03.Finding Identity in Christ, Not Your Business

Welcome to Seeking Overstriving. Do you constantly think about how to make more money? Are you uncontent and always searching for more? Do you know you need to slow down and see God in your business, but don't? Hey, I'm Beth, and I too was a Christian entrepreneur trapped in the cycle of boss babe culture. Like you, I felt the pressure of six figures, lived on social media, and hit burnout. I told myself there was no way to have a successful business without idolizing wealth and constant hustle, and then God showed me the truth. I needed to leave behind the way I'd been doing things and just follow him. In this podcast, you will learn how to build your faith, see God in your business, and renew your mindset. So dust off that Bible girl and let's dive in.

Hey, did you know that I have a private Facebook group for women just like you? Burnt out Christian entrepreneurs who want to find peace and fully trust in God's provision instead of striving their way to success. I know how hard this is and I wanted to create a community of women who knew just how you feel. So join my private Facebook group, Making Money With God at bit.ly/makingmoneywithgod.com. And I will see you there.

I feel like as an entrepreneur, your identity is such an easy thing to get hijacked. We are so wrapped up in what we're doing, our business, how to make it profitable, successful, fruitful. You know, we're going to always try to work with excellence and integrity and all the things. But as an entrepreneur, I feel like losing our identity in our work is such a pitfall. It's definitely something that's happened to me. And it's something that I really never thought of until probably about the last year or so. And I had to take a really good look at where my identity lied. And if anyone would have asked me, I would have been like, of course, my identity is in Christ. I mean, of course, I'm a woman of God. And that's the most important thing. But that wasn't like reflected in my life at all.

Identity in Christ is what we really should be rooted in all the time. And we can easily get hijacked into thinking that we are just rooted in our business. Identity in Christ is really who we are, what we're about, what our fruits are, the fruitfulness of our lives that flow through our business, too, and who we really believe that we are. And I think when we are really riding on the success of our business as being part of our identity, that can be really volatile. And that's where we just really get into that self-sovereign space too, like I talked about in the last episode.

When I started my business 20 years ago, I really was like the, there was myself and a couple other estheticians. Aesthetics was a really small piece. You know, there were tons of hairdressers and massage therapists, but there weren't a lot of estheticians in the town that I was in. There were like three of us. And then it grew maybe a little bit. There was a couple other people that filtered into the town. And then I worked at like a day spa and it was kind of like, Like it was really the only day spa in town and it, you know, had a really good reputation and we were really successful and popular there and all the things and it was great. And even after that kind of fizzled out and we all moved into different directions, my business stayed very successful and popular and I had a good reputation. And there again were some more estheticians that had filtered into town, but it wasn't a huge industry in our place locally. And then I would say maybe a year and a half ago, there a lot changed in the industry. I would call it a year and a half ago, like some medical spas opened, another like very big, very successful aesthetic studio moved in right down the street from me. And then it seemed like there was just this flood of estheticians that graduated. I think through COVID too, people got out of that like nine to five lifestyle and they, you know, kind of like threw themselves into entrepreneurship and doing things that they loved rather than just like the typical nine to five job or whatever.

And that's good. I mean, all that's good stuff. But there were suddenly this huge flood of estheticians that were graduating local schools and came into town. So it really wasn't just me and a couple of like pockets of other people. It was some really major, huge, successful, shiny, new, fancy businesses opened. And I freaked out, to be honest. I mean, I don't think that I've actually even shared this with anybody. Maybe I'm sure I have. I really freaked out. It really freaked me out. And I got really afraid. And I was like, oh, no, Now I'm this old shoe and now there's all these new fancy places. And I really felt like I had to keep up with all of them. Like, I made some really stupid decisions. I made some really, really stupid financial decisions, investing in things, trying to keep up with the Joneses of these other businesses. And I'm telling you, I'm paying the consequences. It's not cool. But it was all out of fear. It was like my identity was so wrapped up in my job and my reputation and my business name that when other things came in, I felt so threatened and so afraid. And it was gross. It was a gross feeling. I did not want want to feel like that and it dissipated over time and eventually like I worked through it with God and and after a while I actually felt really grateful for these other businesses I mean it was great to have places to refer clients to for services that I didn't offer it was great that these industries were thriving in our town instead of people having to go out of town for these services it was just great for our community and our local economy and the industry of aesthetics as a whole. It was great. And I still feel that it was I'm so grateful that they're around. But at the beginning, I was totally freaked out and super territorial and afraid and threatened and crazy. And that was all because my identity was rooted in my work. And if my identity had not been there, I would have just felt nothing but gratitude and excitement for these businesses from the beginning. I would not have made really costly mistakes out of fear. I would not be paying those consequences now and it would have just played out differently my identity had been rooted in Christ I would have felt so secure that is the only way you are ever going to feel secure is when your identity is rooted in Christ because he is the firm foundation the only foundation and you're only sense of security ever. Nothing else. He is the only constant, forever, eternal, unchanging security and foundation that you will ever have. And that's why our identity needs to be rooted in that, not our business. Because our business will change. Competitors will come in.

I'm just saying if my identity had been rooted in Christ, I wouldn't have freaked out and made a bunch of bad decisions. And honestly, it's really selfish and really self-centered and really prideful. And none of those things are the heart of the woman of God. None of those things are at the root of who I really was or who you really are. But through this journey of entrepreneurship, it's just so easy to get sucked into our identity being in our business. Because let's face it, we do put in so much like our blood, sweat and tears and time and we sacrifice so much to make our entrepreneurial life happen. And that's okay. Those are all good things. But we just need to step back and constantly remember where the root of our identity is, and that is in God himself, not our business.

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