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Well, hey there pals. Today I'm bringing you along on my quiet time with me just to share something that God dropped in my heart and dropped in my journal during my quiet time about a month or so ago. All about God led goal setting and scriptures to back that up and how to do it and how to really lean into the Lord as we set goals and move forward into all that he has for us. So bust out a pen and paper or your notes app for sure, and maybe even your bible because I'm pretty excited to dig into this with y' all today. All right, let's go. Hey there fellow entrepreneur. Welcome to Simple SEO and Marketing. Do you want to grow your business with sustainable traffic sources? Have you heard about the power of search engine optimization? And you want to take advantage of it to get more traffic, more eyeballs on your business. But when it comes down to it, does SEO feel complicated and hard to implement? Are you tired of wondering what in the heck to do with your website to get more traffic and more leads knocking on your door? What if I could tell you that there was a simple, proven system for using SEO, blogging and copywriting to get leads from your website and not just any leads. High converting leads. Hey, I'm Faith Hannon, wife, mama, copywriter, SEO strategist and barrel racer. And for the last eight years I've been figuring out what work and what doesn't work in the world of online marketing to get organic traffic. And now I'm here to share all the things I'm learning in the trenches of SEO, copywriting and content marketing. How does 300%, 500% or even 12,000% more traffic in a year sound? What could your business do with that kind of traffic increase? How many more people could you help? So listen in and prepare to take note. I'm about to drop seven simple, actionable SEO, marketing and copywriting tips all with a heavy dose of Jesus loving encouragement. Let's get you more traffic and more leads so you can help more people with your God given gifts. So if y' all have been around here a while or you know me personally, then you know that I'm pretty mildly is obsessed with personal development. And I say obsessed like it's a bad thing. And I really don't mean that. Right, because I truly believe that one God calls us to keep growing. Sanctification is a process but a very needed part of following Christ and personal development. Yo, should be sanctification. You should. I should. We should look more like Jesus a year from now than we do right now. And if we're not, if we don't, then I would say we're not pursuing him like we need to. Okay? So I've been, I've been, like I say, mildly obsessed with personal development for years and years now. And what that looks like is I am always reading books, listening to stuff on goal setting and achieving goals and, you know, productivity and all those things. Have had vision boards set up for years now. Like, I was one year for New Year's, I got cork boards and vision board stuff for my family. And I was like, we're gonna all make vision boards. Like, I am that. I am that kid. Okay? But about a month or so ago, in my quiet time, the Lord just dropped this God led goal setting in in my heart. And I was just wrote it down in my journal for my quiet time. And so I felt like it's something I wanted to share with y'. All. So here are five steps. Yeah. Five steps to God led goal setting. And just because it's the beginning of the year doesn't mean that it's the only time you can set goals. Right? If you're listening to this later, you can set goals any time of the year, y'. All. Um, and it's a good idea too. Okay? So step number one in our God led goal setting chat, step number one is to hear from heaven. And I don't say that lightly. Okay? But we need to, as sons and daughters of God, we need to hear the voice of our Father on a regular basis. And John talks about that. He said, jesus says, my sheep will know my voice. And if this is the first time that you've ever heard somebody say that God wants to speak to you, he does. God wants to speak to you. He wants to give you wisdom and direction. All over scripture, he says, ask, seek, and I will give. Right? God wants to give us direction. Okay? So step number one is to hear from heaven. Proverbs 3, verse 5 and 6 in the NLT, it says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not depend on your own understanding. So seek his will in all that you do, and he will show you which path to take. This is one of our favorite all time favorite scriptures here in the Hanon household. My kids know it, we quote it often. It's something that we have built our life upon. And the truth of the matter is, if we are going to live this faith life adventure with Jesus, we're gonna have to trust the Lord. Okay? And I truly believe that when we are living boldly for the kingdom of God. When we are trusting God, he's going to ask us to do some stuff that we're like, are you sure? It's a little scary to think about that, but you know, it's good, right? That's how we grow. Psalms 127:1 says, unless the Lord builds the house, the work of the builders is wasted. Unless the Lord protects the city, guarding it with sentries will do no good. And I don't know if you're anything like me. You're a super driven person. You think that each day has exactly 80 hours instead of 24 when you come to plan and set goals. But I. I have. I want to accomplish a lot of things. I have a lot of goals. I have a lot of big goals. But the fact of the matter is, unless the Lord builds the house, unless the Lord builds the goal, unless the Lord builds the business, I'm building in vain. And so if I truly want to walk with God and be on track with what God has for me, I've got to know what he's building and what he wants to be building in my life. Even Jesus had to get direction from the Father. If Jesus had to get direction from the Father, what makes us think that we don't? John 5:19 says, so Jesus explained, I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does. I'll be real there. There have been years when I did better than others at hearing from heaven before I set my goals, and when I haven't done very well at that, I look up at the end of the year and I'm so frustrated that I didn't achieve all my goals. Right? Well, duh, Faith. You didn't hear from heaven on what you should be spending your time and what you should be pursuing and working on that year. Right? But when we take time to sit with the Lord to quiet our hearts, quiet our minds, and really hear from heaven on what he would have us pursue, on what he would have us build with our time and our gifts and our talents, we're going to have a lot more successful, fulfilled goals. All right, number two. Number two is to write the vision down. Specifically write the vision down and make it plain so that the heralds may run with it. And that's a scripture from Habakkuk 2. It's the message ish translation that I've kind of like hidden in my heart. And for a long time I would really overthink about How I wrote my goals down and be like, do I need to phrase it in the first person or the past tense? Or how do I need to write this? And the fact of the matter is, just write it down. Just write it down. You don't need to overthink it. Just write it down. Okay. Write the vision down. Write the goals down. Yes. There are so many techniques and, you know, smart goals and due dates and breaking things down into smaller, manageable pieces, all of that stuff is awesome. But let's not over complicate it right now, okay? Write the vision down and make it plain so that you can run with it. Okay? And then number three goes right in with number two. Keep it before your eyes. So as I record this, I have my vision board up kind of above my desk where I sit and work, and it is before my eyes, and I look up at this right now, and I kid you not, we have made progress towards and or accomplished almost every goal that I put up there last year. And I just look at that and I'm like, oh, my gosh, God, you are so good. You are so good. Right? And it's so exciting to see these things that we've been working towards and praying about and moving towards come to pass. Okay? Now, a lot of the things that are on my vision board, they're really big things. And there weren't, like, necessarily things that we could accomplish in one year, but that's okay. We're a heck of a lot further down those roads than we were a year ago. Okay. But it's really important for us to keep the vision before our eyes. And I love how Proverbs chapter four breaks this down. Starting in Proverbs chapter four, let's start in verse 23, and we'll go through the end of the chapter. But Proverbs chapter 4, 23 is one that we hear a lot. Okay? I use it a lot. It's a really good guidepost. Scripture. Proverbs chapter 23 says, Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. Okay? And then the next verses are how. They're how to do that. Okay? So step number one of the how is in verse 24, avoid all perverse talk. Stay away from corrupt speech. Watch. Watch what's coming out of your mouth, y'. All. About your goals, about yourself, about the Lord, about your spouse, all the things. Okay? What? Watch what's coming out of your mouth. Number two, look straight ahead and fix your eyes on what lies before you. Number three, mark out a straight path for your feet and stay on the safe path. And number four, don't get sidetracked. Keep your feet from following evil. And I think this is so crucial when it comes to God led goal setting. Keep it before your eyes. Look straight ahead, fix your eyes on those goals. Mark out the straight path for your feet towards those goals. Stay on that path and don't get sidetracked. Isn't that so cool? Isn't God so good to give us scriptures for things like that? So good. So good. All right. And step number four, do not despise small beginnings. For the Lord rejoices to see the work begin. And that scripture is from Zechariah 4, 10, when they had a big old stinking project in front of him. And I think sometimes we are so hard on ourselves because we think we haven't perfected whatever it is we're working on. Like we haven't finished the thing, we haven't, you know, completed the work. But. And, and so we haven't completed the work, so it's not worth celebrating. But I think that's so far from the Father's heart, y'. All. He rejoices to see the work begin. And just from like the Father's heart, you know, here. I mean, I'm a, I'm a mother, but my husband feels the same way. When I think about my kids, like when my one year old finally started walking, he's the third kid, y', all, he got carried everywhere. He didn't need to walk. But when he finally started walking, oh my gosh, we hooped and hollered and cheered and clapped for him all the time. I was not one bit disappointed that he couldn't run at the same speed as my 8 year old or my 5 year old. I rejoiced in his progress. I rejoiced in him. Starting in Zechariah 4:10, let that be your reminder and encouragement. The Lord rejoices to see the work begin. And one of my favorite stories about just growth here is from. And I'm gonna, I'm not gonna be able to quote it exactly, but it's from Pastor Jimmy Evans. And he tells this story about. He was. He had just come to the Lord. I don't know how long he'd been following the Lord, but he used to sit and read his Bible and smoke his cigarettes. He just have his quiet time and smoke cigarettes and drink his coffee in the morning. And that's what he did for a long time. He was, you know, hearing from the Lord and he was Growing. And then one day, the Lord just told him, hey, smoking cigarettes. And he was like, oh, okay. And he did. But God delighted in that time that Jimmy was spending with him. God delighted in that time that he was seeking him. Right? In Psalms 20. I'm sorry, Psalms 3723 says, in the new living, it says, the Lord directs the step of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Y', all, I truly believe that God delights in every step that we take in following him. And then step number five is to be strong now and get to work. So in Haggai, chapter two, verses four and five, it says, but now the Lord says, be strong. Be strong. Jeshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest, be strong, all you people still left in the land. And now get to work, for I am with you, says the Lord of Heaven's armies. My spirit remains among you, just as I promised when I. When you came out of Egypt. So do not be afraid. So I was having a conversation with my husband about, you know, this. This revelation was kind of dropped in my lap, in my heart, you know, into my. In my lap, in my quiet time. And we are in. We're in a really cool season in our lives right now. But it's also, like. It's a. It's a lot. It's a lot of work. And as we were, like, falling into bed, having this conversation, just exhausted, you know, we'd been talking about goals and planning for the year, which is something that we, you know, we always do. But he. He looked at me, he said, it's a lot easier to dream about your goals, but seeing them comes, come to pass looks a lot like a heart, like, hard work. And it's so true, right? Like, God gives us these dreams. He gives us these goals. And then, yo, we got to get to work and do it. And it's so easy to be like, oh, yeah, I'm just going to make a really pretty vision board and write things on my calendar and then not actually get to work, like, pick up the shovel and do the work. And, y', all, God is in the work, too. He's in the planning, he's in the dreaming, but he's in the work, too. All right? So we need to be strong and get to work. And truly, it's not. It's not that you have to be perfect, that you have to do everything perfect every day, you know, all day long, right? You just need to keep showing up. It is hard to beat a man who just won't quit. My pastor, who. He was my pastor for like, 15, 16 years. And he passed away a couple years ago, but he still is like my spiritual father. His son asked him. His son is also a pastor. His son asked him. He said, hey, dad, how have you been faithful in ministry for 40 plus years? Like, how have you done it? And he says, I just keep showing up. I just keep showing up. And there's a lot to that, y'. All. So I'm gonna run back through these. These five steps, and then I'm gonna pray over you and I'm gonna pray over your goals. Okay? So step number one is to hear from heaven. Hear from heaven on what God would have you focus on in this season, in this year, in this month, or in even this day. Yo. Number two, write the vision down and make it plain so that the herald may run with it. Number three, keep it before your eyes. Number four, do not despise the small beginnings for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin. And number five, be strong. And now get to work. All right, y', all, I'm gonna pray us out. Well, Father, I just come to you, Lord, humbled and honored, Lord, that we get to partner with you. That we get to partner with you, the king of the universe. We get to partner with you in seeing your will be done on this earth. And, Lord, I know that you have gifts and callings. You have work to be done by each and every one of your children. And Father, I thank you that you would give us the vision, Lord, I ask that you would give us vision and dreams, Lord. Joel and Acts talk about giving vision and dreams, Lord. And Lord, I ask that you would impart your vision, your dreams, your plans for our lives to us, Lord, that you would help us to see what you have for us. And Lord, I also ask that you would help us to have the courage to believe you, to partner with you, and to walk hand in hand with you to see it come to pass. Lord, you are so good. You are so good. And you are faithful to bring it to completion the good work that you started in us. You are faithful. You are faithful even when we are faithless. And, Lord, I ask that you would cause the resources to come to us, that we need to complete the things that you've called us to do, or that you would give us the wisdom and the courage and the strategies to do it. And people, Lord, that you want us to partner with in seeing this work done. But, Father, I ask that you would help us to pause and sit with you as we plan our goals and plan the rest of our year. And truly to be led by you Lord, because we want to honor you and who you are above all else. And Lord, I just thank you for Lord, for who you are. For who you are. Because you're so good. You're so good. And Lord, thank you for giving us holy work to do in showing forth who you are and bringing your kingdom to earth as it is in heaven in Jesus mighty, mighty name. Amen. Thank you so much for listening in today. Hopefully this episode gave you some really tangible tips for better SEO and marketing to get more leads and more sales from your website. If it did, can I ask you a quick favor? Would you please share this episode with a friend and then just take 10 seconds and go leave a written review on Apple Podcasts. That is the very best way to help more Jesus loving entrepreneurs scale their businesses so that they can help more people with their gifts and make an even bigger impact for the Kingdom of God. And guess what? We now have a Facebook community where we can learn, hang out and laugh. Go join the Facebook group now. It's linked in the show notes and all the other things courses, coaching and copywriting can be found at my website faith hannon.com until next time. God bless and I'll talk to you soon.