Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
The Estherpreneur Podcast is for faith-driven founders and Kingdom leaders who know they are called to build but refuse to do it disconnected from God.
Hosted by Edna Harding, Christ-Centered Business Architect and CEO of Favor & Wealth, this podcast is where biblical wisdom meets business strategy, leadership, wealth, identity, and spiritual alignment.
Here, we talk about what it really takes to build what God assigned to your hands: obedience, clarity, sales, stewardship, emotional maturity, spiritual warfare, and the courage to come out of striving.
Each episode will help you discern what is misaligned, strengthen who you are becoming, and build with excellence, favor, and wisdom.
Because you are not just growing a business.
You are stewarding an assignment.
And the leader God is forming in you matters just as much as what He is building through you.
Visit FavorandWealth.com and EsthersOil.org.
Edna Harding [00:00:03]:
Welcome to Estherpreneur, 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 Ask the Preneur podcast. My name is Edna Harding, and I'm nothing but a messenger of hope, life, and truth. And today's episode, I'm going to talk about how I structure my weeks as a business-to-business kingdom business strategist, um, with big vision as well as deep faith. And so today we're gonna give you, um, a kind of like a how-to, how to do it, um, episode. I'm hoping that God will give me the words to speak so I can explain it clearly. And shameless plug, I'm going to be sharing with you a resource that I developed for each and every one of you that I think will help you based on my journey as I've been building this ark that God told me to build. And so, so today, like I said, we're going to do something different. Instead of teaching a principle, I want to show you how I actually structure my weeks, and especially being a busy mom and just a leader of multiple organizations, and most importantly, strengthen my faith while I'm at it.
Edna Harding [00:02:06]:
Because one thing I've learned is that big vision without structure, that creates anxiety and stress. Okay, life is already stressful as it is. Let alone just being a mom or whatever. But imagine carrying this big vision in your heart and building this thing. And most importantly, as you're building this thing and you're having all these distractions and challenges that may come, you need to also work out your faith at the same time. And so that's what I want us to focus on, which is faith and focus, right? Faith and focus, right? Faith and focus. So Um, a lot of times what people think, when God gives you the vision, he makes it happen. But in reality, we have to steward that vision through order, um, because order is spiritual, okay? And so, you know, I always say, if you— you know, so funny, when they did that ChatGPT thing, um, uh, you know how they, um My brain's going blank.
Edna Harding [00:03:11]:
You know how they picked the caricature, is that how you say it? Caricature cartoon person, and they tell you what they know about you. Mine said, well, it had a picture of me, obviously, in my headset and doing the podcast and as well as working with clients, but it said identity. Identity, structure, and results. I think that's what it was for my client growth engine. And so I always focus on identity first. Okay. And so before I talk about scheduling, I want to talk about identity and what that means for you as you plan your schedule for maybe for the month, right? Or for the week. So one of the things that I do do is I do not structure my week as someone trying to survive it.
Edna Harding [00:04:08]:
Okay. So I structure my week based on stewarding the vision God gave me on what the end goal is. So I have a black frame. I wish I could show it to you, but it's a black frame that has something. This is what I did back in 2013, I believe, and 2013, I'm pretty sure it's 2013, and I still hold on to that. And that's the big vision. So as I'm building my schedule, I have that in the back of my mind. Okay, I also structure my week focusing on my clients, right? So my clients, the ones that are paying me, are my priority first, right? My clients who are paying me.
Edna Harding [00:04:48]:
Then of course I have my clients who are not paying me that I still consider clients because I support, and you guys are podcast listeners or you guys are members of my different groups, free groups. So I consider you still clients, internal and external clients, all right? I also structure my week based on my influence. I pay attention to where the fruit is. I pay attention where am I gaining the most traction, right? Or where am I seeing engagement? And for me specifically, that's my podcast, that's my LinkedIn, that's my newsletter, and maybe some TikTok, right? Obviously my family is one thing and obviously my clients, right? My Business Unlimited members. So I ensure that I focus on activities that cater to the area of influence I have. Obviously, revenue is the next thing, but you could see it wasn't the top of my list. Okay, it's fourth on my list. Energy, which actually brings me joy and doesn't drain my energy but adds to me.
Edna Harding [00:05:52]:
And most importantly, my health of my soul. So this week, although I already had activities planned for this week, I focus on my soul. First, the condition of my soul, right? Because I think I told you guys last time that I've been struggling with my emotions because something like triggered from experiences in the past, like things happen and triggered, and I had to take care of my soul first. But soul work always comes before business work. Does that make sense? Because soul work, the heart work, is the hard work. And without focusing on that, your business efforts won't produce fruit. Let me just say it plain as day, it will not. Okay? It's a Band-Aid.
Edna Harding [00:06:36]:
So you might as well deal with the soul and then deal with the rest afterwards. All right? So I don't let urgency lead me. I let the spirit's assignment lead me. And that's how I plan my week. Okay? That's how I start my week, right? Is I focus on those areas and I was like, okay, now let me build this thing. All right, so the foundation of it is most people build their week around meetings. I build mine based on what God told me to do, alignment, right? His particular season. And so for me, he told me to focus on Business Unlimited.
Edna Harding [00:07:13]:
I'm looking at my board here. I can't really see it on my glasses, my podcast, my consulting. And then for life, it's— what does that say? Oh my gosh, you can't see. Body, and joy and fun. So when I'm looking at my schedule, I need to make sure that those activities are lined up with what he told me, right? So before anything goes on my calendar, I ask, well, what is the highest leverage outcome this week? What moves the vision forward? What requires my thinking, not just my time, right? So for example, my podcast, I, I noticed that when I'm tired and I can't think and I'm stressed, I don't produce good podcast episodes. And the ones when I'm actually rested and well thought out and not in a hurry, the episodes typically is way better. At least I hope so. Right.
Edna Harding [00:08:12]:
But anything that involves me thinking, I put my efforts on that more than those that just require my time, because only Edna can do the thinking, not ChatGPT, not all those other platforms that you have for AI. Edna can do the thinking because I have the mind of Christ. And so that's what I build my week around, not meetings, but based on what exactly is the most important activity that I need to focus on that's going to produce the biggest return. All right. All right. So then let's talk about the weekly structure. Okay, so I always spend time every week where I focus on vision, right? This is a non-negotiable. I tend to look at the strategies I offer, the offers I offer, like how I position myself in the market.
Edna Harding [00:09:14]:
And also big picture decisions. Okay, because if I don't lead the vision, I will end up managing things that are not important, right? Things that are like barking at me. It's like the little chihuahua barking. That's what I end up managing. And so I have to write the vision and make it plain. And that's why I'm glad I have a whiteboard in front of me because it reminds me what my focus on is for the quarter, right? To keep me on track. Does that make sense? Or I guess I'm stretching my back because my back is a little sore right now. Okay, so then what I do is I batch my high-level client calls.
Edna Harding [00:09:52]:
So I tend to not scatter them across the week. Normally I have my high-level client calls on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. That's it. Fridays, it's more fun for me. So that's where I have a business owner mini group, even though I do strategy there, it's fun for me. I enjoy it, right? Because I'm teaching them things that I've already done, right? Versus creating something completely new with my current client, with my high ticket clients, right? Okay, so what I love about that, when you batch the, like the ones that require high level thinking on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, because let's face it, right? The latter part of the week, you're tired. Fridays, I'm like, I just want to go a half day, I want to relax and rest. Even though kind of now I can relax and rest any single day, but I tended to focus my high thinking, the like the best Edna on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, right? Which makes it, which is kind of crazy that that's the time when I get attacked mentally and emotionally.
Edna Harding [00:10:54]:
So I think I just caught on to what the devil did, but that's okay. God is good. Okay, so what I love about this is that As a strategist, if I know that I'm going to do the deep thinking work Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I prepare myself for those days. I ensure that the night before I get a good night's rest. I ensure that I don't have anything too strenuous in those days because I want to be as relaxed as possible so I could add value through my consulting. Does that make sense, guys? I hope I'm making sense. So I guard my cognitive energy basically, right? Because when I show up for clients during that time, I show up present, not rushed, and I can truly add high value, right? And then I always review my systems. Okay, so I look at metrics, I look at cash flow, I look at pipeline, I look at performance based on like social media campaigns.
Edna Harding [00:11:58]:
I use Marquee, Marquee.ai, and I also use the LinkedIn I really just have two. I don't really honestly care about performance on like Instagram or Facebook. Like I just want to see like what is resonating with my audience on LinkedIn. And that's where I create my podcast episodes on. Does that make sense? Because one thing I know is that faith does not replace oversight, right? You have to look at all the things that you're doing and measure it and seeing if it's working or it's not working. Luke 14:28 says, which of you desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost, because counting is biblical. And if you don't count, if you don't keep track of what's working, what's not, are you really stewarding it well? I don't know who said this, but I know this morning I was listening to— I don't know if it was listening or I read something on the Elijah List. I'm sorry, guys, where it said that God is looking for stewards this season.
Edna Harding [00:13:05]:
It's not about activity and who's the busiest or who is the most sacrifice. It's the one who could steward the little well. And so that's what my focus on. My focus has been since the beginning of this year and towards the latter of last year is stewardship. All right, all right. And then as someone with big vision, we also need to think in public, right? And so I also make time to batch my content, right? And thought leadership articles. So believe it or not, my friends, I've already had my content for all of 2026. It's February 12th right now.
Edna Harding [00:13:51]:
Everything, all my blogs, all my social media posts for both my Estrepreneur podcast as well as my LinkedIn personal profile. That is already done. So what I do now on a weekly basis, I focus more on like video teachings, like short reels or my podcast, which like I said, my goal is these podcast episodes will be recorded for 2026 as of March, that I'll be done with all episodes for the rest of the year. And I do this so that I could rest this year because I truly believe God wants me to rest this year. In order for me to rest, I have to have those systems in place so that I can rest. Okay. I think what people mess up is they rest, but they didn't build anything. So why are you going to rest if you haven't built anything? Which is why for me, I was like, build something first, then rest.
Edna Harding [00:14:43]:
Don't rest before you build anything. Okay. And just my thought, but to one its own or to whoever, like whatever floats your boat, that's what you do. Okay. For me, The reason why I can rest peacefully is because I know I've built the thing. All right, does that make sense? Because when you have clarity, it compounds influence. And then it just keeps me responsible, right? I'm accountable. I can honestly say like, if I wanted to take 2 months off this year to go do whatever, I can because everything's already in place and my admin can just deal with that.
Edna Harding [00:15:18]:
And I could have like, I don't know, phone calls with my clients on a weekly basis, right? Does this make sense? I hope this is making sense. All right, and then the fifth thing is faith, right? We talk about faith, how important that is to me every week, every day, every minute, every— pretty much every second, because deep faith requires depth with God, not leftover time. So every morning I make it a point that that's my priority, you know, scripture meditation, prayer, silence, journaling, reading God's word, praying in the spirit a lot, and doing prayer calls with intercessors, like talking with God throughout the day, just involving him in every aspect of my life spiritually. That's really helped me build the schedule that honors God and honors my faith and honors you know, output like fruits, right? Because what I love about God is if you put him first, and scripture says as you put him first, everything else will fall into place. I can honestly say that even though it's been challenging this past few weeks, especially since the beginning of January 2026, was rough, not so much externally, but internally. Mine was more emotional attacks because of things that happened in the past. There may be some external things too that happened that brought up the past, but the point of the matter is it's great. It's great.
Edna Harding [00:16:55]:
It's been a great year so far because I can rest, I can focus on my soul because the systems have been built. So if you don't have systems built and you want systems to be built,, I highly suggest you join my group, Business Unlimited. Okay, go to favenwealth.com, look at group growth mentorship, and you'll see that over there. Okay, now I want to talk. So those are the things I do do, but I want to talk about things I don't do. Okay, the number one, I don't overbook. Like, I can tell you, I have friends who have like meetings galore, like back-to-back meeting all week long and having like I don't know, 5 networking events, evenings, Saturdays. Yeah, that's not me.
Edna Harding [00:17:39]:
I don't overbook. I value my me time and my family time and my God time. Okay. I say yes to scattered meetings. Meetings. I want my meetings not to be back to back. I want breathing room. Okay.
Edna Harding [00:17:57]:
Because I want to be effective. If I'm doing deep thinking back to back to back and I don't give myself space to think it out, you're not going to get the best of me. You're going to get the scattered me. Okay, you want the full brain Edna, right? And one of the things also is I don't allow my calendar to reflect other people's anxiety. So if people are stressed out and they want to meet, like, for example, if it's not important, it can wait. Does that make sense? Like, if it's not a priority, it can wait. Yeah, can I probably hop on a call with you and get to know you a little bit? Like, I remember I had one guy reach out, wanting to hop on a call with me. And I didn't, like, rush and like, oh, let me go get you in my calendar.
Edna Harding [00:18:48]:
I sent the calendar, and it spread out, right? Versus like bending over backwards, like, okay, well, you know, I can meet today or tomorrow. Like, I I have that breathing room, right? I have that breathing room because I'm relaxed, because I have God's peace and God's rest. Okay, so every yes has a maintenance cost, and I refuse to build weeks where I must recover them. All right, so if you look at all the things that I just mentioned up, you know, earlier, I protect mental death, I protect emotional steadiness. I protect physical margin because exhaustion is the worst thing that you could do as a business owner or as a strategist because it distorts discernment. Jesus withdrew often, and I wish I could withdraw often, which actually I can, but early in the morning. But obviously I'm a mom, so I can't really withdraw from the kids. But during my time when the kids are in school? Yes, I can.
Edna Harding [00:19:55]:
Okay, Jesus withdrew often, and not because he was weak, but because he understood that he needed to be replenished. I remember I told DJ, my husband, the other day, I was like, I feel like my cup is empty and I need God to fill me up so I could pour into people again. Then he said, take a break. I was like, Yeah, as simple as that. Like, I should have just done that, just take a break. And that's what I did, and that's what I'm still doing, in fact, because it's been— it's— I'm so— I'm exhausted, right? I'm exhausted more emotionally, not physically, but emotionally. All right, because big vision requires sustained responsibility and clarity, right? Okay, all right, so, um, now let's talk about what I want you guys to ask yourself this week. I want you to ask yourself what produced fruit this week? What activity produced fruit? Like, measure the fruit, right? What drained unnecessarily? What caused you anxiety and just made you exhausted and tired? I know for me, certain conversations I cannot have because it drained me.
Edna Harding [00:21:08]:
Okay. Third is what needs restructuring? What needs to be fixed? Okay, where did I feel grace? Where did I feel God's presence and God's joy in? So for me, I always feel God's grace in podcast episodes. Like, no matter how tired I am, it's like God gives me the grace to record these things, right? Where did I feel friction? Well, I can tell you for me, it was from LinkedIn, like engaging on LinkedIn. I was like, oh my gosh, my fingers are tired, my back is just draining me. And so I have to limit that. Because the thing of my friend, one thing I love about God is grace leaves hints, right? And what the hint is, peace. And yeah, friction, it exposes misalignment. If you're feeling tense and anxious and fearful, there's something off, and all you have to do is adjust accordingly.
Edna Harding [00:22:00]:
So follow God's grace and pay attention to friction., and you'll be all set. All right, so again, if you carry big vision and you can't afford casual weeks, um, focus on structure. It's not restriction, it's actually protection, because it protects your calling, protects your capacity, protects your clarity and your peace. And peace to me is the most expensive thing to lose. Okay, so you structure your week so that you could have peace throughout the week. All right. Okay. Now I mentioned you guys, I had a resource which is Flourish Daily.
Edna Harding [00:22:45]:
So this is a spirit-led journal planner for purposeful women in every season, and it's found on Amazon. So look at Flourish Daily, made by Edna Lynn Harding. If I remember, I'll tell my assistant to click to put the link below in the description. But I love it because I go in more in depth, okay? Like, it's everything from actual, like, journal planning to, like, journal entries, right? I'm sorry, journal planning, like, self-care checklist, journal pages, nutrition, thoughts and feelings. Like, it just asks you, like, questions, deep thinking questions. And helps you plan your week according to God's standards, based on the vision God gave you. All right, well, my friends, I hope this blessed you, help this encourage you. Honestly, I think I'm going to take a nap because now I'm feeling a little sleepy.
Edna Harding [00:23:42]:
All right, love you all. Have a wonderful day, and I'll talk to you guys next time. 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. 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 7 of my secrets on how to win and grow business the right way.
Edna Harding [00:24:19]:
Until next time, keep shining!