With God As Her CEO: Stefanie Gass Built a 6-Figure Business through Podcasting

SPEAKER_01: What's up, my friend, and welcome to Grit Grace Inspiration.

I'm your host, Kevin Lowe.

Twenty years ago, I awoke from a life-saving surgery only to find that I was left completely blind.

And since that day, I've learned a lot about life, a lot about living, and a lot about myself.

And here on this podcast, I want to share this insight with you.

Because, friend, if you are still searching for your purpose, still trying to understand why, or still left searching for that next right path to take, well, consider this to be your stepping stone to get you from where you are to where you want to be.

What's happening, my friend, and welcome back to the podcast.

I am your host as well as transformation coach, Kevin Lowe.

Today is episode number 206.

And uh, hey, I'm glad you're here today.

This is our third week in our little mini-series inside of the podcast, where I am shining light on my favorite people in the podcasting space.

Today's guest is somebody who I knew the first time I heard her that she was my kind of people.

Have you ever had that experience where you've met somebody and immediately you were drawn to them?

Or maybe it's somebody who you listen to on TV, a talk show host, or maybe it's your favorite podcaster.

And you can't help but think, man, if I ever met that person in real life, we would just hit it off because you listen to them and you think to yourself, man, we could totally be our best friends.

That was my exact experience when I started listening to Stephanie Gass.

Stephanie Gass is a fellow podcaster, an amazing woman who I was so excited to invite to be part of this series.

Stephanie is a woman of faith, and her faith she wears on her sleeve.

And that is exactly why I loved her.

Now, not just the fact that she's a Christian, she's a totally amazing businesswoman, but also because she has this silly sense of humor that she's not afraid to share with the world.

She's not afraid to give away things like coffee mugs that say coffee makes me poop and crazy stuff like that.

She's an amazing woman who has figured out how to have it all in life, but most importantly, with God at the center of it all.

And that's what makes Stephanie Gass so incredible is because she is a woman who is not persuaded by society, telling us that we have to be everywhere all the time, we have to be all over social media, we have to be doing this or doing that, and we have to do it this way or that way.

No, she's come to realize that with God at the center of it all, you really just follow his story.

And when she means questions to answer, she goes to God.

And oh my god, and she's so inspiring because of it.

And so today we are learning about her story, of how she even came to end the podcast, how her whole faith journey has led her to where she is today.

Amazing woman, Stephanie is indeed, and it is my pleasure that I have the opportunity to have her on the podcast today and to share her amazing story with you.

SPEAKER_02: I was back probably 2016, and I had all my life been super successful.

So I've gotten the good grades, I had, you know, gotten good jobs, I had a double master's in accounting and finance, I had a six-figure corporate job.

Like then I went into entrepreneurship, started a network marketing company.

And for the majority of my life, at this point, gosh, it was you know 30 years of my life, I was Stephanie equaled success, Stephanie equaled recognition.

And how I found that was through my work.

And so I had worked really hard to grow this big flourishing network marketing business.

And I found myself at the very top.

I had hit the top 1% of the company.

I was walking the stage, I was leading the big training convention, you know, it was it.

And at this point in time, I was always a Christian.

Well, my childhood was definitely not necessarily labeled.

We would go to a Catholic church once in a while.

My dad was Catholic, then we'd pop over to a Christian church at Easter and like that kind of situation.

But I knew I believed in God.

I just didn't have a relationship necessarily with Jesus yet.

And so at this point, I was really leaning on my own strength.

And I thought, when I'm, you know, when I get to this position, when I get to this point in this company, this is it.

Like everything's gonna make sense, all the hustle and hard work, this emptiness that we feel like it's gonna make sense.

And so I remember this pivotal moment where I walk the stage, got this$50,000 huge life size check in my hand, everybody's cheering, my social media is blowing up, people are calling left and right.

Like, how do I get into this company with you?

And everything should have been like it.

Well, I remember getting off the stage, Kevin, and I felt exactly the same.

There was, there was no magical fulfillment.

There was like, well, now what?

Like I did this thing that I thought was going to be so fulfilling.

Now what?

And it was the first time that I like had stopped long enough to start asking some questions around why am I doing what I'm doing?

Like, I still don't, it doesn't, it's not fulfilling me.

And even though the money is here, something's wrong.

So I started to kind of feel this way.

And over the next year or so, I think God was like, okay, she's ready.

Like, let's get in.

And so over the next year, all these other new fun companies came out.

We had the leggings and the lipstick and all the things, and my team of, I don't know, a thousand or two thousand people, like they kind of started to disperse and go to the new shiny companies.

They wanted to have the success that I had had.

And so I found myself within about 12 to 18 months after that one moment with a quarter of the income and not realizing like I wasn't going to be able to rebuild this because it wasn't, you know, the eggs were not in my own basket.

It was me building for another company.

And I ended up having to borrow, me and my husband had to borrow money from our son's savings account to pay the mortgage one month.

You know, if my son needed something because I needed to be on a call to close a sale, like if it all led me here, why?

And who am I now?

And I just I remember walking away from my husband after we used the money to pay the mortgage and I went to the bathroom and I just remembered tears are streaming down my face.

And I looked at myself for the first time and was like, I don't even know who you are.

And I walked into the a room of the house and I got out a notebook and a pen and I started writing to God because I had nowhere to go.

Like my identity was completely that company.

I had no idea how to how to save face and how to say, who am I now after this big failure?

I just had no clue what my next steps were.

And so I went to God and I started writing and I said, who am I?

And interestingly, you know, I was saved at nine.

I was in a big 20,000 stadium Easter service.

And I was, I could tell that story later, but I was saved at nine.

So God was part of my life.

You know, I had just turned away from him because I thought that I could do it on my own.

Well, I started to journal and I heard, you're my daughter, and you're gonna get sober, and you're going to be a present mom and you're gonna be a present wife, and you're gonna have peace in your life, and you're gonna have a successful company, and you're gonna get healthy.

And all these things, like my pen was just almost moving on its own.

And I'm looking at this paper like, yeah, right.

Like, this looks really cute, God, but I don't know.

But it felt like a supernatural experience to the point where I knew it had to be God helping me journal these things out.

And so that was the moment.

And from that, there's lots of segues we can take, but I decided to just start with the first thing on the paper.

And I joined a gym I couldn't afford, and I went for two hours.

I would put the kids in the daycare and work out for an hour, and then I would do something, whether it was pray or try to fumble my way through the Bible, which I had never opened before, or pray, or think about what my new business could be.

I would do that.

And that was the first step of ultimately now, you know, eight years, I'm 38 now later, being the woman on the paper.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

Wow, Stephanie, that is powerful in so many different levels and aspects.

So for myself, my logical next question for you is unpack for me this faith journey because everything that you just said was underlined by faith.

unknown: Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: And so I would love to know your journey, your testimony.

SPEAKER_02: Sure.

So I grew up in White Rock, New Mexico, really tiny town outside of Los Alamos, New Mexico.

And my dad grew up in an alcoholic family, and they had nothing.

Like they had five kids sleeping in one room.

And my mom grew up not with much either.

They also had six kids.

And so coming together, you know, their marriage was very, it was very rocky, I think, just because they didn't have much to lean on.

My dad grew up Catholic, and so his experience was nuns who beat you, and he hated religion.

And my mom grew up sometimes going to church and believing in God, but I think not knowing the extent of what was possible for her.

And so that was my experience as a kid.

And my dad was an alcoholic for the most part.

And my mom just tried to take us out of the house all the time.

So I had a little brother, and we would go to the library or we'd go to the park, and then we'd come back in the times of day where dad was at work or he wasn't drinking.

And then if he'd drink, we'd just leave again.

And so that was my childhood.

And as far as faith is concerned, the craziest thing, Kevin, that happened to me as a child was I had extreme spiritual warfare.

I, in the home that we lived in, I would have night terrors, I would have demonic attacks, I would see the house going up in flames.

I would see demons walking around.

And I would tell my parents this, and they said, Oh my gosh, or you know, our daughter's crazy.

And so they ended up putting me in therapy.

And I just thought I had bad dreams.

I was wetting the bed until I was nine years old because these were so terrifying, these attacks.

And I never told anybody for so many years of my life because I just thought I was crazy.

And anyway, what ended up happening is my parent, my mom told me we're gonna get a divorce.

And so I remember feeling like confused, but kind of peaceful about it, but worried.

I was a very worrisome kid.

And my mom ended up moving down here to Albuquerque.

My dad stayed in Los Alamos.

And what happened was right around that time, I was nine, we went to an Easter service here where we live in Albuquerque.

It was 2,000 people, huge stadium.

And we had gone to church here and there, but like this one, it just felt different.

Like the sun was rising, it was so beautiful.

And I remember the altar call at the end of the sermon.

And I had just been really leaning into the conversation for whatever reason.

And I remember looking at my mom and saying, I'm supposed to go.

I'm supposed to go down.

And she said, Okay.

And, you know, thank God she was willing to go in front of 20,000 people.

So I grab her hand and we walk down to the front and I accepted Jesus.

And I felt just like this big washing and welling, like in my spirit and my soul.

And we went and we both got water baptized.

I don't know if it was like the next weekend or what, but I remember getting water baptized in a swimming pool with my mom through that church.

And what was interesting is once that happened, the warfare stopped at that house that I had lived in.

And I didn't experience it anymore.

I didn't really know as a child, right?

Like, oh, the power of Jesus and the power of like I had no idea that any of that was gonna come into play later in my life.

And so that was my first experience.

And then it kind of you just went back to life, right?

We went to public school and lived in an apartment and tried to make our way.

My mom has two jobs and she's going through school, and my dad lives over here, and you know, he's got his stuff he's dealing with.

And so around middle school, I start to notice that I love attention.

Like, oh wow, I can be cool and I can get into this group of people and I can be seen.

And so I start to really study the popular kids.

Like, what are they wearing?

What are they saying?

What are they doing?

And I started to model it.

And pretty soon I found myself in their, you know, crew or clique or whatever you might call it, which started to lead to some problems in ninth grade.

Started to drink and to the point of blacking out, I would lie about where I'm going.

My mom would hide it from my dad because she was afraid if he was drinking, he'd get mad and like all of that was going on.

I would drink and drive, like all of this crazy stuff.

And never once did I even stop to consider am I in alignment with my faith right now?

Am I doing what God wants?

It was not even in my mind.

And I don't know.

I think that's just a part of as we grow and as we go through things, God allows us that freedom to fail and to mess up and to completely just find that like rock bottom moment, you know, so he can rebuild us.

And so that went on all the way through high school, pretty much.

And even into college, you know, bad decision after bad decision.

And I ended up one pivotal moment was I was probably like 25.

And I was at work and I remember my mom calling on the phone.

And I was chatting with her for a few minutes, and I said, I cannot wait to leave here.

I need a glass of wine.

And she said, Did you just hear what you said?

I said, No.

And she said, You said, I need a glass of wine.

That's what your dad says all the time.

I need a beer.

I think you have a problem.

And I was so angry.

I just remember, like, I think I got emotional, but it was like an angry emotional.

Like, who are you to tell me?

Like, I'm a grown woman, like, I don't have a problem.

And then I started thinking, and at this time I was in a relationship with someone, and I'm like, well, I mean, I do drink probably every day.

I drink when no one's there, like I'm excited about when there's an opportunity to drink.

And so I started to question it.

Like, oh, I wonder if I do drink too much.

But went on with my life and ended up getting into the network marketing company around 27.

I got engaged.

And at this point, you know, it kind of went from like one addiction to serve that emptiness to another, right?

So it went from the recognition to the alcohol, then it got into like food issues, and then it could became success because I started to experience success.

I had a really fruitful career, and then that moved into entrepreneurship, and that became really fruitful for me.

And so I was like chasing these things that made me feel something and made me seem, you know, important or seem loved, I guess, by whoever I thought was loving me for my success and my partying.

I'm not sure.

Anyways, so I at 27 get engaged, and that's when things started to really shift for me.

Like my husband came from a Christian family.

Like he, of course, we had fun, but he came from a pretty solid Christian back faith.

And so we started to go to church here and there.

And obviously, I didn't drink nearly as much because he didn't.

And so things were starting to kind of shift.

And I had my our first son around, I think I was 29.

And I started to get these huge anxiety attacks whenever I would drink.

So they would come on and it would just be like I'm talking one or two drinks in, which I was used to having like five if I was gonna drink.

And they would come on and be like so intense, I would get, I would get physically ill.

I would throw up or need to go to the restroom and like my heart would race and I think I was gonna die.

And the funny crazy thing about this, Kevin, is I'm like, it must be something else.

SPEAKER_00: It's gotta be like something I ate.

SPEAKER_02: Is it like for traveling?

Like, what is it?

It can't be the alcohol.

Like I didn't want to admit that something was going on with the alcohol.

Anyways, I continued to have these for like a year.

I mean, anytime.

And I would keep validating it, keep validating it.

And finally, one day in church, I remember we'd found this great church finally, kind of looking around for like the right fit.

And I'm standing in worship, and I'm just really like, I had been starting to seek like, is there more to this?

Is like, am I living my life the way God would want?

I was praying again.

I was figuring out how to read a Bible.

Like I had started to kind of do these things because I was a mom and because I wanted to be a good Christian and I wanted to do right for my family and for my husband and for myself, but I didn't really know where to start.

And I'm standing there, and I just remember this song came on, and I felt the conviction of the Holy Spirit like surrender right now.

It's now.

And I remember like I just shot my arms up, which I had never raised my arms in church before.

And I felt just like the impression of the Holy Spirit just threw me from my head down through my body.

I remember crying and going, oh my gosh, this is it.

Like this is it.

This is the feeling.

Like this is the thing I'm I've been chasing so long.

Like, this is it.

And that was the moment that everything changed.

I decided to become sober.

And so that was a journey, but it happened.

Don't drink anymore.

It's amazing.

Don't miss it at all.

Like, praise God for that.

You know, God saved so many pieces.

He saved me in my business.

Like, he helped show me how to create what I have now.

And I'm sure we'll talk about all those details, but he helped me.

Every single thing completely shifted in that very one moment.

And from then, my faith became something that was always first.

I mean, you know, yes, we're human, but like God, like, I want to seek you.

I'm chasing after you.

I need to know you.

I want you in my morning.

I want you when I do the dishes.

I want you in my marriage.

I want you in every single part of my life.

And that became this journey over the last probably six years of more.

Like, there's always more with God, and there's always more with your faith.

And that's been this beautiful evolution of me digging into that each and every day and each and every year in every area of my life ever since that moment.

And now just I'm all out.

I'm all sold out for God.

SPEAKER_01: Well, Stephanie, first and foremost, I mean, what a beautiful testimony you have.

I mean, for the simple fact of I got to know you through your podcast.

And on your podcast, you were like all out loud with faith.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: I mean, and you are a woman.

That's what drew me into you.

The minute I heard your first podcast, I came for content.

I didn't expect to come for like a Bible lesson.

And yet I got it and I was like, this woman's a little bit crazy, which is a little bit out there, but I like it and I love it.

And I kept listening to more and more.

And I'm like, ooh, baby.

And so to hear your story, that you're really no different than anybody else.

And the fact that you've been through your chapters in life.

Some of them that you're proud of.

Some of maybe you wish you had uh done things a little bit different, but it makes this a beautiful testimony that you have today.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah.

Thank you, Kevin.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.

So talk to me about entrepreneurship.

I mean, you you talked about being top of your game in this network marketing.

Then you you have Have this realization that there's that there's more.

There's something more for you, more that you're supposed to do.

Where does life take you?

Because goodness knows God works in some mysterious, crazy ways that rarely are the way that we think we should be going or doing.

So, what did God do crazy in your life?

SPEAKER_02: Yes.

Well, after the network marketing crash of 2016, I really struggled.

You know, I had written the letter to God, and but I was still really in this hard space.

Like it took me years and years to get to that final outcome I just shared with you.

And so what I did was, which is what I think a lot of people do, is I went, what will make money?

What should I do now?

And so I started to blog.

I was blogging about all kinds of random stuff, like how to style your mantle, how to make pregnant pre post-pregnancy meals, like what's gonna work?

I'm just kind of throwing spaghetti at the wall.

And duh, that didn't work.

I was making YouTube videos, but those were just super pokey.

And who am I?

And what am I even talking about?

Who am I talking to?

I had no idea.

But I'm doing these things.

And then one day I'm like, maybe I should try just talking to the woman that I used to be.

Maybe I should just talk to women who are trying to make sales using Facebook because I had that's what I had actually done to grow a multi-six figure network marketing business.

So I think maybe I could help some people.

And I just decided, Kevin, I'm like, I cannot do like makeup and hair very well.

Like you said, I'm kind of crazy, but like in this weird, authentic way.

And so I'm like, I'm just gonna be that.

Like, I don't really care.

At this point, I have nothing to lose.

I'm not making any money.

Like, let's just have fun.

So I start going live on Facebook in these mom groups.

And I built my own and I started going live in there too.

And I would just walk around with my phone and talk about sales or marketing or DMs or whatever it was that was kind of on my heart, how to navigate like a schedule with it with a little kid because I had a newborn and a one-year-old at that time.

And pretty soon, what I thought was really interesting is in the course of like a year of doing that, people started to ask, do you coach?

And again, I still wasn't making any money.

And I was like, Do I coach?

Sure, why not?

I'll coach because like mama needs to make a dollar over here.

Like, that sounds good.

So I start taking a few people and I don't even know what it is.

Like, remember at this point, I'm like easing into my faith.

And I'm like, so I hadn't really, I didn't know, like, oh, you just sit down and literally pray and ask God and He'll give you the way.

Like, I wasn't doing that.

I didn't even know that was what you should do.

And I think sometimes, like on a segue, sometimes we are never told how available God is, and and that Jesus is right there, like with the answer, with the next step, with the gift.

All of it is already available, but we don't understand as Christians sometimes that we need to ask, that we need to invite, that we need to be willing and open as if he is our best friend, our mentor, our teacher, our friend, our parent, our student, our client, all rolled into one.

Like that is the relationship that's available.

And it could have been so much easier than me trying to fumble my way forward by myself.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: But alas, that's you know what I did.

So I remember meeting with somebody and I went, so what do you want to do?

And they're like, I don't know.

I'm good at this and I'm good at this and I do this.

And it was like I had this Holy Spirit download, like, oh, their thing is this.

And in like 20 minutes, I told them, your business is this.

Like I was able to articulate and hand them this clear sentence of like, oh, yeah, well, you should do this.

Like, this is what your online business would be.

And like people were crying on these calls.

Like, I've tried for 15 years to figure out what I'm supposed to do.

And oh my gosh, like this is crazy.

How did you do that?

I'm like, I don't know.

And so it was nuts.

So, like, maybe 10 clients later, somebody says to me, Kevin, can I have one of those clarity sessions that you do?

Can I have a clarity call?

And I was like, Oh, that's what it's called.

Okay.

So I'm like, kind of doing these calls here and there.

I created an online course, a couple of them.

They were awful.

They did not do well because I didn't know what I was, I still didn't know who I was serving, right?

And so those were kind of a flop.

And I was everywhere.

I was trying to YouTube, I was trying to blog, I was on these Facebook groups.

And I remember about this time that I went and had that like real true God moment in church.

I asked God, like, I'm ready.

I'm ready for my business to work again.

Like, I want to make a difference.

I want to help people.

Like, I'm I believe that I'm called to help people figure out what their thing is and understand how to grow a business successfully, but mine isn't successful.

I don't understand.

I'm showing up everywhere, I'm trying everything.

It doesn't feel good.

And so I just trusted that God was gonna give me away.

In October of 2018, I had been praying consistently about this.

I had a dream.

And in the dream, I heard start a podcast.

It was actually really weird.

It was purple letters.

It was like, start a podcast.

I'm like, well, God knows my favorite color is purple.

So that must be how he's speaking to me.

It was very, very, very clear.

And I woke up and it felt prophetic.

Like you can tell the difference for me of like, oh, I had a dream and it's just a dream, to like, God said something to me and I heard something and I felt something.

And I went into the back of our home and we had a drawer.

And I opened the drawer and there is a$20 super static y busted up Amazon microphone in there.

And I was like, let's go, God.

Like, if there's anything I'm gonna do, it's listen to you because I've tried.

I have tried and I am tired and I am done and I can't without you.

And so I plugged it in.

I created awful podcast art in Canva.

Please, for the love, never go seek out my first podcast art.

So bad.

I was like eeny meeny miny mo, picked a name and pressed record.

I had no idea what I was doing.

It was awful.

Now that I'm a podcast coach, I'm like, oh, Milanta.

Like that's embarrassing.

But that's the point, right?

God wanted me to take action and do it wrong so I could learn how to do it wrong.

And then He could teach me the things to help people do it right.

And what happened was pretty crazy.

So I kept every day I would wake up and say, God, what do you want me to say?

What do I talk about?

Lead me, guide me.

Like I'm just here with you.

I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing, but I'm here.

And all this while, like my faith is growing.

So the podcast really started out more business-minded.

I would sprinkle a thing or two about my faith, but it was really a business podcast.

Within a year, it exploded.

I had over 100,000 downloads.

I was getting consistent clients from the podcast itself.

I quit blogging, I quit doing all this other stuff because it was like, well, none of that was working.

I just really leaned into podcasting as my main avenue.

And I still was on Instagram as well.

And that's a whole nother story.

And so within a year, I was like, oh my gosh, this is how I can teach people.

And everyone had started asking me, how do we start a podcast like you?

Like you've helped us get clear on the business, but what do we do now?

And so I would kind of coach people through the podcasting process and realized I'm saying the same thing over and over.

Like this is the same process.

So I ended up creating Podcast Pro University, which was my first real true course that was successful.

And so I would coach people, get them clarity, and they'd move into the course.

Well, oh my gosh, within two years, like the business is exploding.

I've hired my first person on the team, the podcast is growing.

I can like feel the presence of God on the business.

And I felt him say, like, bring me into it.

SPEAKER_00: And for me, it was like, oh, like, like what?

SPEAKER_02: Like the preacher stuff and business stuff.

Like, how do I like, are you sure?

And so one thing about me that is probably a big downfall, but also I think some of our greatest gifts at the same time is I'm a massive action taker.

So it was like, I don't know how this is gonna work.

Let's do it.

So I ended up rebranding the show to the Stephanie Gas show at the time.

And I brought faith into the podcast, like really big, really crazy.

Like Kevin said, sometimes you're gonna get a sermon, sometimes you're gonna learn how to make sales.

And I just allowed it.

I allowed that to be two pieces of me that were all one comprehensive like thing that I was, and I realized like I'm serving somebody who has a faith or they're searching for a faith, and they also want an amazing kingdom business.

Like they they're here for making money and they want to do it for the good of God and with God.

And so I just leaned into that.

And so what actually ended up happening next is kind of funny.

I continued to make more money and more profit in the company, and the the team grew, but the podcast became really stagnant for about a year, maybe 18 months.

And so I was questioning everything like, am I not a good podcast coach anymore?

Like, am I doing something wrong?

And I think the lesson in there was for God to just remind me like what my students would go through because I did a few things.

I ended up doing one more rebrand.

It was, I guess, January of this past year.

And we just blew up, blew the lid off, like 1.4 million downloads, crazy.

Like the team is crazy, like we'll be a seven-figure business soon.

And it's to me to like look at this crazy business that I could never have dreamed of.

I never wrote on a vision board, I'll be a podcaster with two courses, three courses.

I never wrote on a vision board, you know, I'll have a million-dollar revenue company with four people that work for me and interns.

Like it's too big to the point where it could only be God.

And also to the fact that God used me, this girl who takes like ridiculously messy action with awful podcast art and an awful microphone, and not even sure who the heck I'm talking to, and can completely bring it full circle in as little as five years, like to create what it is now.

I just sit back and I'm in such awe of what he can do with your yes, and what he can do when you just get out of the way and allow him to take the lead.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

Oh my goodness.

I love it.

Now, I I'm curious when you when you talked about being in that that kind of slump in in New York, getting discouraged.

What do you feel about the new direction or the rebrand, whatever you did?

What do you feel was that ignition point that made it take off again?

SPEAKER_02: Yeah.

You know what it really was?

It was remembering that it wasn't about me.

Like, oh, I've created this podcast and it's called The Stephanie Gasho, and this is about me.

And I talk about this because I'm here.

It was this map.

I actually sat and did, I ended up with over 4,000 lines of market research data because I'm like, what's wrong?

What's broken here?

Not gonna, you know, like if something's not working, get into the data and figure out why.

And what I recognized is I was speaking to people so much farther along than they thought that they were.

As I sat and went through all of this research, I found that my person was this woman who was making less than a thousand dollars a month in her online business, if anything.

All she wanted was to make some money to support her family.

And she was spending endless hours on social media and was sick of it, had no idea how to start a podcast, didn't think she could start a podcast to be the way that she could grow.

And like, I had to go back to the basics.

I had to get back to where my person was that God had created for me to help and start speaking to that person where they were.

I was dumbfounded because I thought, well, I've been podcasting for four years.

People are just moving right along with me.

They're just growing right along.

No, no, no.

Like the podcast is consistently bringing in new people and you're constantly recycling, right?

Like your students who have success, they move on.

And so you're recycling with these new people and forgetting that you have to meet the people where they are and use the words that are going to resonate with them the most.

It's not, it has absolutely zero to do with you.

And so when I realized that, I was like, oh my gosh.

Like, so I renamed the podcast Online Business for Christian Women.

And of course, we have our our men in the group as well now.

It's grown to that size where that's the next question.

Is it still a Christian woman or is it for Christians?

We'll find out.

And I brought it back to like a base level where they fully understood, they fully felt seen and heard, and they were actually getting really big results again.

And it just, it was that easy.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

Yeah.

I love it.

Well, well, the the whole thing about for female Christians or just Christians in general.

I joined part of your Facebook group when it even said it was for females.

And I just when it said I left a little note when joining.

Listen, I have part of the gender, I just am missing the F and the E, you know?

So please let me still join.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we've got, and what's funny is like we run this, I run this group coaching mastermind program, and every single time there's one man in our group.

And so she becomes like our, you know, everybody loves like, oh, who's our guy this time in the in the in the course?

And so, yes, I definitely have my, I call my the women Lola, that's her like name that I've named my avatar.

And I'm like, but I got my Larry's here too.

I see you guys.

SPEAKER_01: I love it.

I love it so much.

Now, one thing that I want to to ask you about, because I know that the woman listening today, and they're like, okay, now this is great.

And she's she's blown up this business, she's having this amazing success, but how does that then impact the fact that she's still a mom and a wife?

How has that impacted that part of your world?

SPEAKER_02: Sure.

Well, the first portion of my life, right, where I thought that success had to be the biggest piece, meant that I was prioritizing work and busy and success and social media and all of those things.

Because in my mind, what I believed to be true was you had to be all or none in this thing in order for it to work.

And you do if you're going to build something the world's way.

And I proved myself right.

And it was at the extent of a lot of things and a lot of hardship.

And now what's really interesting is like where I sit today, and I will be brutally honest, like the past six years have not all been like it is today.

There was a time when, you know, someone would leave the team, and yes, of course, I have to step in and like work in a lot of hours, or we're doing a launch, or like there are seasons of sprint, always.

I had to redo a course, or I'm creating a course or something of that nature.

There are seasons of sprint where you're gonna work really hard.

But where I am today, I'm like, why do we believe that we can't be extraordinarily successful and present for our kids and a great mom and a really loving wife with a healthy marriage, with great communication?

Like, who says that that is unavailable for you?

Who says that you can only have one or the other?

And as I started to question these narratives that I believed to be true, I realized that the only truth was whatever God said about who I was in my life.

And when I stopped being scared, because at first I was scared to make money again, like, oh no, like money is gonna equal me taking calls at 5 a.m.

and 10 p.m.

And like, oh no, I'm gonna be working all the time.

Like, I don't want, ever want to become her again.

And I realized I don't have to do anything the world's way ever again.

Like, God will make a way for this to happen.

And so I just started to pray for that life, Kevin.

Like, Lord, how do I work 20, 25 hours, take my kids to school, pick them up, play with them, out, you know, mountain bike with my husband, be present.

I don't want to work on the weekends anymore.

Like, I don't want to be tied.

I'm done.

How can you help me get there?

And what happened, which is so crazy, is like when you fully trust God, there's always a way.

And the first thing God did was convict me about social media, full out conviction, like, get off.

Excuse me.

Like, I have a successful business on Instagram.

I had 40,000 followers, 750 to 1,000 likes per post.

Like, I can't, but I was spending three to five to six hours a day on this app posting and repurposing and capitalizing on my kids to make, I don't know, somebody think I'm relatable.

And I hated every second of it, but I didn't think I could escape.

And so I started to delete the apps on the weekends.

You know, I met God halfway.

SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I hear you.

SPEAKER_02: Like I can negotiate.

Okay.

So I start getting rid of these apps on the weekends and I feel something shift.

I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm at peace.

I can see clearly, like I can play outside without feeling like I have to take a picture right now.

I can sit and hear you, and I'm not wanting to click an app.

Like I can really hear you for the first time.

And I'm like, this is amazing.

I don't want to get back on, but I would.

I'd get back on on Monday.

And then about, I guess it was two years ago now, I felt the Lord convict me to do a fast from social media.

And so I decided to get off for 30 days.

I said, okay, we'll do 30 days.

I'm gonna prove to my audience we can weather 30 days because we have a podcast so that, you know, to make them believe like you don't have to have social media either.

Like, let's all test this theory.

So I get off, my whole team, everybody's off of Instagram, nothing for 30 days, everything explodes.

The podcast grows, the email list, the sales grow, the community is flourishing, like everything's going crazy.

And I'm not posting, I'm personally not on Instagram.

We're not posting anything anywhere else.

I don't have a Twitter or a TikTok or anything like that.

And I went, I'm not getting back.

I stayed off for six more months, explosion.

And God brought me two or three more people on my team.

I wasn't even asking for them, Kevin.

They would go, Hi, we'd like to work with you.

Can we do this?

Hi, we'd like to intern.

Like the Lord was just sending me these people that were integral to being able to take a step away me as the leader of the company, like out of the weeds of the company.

And in the six-month period, we ended up going, I went from like a 40-hour week to a 20, 25 hour week, had all these amazing people come up.

I saved 10 to 15 hours a week not being on social media anymore.

And at the same time, my podcast and business passed, you know, like that million threshold.

All in this epsilon of time of me going, God, what do I do to create this life where I can be both?

Help me do this.

I'm with you, like whatever it takes.

And then being obedient when he actually answered me.

I could have easily said, oh no, that must not be God.

Let me stay on this platform because it makes more sense.

But I was willing to be obedient and to trust him, knowing like his way has to be better than this way.

And so that ended up bringing me to where I am today.

And I often tell people that ask me, you know, how does it feel to run the company that you run and live your life?

I'm like, it feels like heaven on earth.

Really.

Like when I go to heaven in the new earth, like I could just be that, it could be this.

Like I get to work and I get to meet incredible people and I get to pour into my students and podcast and speak.

And then I get to turn my computer off at two o'clock every single day and pick up my kids and play and go to baseball practice and color, put them to bed, you know, connect with my husband, go mountain bike.

Like, what is this life?

And what I'm here to tell you is that that life is also possible for you because God wants us to experience blessing.

It doesn't mean it's gonna last this way forever.

There's hardship, there will be struggle in my future.

Of course, we live in a fallen world, but there's blessing and there's grace and there's redemption in your every single day.

And you having a big, beautiful, successful business has nothing to do with the fact that you can also be available and have time.

Sure, it may take a few years to get it where you want, but do you if you trust God enough and you allow Him to give you all the pieces to that puzzle and get yourself out of the way, I truly believe that that can be possible for anyone.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

You know what I keep thinking as you're talking, as you're sharing this, I think, why would we not think that the creator of the universe would not appreciate us taking bold action in his name?

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: You know, why are we surprised that he rewarded you because you listened and you took action and you did a question?

You know, and I think it's absolutely beautiful.

And I th and listening to you today, uh I might that's literally.

The summary of you of bold action in the face of what we might be scared of, but being assured that God's in control.

And, you know, we are here with him.

I mean, my goodness, you made him, you know, your your business partner for Pete's sake.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: You know, I mean, I I can't imagine going into the boardroom with with God.

I mean, you know, I mean, that's just awesome.

And uh, I applaud you for it so much.

Stephanie, one thing I would would love to ask you is for the people though who maybe they're kind of feeling like I did the first time that I heard your podcast.

And they're like, you know what?

I like this lady a lot.

And I want and I want some more of her.

And I need to get some more of her.

How are they gonna do that?

What's the best way for them to get a little bit more Stephanie gas in their everyday life?

SPEAKER_02: Yes, Kevin.

Oh, that's so funny.

So the first thing I would say is come and listen to my podcast.

I've got over 600 and some episodes where you can come and binge listen, whether you're trying to get clear on what your business could be or ministry in your life could be, or you're ready to stop the social hustle and be able to grow something of meaning using your voice, using podcasting, like Kevin and I have done, or you want to make money online.

You want to be, you feel called to be a kingdom entrepreneur, to be a giver, to be generous.

It's something that's really important to you.

Then come on over.

It's online business for Christian women, or you can search for Stephanie Gass.

And then my website is stephaniegas.com.

That's S-T-E-F A-N-I-E-G A-S-S.

And I've got some free things, free quizzes, lots of information about how to get connected with us, et cetera.

SPEAKER_01: Amazing.

I will be sure all of that in the uh episode show notes.

And Steph, I have one last question for you.

And that is I would love for you to speak to the woman listening today who is maybe you back in that season of life where maybe she's in a successful, we'll use quotes around successful, but a successful career.

She's making the paycheck, she's doing the things, but there's just that piece of her that feels empty.

What would you say to her right now?

SPEAKER_02: Well, I would say that that is something called your discernment alarm.

When you feel this listless, this searching, the enemy is very tricky.

So it can sometimes it can manifest as something else, right?

Like an addiction, something you know you shouldn't be doing, maybe like the constant searching for the new business, starting over, starting over, starting over.

Maybe it's the seeking of recognition, maybe it's a way that you are hiding things or emotionally unavailable.

Like any of those things are alarms.

And I want you to pay very close attention to them because the enemy wants to take whatever it is that's going on and twist it and make you believe that it's okay or that it's validated or that it's someone else's fault.

But what it really is, is it's a siren, I believe, from the Holy Spirit for you to turn and look at God and seek Him and see what is wrong, what is going on, what am I missing?

What should I be doing right now?

How can I find freedom from this thing?

But in order to get to that place, we first have to A recognize that there's a problem, which is those discernment alarms.

Even the like unhappiness of isn't there more?

Even if that's the question, or oh, I hate my job.

Like, isn't there something else I can do?

Like, take that and lay it at the feet of Christ.

And I know me 10 years ago would have no idea what that meant.

And so what that means is, Lord, I am feeling anxious, or I am, I maybe I'm drinking too much, Lord, or Lord, I am feeling addicted to social media and my phone, or I'm unhappy in my marriage, or whatever.

And I don't know what to do.

I'm fully handing it to you because I know you know what to do.

You have the next step.

You have freedom from this, you have healing in this, Lord.

I know that you have a way for me and I am completely lost without you.

You are not a God of confusion.

So I pray that I would receive divine clarity and divine direction on what to do and where to go, and that you would help me through this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

And you just ask that with all of your heart and all of your soul, and then you keep asking.

You may not hear immediately an answer or a direction, but every time I open my journals from a year ago or five years ago, my questions are answered.

My prayers are answered.

It's not always the way that I want or the way that I think, but they have been answered.

And God had a better way than maybe what I was thinking.

So trust that in time he's going to make a way for you.

I think one of the most pivotal tactical things I can say to you is to spend time with him every single day.

I know we get busy.

Oh no, I have little kids or whatever, but one of the best things I ever did for myself was to get up before my family, made a little prayer couch in the corner of the house that no one uses, and I got a Bible I could actually understand.

The N it's NLT version, started in the New Testament, started praying messy because I had no idea how to pray.

And I just started.

And I would get up before everyone else, and I'd open the Bible and ask God to help me.

Lord, help me understand the word today.

Show me what to read.

And I journal over it and I talk to God.

And as I started to do that, my mind started shifting.

The hardness in my heart, it went away.

The emptiness that I was trying to fill with this thing and this thing and this thing, that emptiness was gone.

I was completely changed.

I was made completely new.

And now I crave that time and I bring to him my business problems.

And no matter how small or how big of a thing I'm facing, I know I can bring it to him, whether in the moment or in that time in the morning with God.

And that was such a life-changing practice that I started to do.

And I would highly encourage you to do that.

And lastly, just lean in.

I want you to just lean in.

Lean into whatever seems hard, but you know you're called to it.

Lean into healing the relationship with your child or whatever.

Like just lean in to whatever you know God's asking of you.

The discipline and obedience, like Kevin said earlier, it's always blessed.

God's just waiting on you for your yes.

He's waiting on you for bold action.

And it's always going to be blessed, and you're always going to find favor on the other side of that.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

Amen.

Amen to that.

And you know, the the thing that I would encourage you, my listener, to do is if you're new to this, this journey, to this faith journey, and it still seems kind of foreign and you're not really sure about it, is I would love for you to think of it as a relationship.

Just as you build a relationship with your spouse, with a best friend, you're building a relationship with your creator.

And I'm here to tell you that there is no better, more impactful relationship than you can have than with Jesus Christ.

Stephanie, I want to thank you for being here today to share your testimony, to share your story of hope, of this idea that life, you know, it's just beginning.

There's so many opportunities.

We just have to trust.

We have to take bold action.

We have to have a relationship with our creator.

And we have to just get out there and do the thing.

And uh, so thank you, Stephanie, so much.

SPEAKER_02: You're welcome.

Thank you for having me, Kevin.

SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.

For you today, be sure to check out those show notes where uh Stephanie's information is provided.

And uh, you know, it's a great race and inspiration.

So get out there and take on the day.