the term, but that's what he Called I don't really mention it.
Edna Harding [00:11:59]:
Psycho is very. But other non church folks. So unbelievers and intelligent people. Okay, so those are the new audience that he told me he's going to send me to, aside from all the other areas. So that's the new audience that he's sending me to. So that's what he told me. And when an opportunity comes up, then I'm going to like go back to what God said and be like, okay, is this my audience? Okay, so does that make sense? So I want you to ask yourself, okay, what offers are bringing the most fruits right now? If you have like, for example, if you have like 10 offerings, pick just two, one or two, and focus on those. What is draining Grace right now? What is causing you headaches? What is causing you struggles? What is causing you something that's making you not.
Edna Harding [00:12:44]:
What do you call it? Happy? Okay. What is affecting you? Emotionally, physically, spiritually? What is affecting you? If it's affecting you in a negative way, remove it. What would still matter if everything else was removed? That's a good question that you could ask yourself. Remember that structures are meant to support peace, not steal it. So systems should serve obedience, not replace intimacy. Write the vision and make it plain. Habakkuk2.2. So this is what the Lord wants me to say.
Edna Harding [00:13:14]:
He wants me to say this. You gotta think with the end in mind. What is the goal that God has for you? Like, what does he want you to do? You build a system or a structure around it that's going to enable you to still spend time with him and still get the results he needs. Does that make sense? That's the best way for me to approach it. Okay. He is not anti structure. He's actually anti disorder. And what I love about being clear on what it is God wants you to do, especially this.
Edna Harding [00:13:44]:
This is. My clients are really doing this right now. And so I'm to pick three small, three things to focus on this quarter and just focus on that. Just focus on those things. Because when you have a plain vision, you're able to create systems, simple systems to support that vision. Okay? And. And so you need to have one clear offer. If you don't have.
Edna Harding [00:14:04]:
If you. If. Thank you, Holy Spirit. If you have not done this before, if you don't have a. If you have. If you're not in a savage business. There you go. You need to have one clear offer.
Edna Harding [00:14:13]:
You need to have one clear message. You need to have one clear sales path and one clear measure of success. Okay? One clear offer. One clear message, one clear sales path, and one clear measure of success. Start there. Keep it simple. Especially. I know.
Edna Harding [00:14:28]:
Thank you, Holy Spirit. There are many of you guys. Okay, this is why he's telling me. Just like, what is the problem is there are many of you guys who have multiple gifts and talents and you have multiple ideas, business ideas, multiple service, and you are talented. Yes, you could create seven streams of income, but God wants you to focus on just on one. Okay? Easy. Easy is what God wants. Jesus promised ease, not exhaustion.
Edna Harding [00:14:51]:
My yoke is easy and my burden is light. Matthew 11:30. And this is the misconception, okay? Easy doesn't mean lazy. Okay? So just because it's easy doesn't mean you don't do any work, doesn't mean gods can do it all for you. You still got to build the thing, okay? But it's not supposed to be stressful. It's supposed. Yeah, it's going to be hard work, but it's not supposed to cause you anxiety. It's not supposed to be burdensome.
Edna Harding [00:15:15]:
Okay? It should be hard work, but it's not difficult. You know, it's. It's hard, but it's not difficult. Okay? It's simple. Light doesn't mean small either, okay? Just because your burden is light doesn't mean it's small, okay? It means that you could have a heavy, a big thing. God could give you stewardship over a big thing, but it shouldn't feel heavy, it should feel light. Because you're yoked is easy. Because you're giving the outcome.
Edna Harding [00:15:46]:
You're giving the weight to the Holy Spirit. You're giving the weight to God. You're not carrying the burden on you. You're giving it all to God. God, these are all the things you want me to do. These are the things that I found that needs to happen in order for this to happen. You give it to God and be like, okay, what do we do with this? You know, like that. So if your business requires you to override your peace, it's not yoke to Christ.
Edna Harding [00:16:08]:
I'm gonna say that one more time. If your business requires you to override your peace, it's not yoked to Christ. So here's what I want you guys to do. I want you to ask yourself, what is it that you're carrying that the Holy Spirit never assigned? And I want you to have a real talk, real conversation with yourself. If you obeyed, what would that simplify? What would make things easy for you? Like, ever since I got the three priorities of the Lord for me for the next 90 days. And the three things he wants me to prioritize for business and my life. My life is so much more joyful and peaceful because I traded my yoke, my burdens that are heavy, and I gave it to him, and he traded it with me with something lighter and more doable and feasible. And I could actually enjoy my time with my family.
Edna Harding [00:16:52]:
I could actually enjoy my time with friends. I could actually have real, genuine time with the Lord where I'm not, like, rushing, okay? Like, no hustle and bustle. Like, I can actually enjoy taking care of myself and my body and my spirit and my mind. Like, it's just a beautiful thing. So if this episode starts something in you, don't rush to fix it, okay? I want you to sit with God first and rest. Rest in his love, rest in his faithful. I did that. Oh, my goodness, guys.
Edna Harding [00:17:22]:
I don't think I have it in front of me, but one of the things that I did was I. So every year I do a vision with the Lord, like, what his vision is for me. I'm sorry, guys. As you can see here, I shared this with my clients before. Like, I have different ones. They're mostly grown folks. And this year, this. I've been doing this for eight years, is.
Edna Harding [00:17:41]:
He told me to put a child, which is me as a. As a kid. So he was telling me to have childlike faith and to build like a child. Build knowing that I'm building. I'm doing my father's work, and the responsibility is off of me, but the responsibility is on him. And I believe that because I have that posture, things will start changing in dramatic way. And I pray that as the Holy Spirit confirms that with you, that that's what he wants you to do, that it will also happen for you. Well, I love you all.
Edna Harding [00:18:10]:
I hope this blessed you. And again, thank you for your time today, and I look forward to getting to know you over the next year. I know that if you're here, it's not a coincidence, not an accident. And I really want to hear what's on your heart, what's on your mind, what's bothering you? What's keeping you up? Please join my community, the free community, so you can interact with me real time so that I don't have to worry about the algorithm. That's why I created my app, because the thing about YouTube and all the other social media is you have to depend on algorithms to, like, get your content out there. If you're really, like, what you're doing. And you don't want to depend on the algorithms. Get my app.
Edna Harding [00:18:45]:
You'll get access to everything, all my free stuff, and also have paid stuff in there. But just a way for us to stay connected because you never know what's going to happen. Okay, Love you all. I pray that this bless you and I look forward to speaking with you guys soon. Take care. Bye Bye. Thanks for joining us this week on Estrepreneur. Make sure to visit our website, favorandwealth.com for more information on our services.
Edna Harding [00:19:11]:
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, 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.