In honor of my 29th birthday (which was July 4th, by the way), I’m sharing 29 lessons I have learned over the past five years of being a Christian in the entrepreneurial space.

Are you ready?

Lesson #1

Lesson number one is probably going to come as no surprise. If you have listened to this podcast for any amount of time, number one is that the only thing worth being obsessed over is Jesus. The reason why this is number one is that I remember when I was just a baby entrepreneur, I was taught that the only way to achieve my goals was to become obsessed with them. So I made my goals my top priority. And while it is very important to prioritize the intentions that you set, I took this too far and let myself become obsessed with success. In doing this, I was taking my eyes off of the only thing that would fill my cup, which is Jesus.

The thing is, we want to achieve certain goals so we can feel a certain way. Safe, seen, heard, loved, validated, secure, stable.

But in reality, once we achieve our goal, we always want more. It’s never enough. With Jesus, it is always enough. He is more than enough. If you want to hear more about this specific lesson, I would recommend going back to episode one of this show.

I share my whole story in that episode and this is part of my story, but I also recommend going back to episode 11, which is titled, “How to keep your eyes on Jesus while growing your faith-based business and stop worshiping success.” I highly recommend going to listen to those two,

Lesson #2

Lesson number two, entrepreneurship is neither a marathon nor a sprint because there is no destination. You may have goals in place that you want to achieve, but even when you achieve those goals, you’re going to set new ones. There’s never actually going to be a place where you feel like you’ve just arrived and you’re never going to do more unless you quit.

And I know you’re not a quitter. It’s so important to stop striving for this imaginary finish line that you’re making up in your head because you’re not enjoying the journey. It’s time to truly enjoy the adventure you’re on. After all, the destination does not exist.

You can apply this lesson to everything in your life, not just business. 

Lesson #3

Lesson number three is that chasing freedom doesn’t free us. Now, when I say “freedom,” I am referring to worldly “freedom.”

When you continuously chase freedom, you become a slave. This is exactly where hustle culture comes from. Because the truth is, my friend, that there is no such thing as true financial freedom or time freedom as the world shares it.

The reason I say this is because everything can disappear in an instant. You can lose everything in an instant. Have you not heard the stories? People can lose it all. You could lose it all. You will never truly be financially free or free of your time. The only way to have true freedom is with Jesus.

Freedom in Jesus means you do receive financial and time freedom, just not in the way that the world makes it out to be. I’m not talking about the prosperity gospel here. I mean that you are free from anything regarding finances because you are in Him.

It doesn’t matter what happens to your finances because your true freedom is found in Jesus. 

Lesson #4 

Moving right along to lesson number four, which is success doesn’t always equal revenue in the Lord’s eyes. Success doesn’t always equal revenue to God.

God cares about your soul and your spirit first. He cares about your money too, which we’ll discuss in a minute, but what I’m saying hee is that this might mean that your business does not look financially successful for a season. 

But your true success lies in the people, or souls, you are impacting. You may be impacting so many people right now with your business, even if it’s not profitable. Success does not always equal financial success in the Lord’s eyes. 

Lesson #5

Now lesson number five is to cultivate intimacy with the Lord more than you consume from others. I used to listen to podcasts, audiobooks, trainings, etc. all day long.

I believed that since “successful” people learn every day, I needed to learn every day. I believed that the more I consumed, like in terms of knowledge and business advice and business tips, the faster I would become successful.The problem was no one has the same opinion, so I had no idea what to do. This led to mental exhaustion and analysis paralysis.

After being completely exhausted with the way I was chasing success, I finally ran to Jesus. When I started making sure I was consuming God’s word and I was receiving from Him more than I was consuming from others, I felt way more peace, joy and goodness.

But also if you do not spend that time with the Lord, you will feel it.

Lesson #6

Lesson number six is to focus on the direction the Lord is calling you to go and not the results you want to achieve. This is a huge lesson. 

If you just focus on the one direction that the Lord is calling you to go, you’re not going to get so distracted with all of the other shiny objects and all of the other things that your flesh is wanting to do. 

Focus on the one direction the Lord is calling you to go, not the results you want to achieve. If you want to hear more about this specific lesson, I recommend going back and listening to episode 20 of this show, which is titled, “STOP doing this if you want to scale to 6 figures in your faith-based business (what to do instead).”

Lesson #7 

There is a difference between self-sabotage and spiritual warfare. 

We need to die to our flesh. Making decisions from our flesh is self-sabotage, and Scripture says we need to be self-disciplined with our flesh. Now, if you want to hear about self-sabotage, you have got to go back to episode two of this show.

Episode two is my most downloaded podcast episode by a landslide, and it’s titled, “5 reasons you might be self-sabotaging and how to biblically stop it.”

The Holy Spirit took over on episode two so go and give it a listen!

Self-sabotage has to do with your flesh, and the enemy is always trying to manipulate our flesh. That is a thing. And that’s part of spiritual warfare.

Your flesh is always going to want to feel comfortable and feel pleasure. 

But let’s chat spiritual warfare.

Spiritual warfare is so, very real. Even Christians battle spiritual oppression and can feel enslaved to it. When someone is dealing with spiritual warfare versus self-sabotage, it’s going to feel more like enslavement. Like there is nothing they can do to stop from doing this thing or this sin until they are delivered from that spirit. 

If you want to learn more about spiritual warfare and spiritual oppression, I highly recommend checking out the Bible teacher, Derek Prince. I personally highly recommend his book called They Shall Expel Demons. 

Lesson #8 

Moving on to lesson number eight, which is that a lack of clarity and confusion is either a lie from the enemy or a spirit. You can have a spirit of confusion or a lie from your flesh, trying to keep you comfortable.

I talk about this a lot in episode two of the show, the self-sabotage episode. Please go and check that out if you are dealing with a lack of clarity or confusion. 

Lesson #9

I learned this lesson from the same Bible teacher that I learned all about spiritual oppression and the book that I’m reading. His name is Derek Prince, but this lesson is to put on the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.

Now, this comes from Isaiah 61:3, and it says: 

“To console those who mourn in Zion,

To give them beauty for ashes,

The oil of joy for mourning,

The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;

That they may be called trees of righteousness,

The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”

I want to be perfectly transparent and vulnerable with you here. I have always tended to experience deep sadness throughout my life.

Even when my life has looked wonderful and good things are happening, I have always had this spirit of heaviness. And I always thought it was so silly when people would say, “You just need to look at Jesus and you need to pray more and you need to do XYZ…” I just felt sad and I wouldn’t understand why they wouldn’t just hear me and understand me. But this verse truly changed my life.

When thinking about putting on the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, it is biblical that when you are praising the Lord, when you are proclaiming His name, and when you are singing to Him out loud… that is the remedy for the spirit of heaviness. When you are praising him, there is no room for the spirit of heaviness anymore.

I recommend trying it. Just give the Lord your undivided attention and praise. That doesn’t mean that life isn’t hard, that things don’t happen and that you can’t be sad.

You can be sad, but this is dedicated to someone who is experiencing this overwhelming spirit of heaviness. I still struggle to this day with having this heaviness over my life. Does that mean I don’t have to keep fighting it?

Yes, I do. And I challenge you to do the same. Keep fighting by praising His name.

Lesson #10

Lesson number 10 is that spending time with the Lord is the most productive thing you can do. So many people, myself included, are prone to take the time with God off of their calendar and replace it with actions dedicated to helping them achieve a “goal.” 

Logically, you may think it is the most productive thing but it’s not.

When you are spending time with the Lord,you are going to be able to produce so much more good fruit than you would if you didn’t. Now also, what’s amazing about spending time with the Lord is that you wind up being more creative.

You wind up having more inspiration. You have more energy. You’re not as tired. You’re more joyful, and be more at peace. Friend, spending time with the Lord is the most productive thing you can do.

Also, I highly recommend reading a chapter of Scripture out loud, singing a worship song and praying before you start working too. You’ll be amazed by how that sets the tone for your day in a Holy way.

Lesson #11

Lesson number 11 is that surrendering doesn’t always equal stopping.

God will call you to stop. Sometimes He will call you to be still. God wants us to be in a constant state of surrender and rest. Surrendering doesn’t always look like just giving up. It looks like surrendering the results to him because the thing is, God knows you need to work.

He made us work. He made us live in this world. He knows what you need to do. And he also knows what you need. Trust him, take faithful action and surrender the results to Him. Rest in Him at all times. 

Lesson #12

This lesson leads me to lesson number 12. This lesson is that discipline brings freedom.

I used to hate the word discipline. That was just a yucky word to me. I did not like it. I wanted freedom in my schedule. That’s why I became an entrepreneur. But the truth is that discipline brings freedom. But not just discipline in your time and your work, but also discipline and resting with the Lord.

People often talk about discipline in terms of work and productivity, but what about your discipline around your rest? What about that? The Lord is calling us to be still and is calling us to build intimacy with Him. He’s not going to knock down your door. The Holy Spirit is a gentleman. You have to be disciplined and spend time with Him.

That is going to give you the freedom with Jesus. If you are spending time with Him and are disciplined with your work, you will actually build that “freedom” in your business.

He wants us to have self-discipline, to not lie, to not steal, to not kill etc. Discipline gives you freedom. And when you don’t have discipline, you don’t have freedom.

This lesson leads us to lesson number 13. 

Lesson #13

Boundaries are incredibly important. We set boundaries so we can say yes when God calls us to move. If we are disciplined with setting boundaries, we are going to be able to say yes to God more.

Set boundaries in your life not so you can do more things in your life that you want, but so you can do more things that the Lord wants.

Lesson #14

Let’s talk about lesson number 14, which is that your career is not your purpose.

Just like your kids or spouse aren’t your purpose. Your purpose is to know God and make Him known. And your calling is how you live out your purpose. Your career and your business could be your calling. It could be the way you are living out your purpose, which is to know God and to make Him known.

And if you are not living out your purpose with your calling right now, I would spend some time in prayer and read God’s Word to hear from Him on this. 

Lesson #15

Lesson number 15 is that consistency compounds. Now, this lesson actually came from a book called The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy. 

The one-sentence synopsis of this book is that the compound effect is the strategy of reaping huge rewards, from small seemingly insignificant actions.

Essentially… stay consistent and keep doing the thing. The success will compound over time. Now, when I say compound, I mean, it will multiply, over time.

It’s almost like a bank account or a high-yield savings account compounding. Essentially, the interest will keep growing. And so the bank account is going to keep growing over time. It’s the same way with your actions and this actually applies to all things, your business ventures, your relationship with Jesus, prayer, your health journey… all the things.

Lesson #16

Lesson number 16 is that you don’t always have to have a major breakthrough when you read the Bible. Now, this was a really big lesson for me, because I always wanted to just have this huge revelation every single time I opened my Bible, but that just wasn’t the case.

This always felt really disappointing, but I had a revelation.

I actually went to a conference, and there was a speaker at this conference (I wish I could remember her name), who mentioned that reading the Bible is basically like you are planting a seed in a woman’s womb.

Now. hear me out on this. Essentially, when a baby is implanted in your womb, it takes nine months to actually grow and birth a baby.

Reading the Bible and getting to know the Lord can be like this.

Sometimes when you read, it is just planting a seed and you are learning and you are growing. And then one day you are going to have this huge revelation.

This goes back to compounding… the compound effect.

Just remember every single time you go and read the Word, you are incubating a seed. But the longer you go without reading the word and the longer you go without incubation, this seed is dying.

You have to incubate and you have to take care of that seed, so it can birth something so beautiful.

Lesson #17

Lesson number 17 is that you don’t need all the bells and whistles to run a financially successful business, sister.

You do not have to have a fancy website, a fancy email funnel, be on multiple platforms, or have all the offers. You don’t have to do it all. Focus on one thing.

I want to mention episode 21 one more time because I go into detail on this topic in that episode, so please check out episode 21 after this episode if you haven’t yet.

Because like I said, you really want to hammer down your focus. Otherwise, your attention is going to be split and you’re going to get mentally exhausted like I have in the past and I do not want that for you. 

Lesson #18

This of course leads us to lesson number 18, which is that working from a place of overflow is way more fruitful than working from a place of overwhelm.

Now, if you have not tuned in to episode 13, I highly recommend checking that episode out because I talk about working from a place of overwhelm versus overflow.

But essentially, you want to be working from a place of overflow, like an outpouring of the Holy Spirit versus a place of being overwhelmed by all of the things that you and your flesh want.

Lesson #19

Lesson number 19 is to outsource as soon as you can, but there’s a catch. Outsource the right thing at the right time to the right person. This catch is not something I took into major consideration when I was a newer entrepreneur who just had her first $10k month.

I knew I needed to start outsourcing because that’s what people tell you to do. But I was basically in this big hurry to outsource, and I didn’t really have my ducks in a row. When I did outsource, it just felt like a disaster. I felt way more overwhelmed bringing someone into my business than without that person previously.

That just means I did not have the appropriate systems in place to help them be successful. Now they were great, don’t get me wrong, I was just not in the best place to outsource. I still didn’t truly know what I was doing in terms of outsourcing. So, now, I am very mindful when I bring someone into my business, how I bring them into my business, and what they will be focusing on.

Outsourcing doesn’t always have to look like outsourcing stuff in your business. It can look like hiring a nanny. It can look like hiring someone to clean your house, so you don’t have to do those things and focus more on your business. You just have to know what is going to be best for you in your situation.

Lesson #20

Lesson number 20 is to find a business mentor who aligns with your values as soon as you can, and hire them.

I say, “as soon as you can,” because I know some people just aren’t there yet. But please do it as soon as you can, because it will be like a night and day difference. I know you probably believe that you already know what to do and you’re just not doing it, or that you can do it all yourself.

And you totally can go that route.

But girlfriend. You will fast-track your results if you stop duct-taping your business together and actually hire someone who is doing what you want to do. It will speed up your results. And with that, you can actually build a relationship between you and that person, and they can actually lift you up. They can bring you back to Jesus, friend.

When you are feeling down, when you are feeling discouraged, they can speak truth over your life and speak truth into you. That is why it is so important to find a business mentor who you align with in values, but also do it as soon as you can. So you don’t have to stay feeling like,

• “Oh my goodness, I’m just doing all these things.”

• “I feel like I know what to do, but I’m not doing them.”
• “I just don’t know what to do at all.”
• “I feel stuck.”
  

I don’t want that for you. So, please find a business mentor and hire them as soon as you can.

Lesson #21

Now, lesson 21 goes hand in hand with this, and that is to communicate as much as possible with your mentor because your mentor cannot read your mind.

You have to share. I have looked back at all of the investments that I made and the ones where I communicated and contributed more were the investments that I received more from. That is because your mentor cannot read your mind.

Now, if you’re in a group program, please utilize the group as much as possible, because you will receive more from it. Please utilize it and utilize the resources your mentor is giving you. They are there for a reason. 

Lesson #22

Now, lesson 22 is going to be a juicy one. And one of those ones where I’m probably going to have to make a separate podcast episode for it, because it’s such a hot topic.

But this lesson is that the act of making money, and even large sums of money, is not sinful.

As I said, a hot topic. I’m going to have to make a podcast episode on this one, but I want to cover just a couple of things really quickly before we go into the next lesson.

So first and foremost, 1 Timothy 6:10 says, “for the love of money is the root of all evil.”

The love of money. It’s not saying money. It is saying the love of money is the root of all evil. 

But I want to go a little bit deeper into this with you as well.

What I’m about to share with you, I also heard from Derek Prince. Can you tell I really like listening to him and reading his books?!

He’s phenomenal, but I want to share with you something that I learned from him that was pivotal for me. 

We’re gonna go to Matthew 6:24 in the Bible. The King James Version says,

“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

Now newer translations will say, “you cannot serve both God and money”, but the King James Version says you cannot serve both God and mammon. But what is mammon? The meaning of the word mammon is actually more than money, and I’ve learned that mammon is an evil power that essentially grips us and can enslave people through money.

It’s not actually money itself. It’s a spiritual power that works through people and their attitude towards money.

So if we look at 1 Timothy 6:10 again, it says, “for the love of money is the root of all evil.”

Doesn’t that remind you of mammon because mammon wants to control you via money?

But then Matthew 6:24 says you cannot serve both God and mammon. You have to love one and hate the other. Well, here’s the thing. Yes, you have to love one and truly despise the other, but it’s not despising money. It’s despising the satanic force. It’s despising that evil spirit. And there is no neutrality, right?

We’re not going to love this evil spirit that wants us to stray from God, and actually idolize money. That’s the difference.

This was incredibly powerful and eye-opening for me.

There is a lot more to share in terms of money and abundance when it comes to the Bible and being a Christian entrepreneur, but I just wanted to give you that nugget to hold you off until I actually sit down and create an episode, or maybe even a masterclass, over this particular topic. 

Lesson #23

Lesson number 23 is that your goal and your focus should not be one and the same, because the truth is that when our goals become our focus, Jesus does not.

Let that sink in a second.

When our goals become our focus, Jesus is not.

I think I made my point here. 

Lesson #24

Lesson number 24 is that repentance isn’t condemnation, it’s your path to freedom.

I know that repentance used to always feel really icky to me, but the truth is that it’s actually your path to freedom.

In fact, you cannot be delivered from spirits unless you repent.

Jesus also says, “Repent and believe in the gospel because the kingdom of God is at hand,” which comes from Mark 1:15.

To fully embrace the gospel and believe in the gospel, repentance is crucial.

I used to think repentance was bad. And if you had to repent, you were just not a good person, but that’s just not the case.

Repentance is something we all have to do probably every day, many times a day. 

I am human and I make mistakes and I’m not perfect, but I’m striving to be more like Jesus and I pray that you are too. And with that, comes repentance.

Lesson #25

Money or yourself can easily become your idol. I do believe I was idolizing myself for a while, and that was a really hard pill to swallow and something that I had to repent of. 

I was idolizing myself, and I would idolize the goals and success that was happening (or not happening) in my business. I wanted to feel satisfied. I wanted to receive recognition and validation that I can do this thing. And that is idolizing myself.

I had to repent of that. 

Lesson #26

Lesson number 26 is that the way you view and treat money is probably how you view and treat God. This goes back to your attachment style. I believe my attachment style is fearful-avoidant.

There are four different attachment styles. They are secure, anxious, avoidant, and fearful-avoidant. Determining your attachment style with money does go back to basics of how you operate based on your past and your past experiences. When I did this, I recognized I was fearful-avoidant because I avoided looking at my bank account and I was just fearful that the money was going to disappear just from it. 

This stemmed from experiences I saw when I was growing up that I just never wanted to happen to me. I have also realized that even if I make money, I’m afraid that that money is just going to disappear. In relation to that, I noticed that I subconsciously believed that God might disappear. 

I deep down thought He might run away from me, but that’s not true. I noticed I thought the same thing about the relationships I was in. I would try to avoid conflict and also think that the relationship would just disappear. 

With food, I ended up developing a binge eating disorder when I was in college. I experienced a lot of dieting growing up, and I restricted myself for a long time. I started subconsciously believing that “good tasting food” was going to run out, or I would never be able to taste it again.

Essentially, understanding how you view and you treat money can actually help you understand how you view and treat God, other people, food, and other areas of your life. With knowing what this is for you, you can repent of it. You can cast away any spirits that are keeping that from happening and start living in the freedom that you were always called to.

Lesson #27

Lesson number 27 is to tune into your strengths and spiritual gifts and then hone in on them. For example, I have learned that teaching is actually a spiritual gift of mine and a strength of mine is writing. Now, I’ve also been told that podcasting and speaking are strengths of mine as well (even though this is very new for me).

That said, I am in a huge season of honing in on these gifts. I want to tune in to the spiritual gift I have of teaching, but also I have a spiritual gift of prophecy. When I say prophecy, I’m not talking about telling the future. That’s not necessarily prophecying.

Prophesying is speaking life. Speaking the wisdom and words of God into other humans. And so I’m working on honing in on my gifts and these strengths, especially more in my business. That means I will be releasing more podcast episodes soon, because this is really where I want to spend more of my time because I know that what I’m doing here is a strength and a spiritual gift of mine.

Lesson #28

Lesson number 28 is a really good one. There is no such thing as competition and saturation, especially if your niche involves faith in any aspect.

Why is this?

I’m going to paint a picture for you.

If I come across another faith-based business coach sharing about the same topics as I do, am I going to be upset? Am I going to view her as competition?

Absolutely not.

The reason I don’t see her as competition is because if I truly want this message to spread, I will be happy and excited that there are other people on the same mission as I am. I will be cheering her on. I will not view her as competition or feel like the niche is saturated because she is spreading the same mission and message as I am.

And I want as many people to spread that message as possible. So, stop comparing yourself and follow the mission. I promised you that Holy Spirit is going to bring you people that you are meant to serve, just like Holy Spirit is going to bring them the people they are meant to serve. 

Lesson #29

Last, but not least is lesson number 29. Work on being content and joyous, no matter the circumstance or where you’re at in your business. Now, this is a lesson I learned a couple of years ago, but it’s come up again recently.

I woke up with an overwhelming feeling of knowing that I just needed to repent for being discontent.

I knew God was calling me to spend even more time praising and worshiping him. 

Honestly, I had no idea that I was feeling discontent and that’s how I knew it was Holy Spirit sharing that with me.

I’m realizing that when you really open up to Him, He is going to share with you what you need to repent of or spirits you need to actually expel.

How I started becoming discontent is that I was noticing there was this really big gap between where this business is supposed to go versus where we are now. And that felt kind of discouraging, and I was starting to feel a little uncomfortable in where I was in my business and it has been a minute since I’ve experienced that. 

It was the next day when I felt that overwhelming feeling that I had to repent for being discontent and when I did, I immediately felt so much better. I felt so much clarity and realized what I was doing.

There are multiple ways to learn these lessons, right?

Like a few years ago, I learned about not being obsessed with success. And I learned not to put all my focus on these goals. The Lord has to peel back our layers and that’s part of the sanctification process.

I am just right here with you, girlfriend because we are all human and we are all being sanctified even further to be more like Jesus.

Next Steps

Phew, that was a long one! But a good one, right?!

That said, I would LOVE to know which one of these lessons inspired you the most. Drop a comment below and let me know or share this podcast on your stories and tag me over on Instagram. I truly would love to know!

By the way…

If you know the Lord is leading you to a business mentor, let’s chat, sister friend! I’d love to get to know you, your vision, and your business. Take a look at different ways we could work together HERE.

Until next time!

xo

Hannah