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Foreign. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the K show. It's episode 264, and today I'm talking about brand and business lessons from the Bible. Now, you may not share my faith in Yahweh, but you might be on the search for good advice. And the Bible is a great place to find that. Now, today, I really want to focus on this because business is hard. It's hard running a business. It's hard being the one that gets the buck passed to them. See, the beauty of being an employee is that if it hits the fan, ultimately your boss has to deal with it, not you. But when you are the boss, you have to figure some stuff out. And that can also be very lonely because perhaps your family or your social circles, your friends, whomever, they may not understand the kind of stress that you're under. And you know, that's okay. It's not their life experience. But it's important that you have a good support system and realize your own limitations. And I say limitations because I personally like to consider myself a superhero. And that has been my downfall. That's been my Achilles heel, because I am actually not Wonder Woman, thank God. There are a lot of things that I can't do. I can't wear all the hats. Now, I do wear several of the hats in my agency, and I wear even more hats in my personal life, but I'm not meant to wear all of them. And attempting to thinking that, oh, I can, it's going to be fine, leads to burnout. So when I started my journey over a year ago of reading the Bible from front to back, right now I'm. I'm in Proverbs. So this is taking me a long time, guys, but I'm really trying to soak it all in. And I know that no matter how slowly I read it or how many times I read it, there's always going to be something new that will stand out to me. And right now, a lot has stood out to me in the book of Proverbs about business and branding and the power of words. And it's important to note that without the right words, we can't market our businesses. We can't communicate with clients. We can't explain what we do to leads. So words are powerful whether they are written or spoken. That's why I want to go over all of this today. I want you guys to know that you're not alone, that you do need support. You can't do it all. So stop feeling like a failure when you can't do it all. You were never meant to do it all. And then also understand that there is a source of endless wisdom and help found right there in the Bible. And if you don't have a copy of the Bible, you can get one pretty easily through an app on your phone. It's totally free and you can work on reading a version of it that is easiest for you to understand. I know a lot of people like the King James Version. I personally like the English Standard Version or esv. And some of the references I'll make today are from ESV, but also from the New Living Translation. And you need to just read the one that makes sense for you. I would caution you against reading the message version because that has been so modernized that a lot of the original meaning is lost. And. And that's sad. That's dangerous. So I would highly recommend that you approach this episode with an open mind. I completely understand that this is not going to be everybody's cup of tea, and that's okay. So the other day I saw this video on Pinterest of all places, and it was this mom talking to her baby and she was like, darling, you're never going to be everyone's cup of tea because you're a glass of champagne. So anyway, kind of like that. Good way to look at it. So let's just get right into it, guys. Brian Brand and business lessons from the Bible. This episode of the Kate show is brought to you by Honeybook. I love using Honeybook for my business because it helps create a streamlined workflow when people decide they want to work with me. Because, you know, there's one thing to do the right marketing to get the client, there's quite another to impress them all the way through the end of the project. And with Honeybook, my clients are able to review and sign the proposal, make their payment, and then be told what to do next, all in one fell swoop. I've set up automations that remind them when they need to send me certain assets so that their website project can go off without a hitch. And if you've ever worked with us, you know that Honeybook kept you on track. It kept us on track and it was really easy to use. If you're interested in using Honeybook for your business, go to honeybook.com and use the code socialite at checkout for 50% off your first year. This episode of the Kate show is brought to you by the foundation website. Guys, if you need a new website for your business but you can't afford a fully custom site, or you just don't have that much time to spare. You should check out the semi custom website design service from the Socialite agency for home pros who need more than just a DIY website template. How many times have you purchased a website template only to never use it or get stuck because you don't know how to complete it, you don't know how to connect all the things and well, doesn't that end up being a waste of money? It does. That's why the foundation website exists. If you want a professional to set up your website, handle your on site SEO, optimize your images and write your copy and you want to maintain full control over that website moving forward. Forward. This website is for you. You'll be able to see what's included and what's not included by heading over to katesocialite.com and under the services page click on semi custom website design. Every great build begins with a solid foundation and we've made it easy. You'll be able to learn exactly how the process works, why we have a 10 business day turnaround, and why we can keep the fees so darn affordable with no ongoing fees to us whatsoever. The cool thing is, and the thing that a lot of our clients appreciate is that when you get our website, whether it's fully custom or semi custom like this one, we are available to help make updates to your site. We only charge you when you actually need an update made, which means that months, years might go by. You don't have to pay us a dimension. But when you're ready for help, we're there to help you. Head over to kate the socialite.com and look under the services tab to get the website your business deserves. All right, so I'm going to start this out with one by one, 11 different lessons on branding and business straight from the Bible itself. And as I said earlier, I'll be reading from two different translations. I'm not going to be reading entire chapters. This is not a church service. I'm just going to be making references. And if you want to hit pause and then go look at it for yourself at some point, I highly encourage that you do because sometimes it's helpful to read the verses before and after the ones that I am referencing. All right, so the first thing to note is that millions of dollars in revenue does not equal success. So let's just lay that out right away because a lot of us are trying to achieve success, but we aren't even sure what that looks like we or how we'll know when we get there. But here is what Ecclesiastes says about success. A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. Are you satisfied by your work? Are you fulfilled? Do you wake up every morning or most mornings feeling like you have a purpose, a higher purpose that is about more than just putting food on the table. It's about more than just getting your bills paid. But. But you actually feel like, wow, I was born to do this. If you don't feel that way, I hope, and I pray that you can. I hope that you can get to a point in your career where you can start the business that you've always wanted to start or change businesses. It's okay to stop running the business that you've been running forever. It's okay to sell it, or if you have to just shut it down, do it. And then go do what you were meant to be doing. Because life is too short to mess around otherwise. The next thing I want to point out is that your brand is the most important part of your marketing because it constitutes your outward reputation, which is then bolstered or found to be undrew by real world evidence. Wow. Tripping over it here. So In Ecclesiastes chapter 7, it says a good reputation is more valuable than the most expensive perfume. So it really doesn't matter how fancy your website is, how amazing your logo looks, or how big your team is. If your reputation is that you don't deliver what you say you're going to deliver, you don't bring results, then none of that really matters. A good reputation is more valuable than the most expensive perfume. And that perfume gets pretty darn expensive. The third thing to keep in mind is that your business makes promises through its marketing. Marketing is a relationship. Promises are part of a relationship. Keeping those promises is the hallmark of a good relationship. These promises should be few and far between. We don't need to over promise things in our marketing. The promises we do make, however, should be strongly guarded and firmly upheld. As it says in Ecclesiastes 5, it's better to say nothing than to promise something that you don't follow through on. Amen to that. How many of us have been disappointed by people in our personal lives or professional lives when they said something as simple as, oh, yeah, I'll follow up with you tomorrow and they never do, or yeah, I can go do that for you and they never do. The point of this is that this speaks to the brand. We have to follow through on our commitments, both large and small. Because that is a heart issue, that is a character issue. And if we as individuals have a hard time following through on what we say we're going to do, our businesses will suffer for it. Our reputations will suffer for it, as they well should. But the opposite is also true. If you are diligent in following through on your promises, if you are careful about not over promising, in fact make it your goal to under promise and over deliver, people will rant and rave about you because you have surprised them. You have not put their expectations so high that it's hard for you to even attain. You've been reasonable. You don't have grandiose expectations of fame and success. You just want to serve people well. And therefore your marketing and the promises you make in your marketing reflect that. And when you're able to meet those promises, it results in a great brand reputation and happy clients who will then refer you to other people. Now, on the note of clients, the fourth thing that I want to point out to you is that saying less and listening more and taking time to truly understand the needs of your clients, your team, your subcontractors, whoever it may be, is going to help your business grow. So Proverbs says in 17, chapter 17, that whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding. Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise. When he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent. And in the next chapter it says, a fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion. Okay, we see a lot of that today. Social media is full of people expressing their opinions and other people getting mad about it. But Proverbs is pointing out here, hey, keep a cool head and just listen. You don't need to share your opinion. Nobody actually cares about your opinion. And it's, it's true. You know, like, sorry, life is rough, wear a helmet. But like, we don't need to be spouting off our opinions now. We should absolutely have them. That's your right to have an opinion, but know when to share it and when to just listen. And I'm kind of preaching to myself here because I am a very opinionated person. I. I've got so many opinions, from politics to religion to business and especially marketing guys, you know that. But share it in the appropriate platforms. In fact, if you have a lot of opinions that you really just cannot keep to yourself, start a podcast, because if people don't want to hear it, they won't subscribe, so that's okay. But if they do Want to hear you, Branch. A podcast is a great way to kind of give yourself that soapbox to stand on. I mean, after all, that's why I'm here, right? If you guys don't like it, you don't have to listen. But it is so important to be able to listen more than we speak. And a lot of us were taught that as children, you know, you've got one mouth and two ears for a reason. But we forget as we get older because at least in US culture, it's just all about opinion. It's all about feelings, it's all about opinions, it's all about not offending people. And that's just nonsense. We should be cool headed. We should not be easily offended. We should be willing to listen to what people say, but not just to their words, but to the meaning behind the words. That's how marketing gets good, by the way, when we listen to our clients, our ideal clients, our leads. But we don't just hear what they think they need, we hear what they actually need. For example, if your client says, I really need help organizing my home, I'm just sick of the mess. I can't find anything that's a surface level need. It makes sense. That's how most of us would be. But as you get to know this client, you realize the whole reason she struggles with disorganization is because she grew up in a split family. She always had stuff at her mom's house and her dad's house. It was a mess. She ever. She never really even knew what she had, but she had duplicates of everything because she had to bounce back and forth. And that resulted in an adult who feels like she can't get it together. Now, how does this change how you operate? Well, it might give you a heart for helping split families. It might give you a special mission to focus on as far as helping people who have experienced childhood trauma and how that tends to manifest in the organization or design of their spaces. See your client's true needs. And the only way you can do that is by listening. Not just listening to their words, but listening to their story behind what they're telling you. All right, so the next thing, the fifth thing that I want to point out is the effort it takes to run a business. If you're going to run a business, you have to run it wholeheartedly and ditch your escape clause. How many of you have an escape clause? Well, if this business doesn't work, at least I have a part time job, or at least I have this degree to lean on. So hopefully I can get another job somewhere else. Now I'm not saying that you should be foolish and that you should do financially risky things and, you know, potentially damage your family's finances. I'm not suggesting that. But what I am saying is if you are on the fence, get off it. It's not a comfortable place to sit anyway. If you don't want to run your business because it feels too risky right now, you don't have to. You can go get a corporate job. But if you really want to run your business and you're just going through a time of discouragement or economic downturn, stick with takes effort. Ecclesiastes says in chapter nine, whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, okay? Don't be one handing it. Put both hands in, dive straight in. Because that's the only way it's going to work. You've got to get off the fence. All right? So the sixth thing that I want to point out is that economic recessions and personal difficulties do happen. They come in season and they too shall pass. So you need to persevere. Ecclesiastes says in chapter three that there is a time for everything. Later on it says there's a time to get and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to cast away. And I appreciate this because I tend to think, oh, if business isn't going as good as I wanted, it must be that I screwed up. And you know what? That's possible. That's totally possible. But that also assumes that I am in complete control of all things at all times, which I am most certainly not. So sometimes things just don't go well. And sometimes they do. And when things go well, it's also not necessarily because we're doing something right now. Our actions always contribute to outcomes. However, we're not in control of all the things. So sometimes the economy is really good, personal life's really good, Everything is just flowing. There are no pain in the ass clients. It's amazing, okay? And we should be grateful for those times while understanding that it's not always going to be that way. But that's okay because we shouldn't be staking our confidence, our hope, or our faith in the success of our businesses. Our businesses are going to have great years and bad years because that's the nature of the world. On that note, the seventh point I want to bring up is that people around you personally, professionally will fail you at some point, in some way way. But God never will. In proverbs it says, a man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Now the thing I've noticed about brothers, and I have three of them, is that they might live hours away from me, they might live on the other side of the country, but they're still my brothers. I can't do anything about that. Like the. The genetic tie is there for better or for worse. And who would be closer to you than that? Someone who is genetically related to you. Well, in this case, this verse in Proverbs is referencing God himself or Jesus, probably more specifically a friend who sticks closer than a brother. So when you go through those seasons in your life or your business, when you've lost a core team member who used to be your right hand, or you've lost a spouse for whatever reason, just know that you are never truly alone. However, a lot of us have a hard time accepting that fact and, and accepting help and acknowledging that God is here. God is working in this and he can make something beautiful come out of the ashes because that's honestly what he's in the business of doing. Do you find yourself turning on the news and feeling hopeless woke agendas, open borders, inflation due to out of control spending and the list goes on. There is something you can do about it. Buy from companies that believe what you and I believe. We need to stick together now more than ever. And There has been one company willing to stand with you since 2012. Patriot Mobile is America's only Christian conservative wireless provider. They offer the very best nationwide 4G and 5G coverage on all networks. In fact, they use the same towers as the major carriers. Patriot Mobile has service plans to fit any budget and their 100% US based customer support team provides exceptional customer support. More importantly, Patriot Mobile shares your values and supports organizations fighting for religious freedom, your constitutional rights, the sanctity of life and our veteran and first responder heroes. Switch to Patriot Mobile now and get free activation with the code KAIT. Go to patriotmobile.com kait and use the promo code KAIT to get free activation. Guys, on a personal note, I have been using Patriot Mobile for about a year and a half and it has been amazing. Not only was I able to keep my phone, keep my phone number and have amazing coverage, I was also able to get on a plan that just made more financial sense for me and my family. And if you go to patriotmobile.com kait, you're going to be able to do things like check your coverage to make sure that you will have the right amount of coverage for your location. Choose a plan that works for you. Get a new phone if you need one, Bring your own device, keep your phone number and even get cellular Internet. It's kind of amazing. There are personal plans or if you have a bigger business, then you can also get business plans with them too. And get your employees employees. All your team members on Patriot Mobile. Guys, go to patriotmobile.com forward/Kate and use the code Kait for free activation. All right. When you go through these hard times, you know what the easiest thing to do is? It's also the wrong thing. Making reactive decisions. You need to plan your steps carefully and avoid being reactive. Because as Proverbs says in chapter 21, the plan plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance. But everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty. There are some interesting absolutes there. The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance. In other words, if you are diligent, you're going to have abundance. There is no ifs, ands or buts about it. But for those who are hasty, the only outcome they will ever possibly achieve is poverty. Now that could be financial poverty, it could be relational poverty, it could be mental poverty. Like. Like mental ill health going down the drain. Being hasty leads to nothing good. And when are people making hasty decisions? When they're being careless? When they're being emotionally charged and reactive? When they are not thinking with their God given prefrontal cortex? Okay, we have to stop making emotional decisions in business. Emotion does belong there, but it needs to have its time and place. And the best thing that we can do to be wise business owners is to keep that cool head or that cool spirit that I talked about earlier. All right, the next thing to keep in mind is your revenue is only as good as your management of it. Now if you've been listening or watching the podcast a while, you know that I say marketing's are not actually the most important thing that you could be doing for your home industry business. And in fact, financial management is the most important thing. Because if you can't get a handle on the $500 that you have coming into your business every month, don't expect to be able to handle the half a million dollars that start coming in every month. When you've become truly like super duper successful, it will just be a mess. Do you realize that most interior designers barely pay themselves more than 30 grand a year? That's extremely sad. And a lot of that is because they are not charging enough for their services. And then they're not accounting properly for all the hours they've been working. And they're passing trade discounts to their clients when they should be putting that toward their own bottom line. And the list could go on. And the same can also be true of organizers and stagers and window treatment pros. You guys all have the same struggles. Now. Have I ever undercharged? Have I ever misplaced funds? Absolutely. And by the grace of God, I am learning from them. But that also means that I have to be willing to invest in learning how to manage finances properly. So from taking online courses to working with multiple business coaches, which all costs money by the way, it's not free. To also working on going with a cpa, a bookkeeper, a financial advisor, these are all important investments in my business because I realized that financial management is actually not my natural inclination. Like I can make money, but then what? You know, how much do I set aside for taxes? When do I pay the taxes? And what about payroll tax? And what about just normal month to month budgeting? There are so many things to keep in mind when running a business, and it's a lot more than just getting the payment from the client. So I want you to keep in mind that Proverbs 17 says, why should a fool have money in his hand to buy wisdom when he has no sense? I like this because Proverbs was written by a number of different people, but I believe this one is accredited to King Solomon and Solomon can get a little bit sarcastic. And, and that's, that's kind of my favorite. I like a little bit of sarcasm in there. Why should a fool have money in his hand to buy wisdom when he has no sense? So basically meaning you might have all this money to buy stuff, but there are certain things that just can't be bought that you cannot buy yourself a smarter brain. You, you have to, well, pray for wisdom. Quite honestly, that's the only way to do it. Because all the money in the world, it's not going to get you out of the hole you're in if you, if your management of it, if the way you're using this tool, this money is poor. All right, now for some of the big stuff for the ladies, most of you are ladies listening and watching. Ladies, it is time to step up into your leadership position. This is not a feminist statement. I'm actually not a feminist. I was once. I am no longer because I realized how much it has damaged, damaged the woman. Feminism is ironically about trying to make women more like men, which is silly. We don't need to earn a place in corporate alongside a man. We are women. We are different. And we do certain things better than a man ever could and vice versa. We are equal and we are different. We are not the same. Now, in Proverbs, it says that a the wisest of women builds her house, but folly with her own hands tears it down. We women were created to create things. So many of us are creative. Whether we're talking about physical reproduction, having children, whether you're talking about growing a creative agency or, you know, designing a space or whatever it is. We were meant to be creative. And there are many different forms of creativity. But we can use that to our good or to our detriment. We can use that for the good of those around us or to the detriment of those around us. And on that note leads me to one of the biggest things that I want you to take away from today, and that is the Proverbs 31. Woman. Now, if you are anything like me, you might have thought Proverbs. Proverbs 31 is just a long checklist of all the things a woman should do to be considered, quote, unquote, good. That's not exactly true. Okay, here's what I've recently learned. Proverbs 31 was actually spoken by a woman. This woman was trying to teach her son what to look for in a wife. And apparently this son had some issues. He had some drinking problems. He was being pretty reckless and immature. And she was just like, basically, dude, straighten up, act like an adult. And then she started talking about all the things that he should find beautiful in a woman, should find to appreciate in her. She starts out with this, and he wrote it all down probably so he could remember it. The first thing his mother told him is that she, this woman is more precious than Jules. Like right out of the gate. That's it. She is more precious than Jules. And then she goes on to say that she is trustworthy, she works hard and is creative. Sounds a lot like you guys, doesn't it? She prioritizes her family above her career. And note that yes, she can have a career. It. It. There. There's just. There's so much disinformation when it comes to what the Bible says about women. It is ridiculous. And if people were to read it for themselves, they would find that the Bible is extremely empowering of women. So anyway, she prioritizes her family above her career, which is something that I've always been a proponent of. And also, she is resourceful. She's Not a helpless damsel in distress. She's resourceful and she's a good manager of other people. This is all directly from Proverbs 31, by the way. This is what it says, and I will read it to you once I'm done going through my list. Next. She makes wise financial decisions. Okay? So it's not like. It's not like you're. She's getting money from someone else. She's making money. She's investing it. She's making good decisions. She's putting on strength the way some people put on pants. She's strong. She's not helpless. She's not a victim. She assesses the profitability of what she's selling, and she makes changes if needed. Ooh, there's a good business one. We have to be ruthless. We have to assess, is this working? Is this making the profit margin that it's supposed to be? If not, then I'm going to change it. I'm not going to complain that my business is not successful. I'm not going to whine about not making enough money. I'm not going to complain about not being able to afford to hire more people or good marketing or a business coach or whatever the heck it is I need. I am going to do something about it. Next. She helps those in need. She's not greedy. She's not money hungry. There's nothing wrong with making money. There's nothing wrong with turning a profit, because look at the good that she can do with it. Also, and this is a nice little nod to the interior designers out there, she makes her home look nice. Yeah, that's in the Bible. Also, she laughs at the future rather than being scared of it now. How many of you deal with anxiety? I have. I had terrible postpartum anxiety after, actually, after both of my kids. It's pretty darn rough. But once I got through the sleep deprivation and the brain fog and I still had anxiety there, I realized that anxiety was just me trying to be a control freak while knowing deep down I really don't have the kind of control that I think I do. So maybe if I just let go of the control and understand that God is in control, I won't have anything to worry about anymore. And that's been the case. If you listened to one of my first podcast episodes of 2024, then, you know, I stopped worrying about my business. It took almost 10 years, but I stopped worrying about my business. And that was huge for me. But it also spilled into my personal life. The large part I don't worry nearly as much as I used to about my kids. Now I feel like, to a point, we do have motherly instincts where we're always going to worry just a little bit, just a little bit about our kids, because that's what mothers tend to do. But that can be destructive if we let it take over. So the Proverbs 31 woman laughs at the future rather than being scared of it. How empowering is that? Lastly, this woman follows God, and that's how she's able to do all these things. We can't do these things on our own. Our creativity will burn out. We will start prioritizing the wrong things over our family. We will be a poor manager of people. We'll make stupid financial decisions. We'll. We won't be strong. We'll give into the victimization that our culture wants us to give into so desperately. We won't be profitable in our businesses because we will underprice, undercharge, and undersell, and we will be greedy. Instead of helping those in need, we will forsake making our home a nice place to go home to. And we will no longer laugh at the future. But we will be in terror of it if we try to do this alone. I can't do this alone. I mean, I have got lots of humans helping me, but then I also have the number one creative God himself helping me. And that is the only reason I have been able to be successful. And if you are so tired, I can. I can feel it in your voice. I can hear it in your voice when we talk on the phone. And you know who you are. If you are so tired, if you are so bone weary, if you feel like you can't do this another year, even though you want to, you just can't. You've got to give it over to the One who made all things because he made you. He has a purpose for you. He has a purpose for your business. And sometimes all it takes is you handing that control back over. Because God is a gentleman. He is not necessarily gonna rip it back outta your hands. Give it to him and he will give it back to you in tenfold. All right, guys, that is my message for you today. I hope that it encourages you. I hope that it uplifts your spirit. And I hope that you walk away from this knowing that you are truly not alone. And that if you ever need wisdom, even marketing advice, you can get that from the Bible. Now, if you also like to work with humans on your marketing, then I invite you to book a discovery call with me. I would love to speak with you about your marketing and if we're already working together, make sure you book a consultation so we can do a deeper dive. Hop on a video call to talk through whatever you're going through in your marketing Right now. You can do all of that by going to kate socialite.com the call booking feature is in the footer of my website so you can scroll all the way down there. Or if you are an active client in our vault program, then you can log into your account and book a consult that way. Thank you guys so much for listening and for watching and I will talk to you again soon.