As a believer, there is a temptation to separate your business and you faith—after all, business is business and your faith is your faith, right?Wrong! Living a Directed Life means that all elements of your life are submitted to the direction and instruction of the Holy Spirit.To put it simply—your business and you faith are not meant to be separate.
As Kingdom Entrepreneurs, one thing we’ve learned is this—when you honor God’s ways in the framework of your business, you sit underneath an open heaven where abundant blessings flow freely. In this episode of “Directed Life”, host Kap Chatfield sits down with founder and owner of Divine Persuasion Studio, Wendell McKinney. Together they discuss ministry in the marketplace and the blessing that ensues when you use you business to serve the church. If you’ve been hesitant to lean into your faith in you business endeavors, check out this new episode for some divine perspective.
00:00 🙏 Divine Persuasion Studios starts every meeting with a prayer and thankfulness, believing in the guidance of a higher power for their creative technology company.
11:46 🙏 God's plan for us is to do good works and co-labor with Jesus, even in building a business.
17:54 🙏 Inviting God into your work can lead to a scalable and easy-to-understand business, as seen in the speaker's own journey of serving churches and non-profits.
27:08 🙏 Churches are a big market in the US, but to succeed as a business, focus on a specific niche and ideal customer profile.
31:51 👥 Building a strong team culture is more important than strategy in business leadership.
36:55 🚀 Believe in your mission, market yourself, and don't be afraid to fail while daring greatly as an entrepreneur.
41:31 🧘♀️ Take care of your mental and physical health to be a successful and loving entrepreneur, and prioritize rest, worship, and self-discipline.
52:56 🙏 Holistic health and prayerful contemplation of the Psalms can bring emotional, physical, and spiritual healing.
- Wendell McKinney, CEO and founder of Divine Persuasion Studios, shares the practice his team does before every meeting or call, which involves starting with a prayer and asking for God's guidance.
- The team starts every conversation with thankfulness, reminding themselves of the things worth being thankful for, such as working internet, the ability to work from home, and enjoying kombucha.
- Divine Persuasion Studio is a creative technology company that offers graphic design, creative direction, video, motion, social media strategy, and full merchant apparel releases to churches, thought leaders, and non-profits, with the mission to tell the most beautiful story in the world.
- The speaker reflects on how he has never been the director of his life or vocation, and believes that the Holy Spirit of Jesus has it all figured out.
- The speaker reflects on how one moment of divine persuasion during a period of silence led to the creation of his company, Divine Persuasion Studio, with the help of talented friends and a network of people.
- We are not in control of our lives, but placing our trust in a higher power can lead to a fulfilling journey.
11:46 🙏 God's plan for us is to do good works and co-labor with Jesus, even in building a business.
- We are God's workmanship and called to do good works, and the analogy of God being a director is profound as we often try to write our own script in life.
- God has a plan for us and when we submit to him, we can co-labor with Jesus and experience the intimacy of his humanity.
- The speaker discusses a notable moment where he heard the voice of the Holy Spirit for direction while working at a company called Push Pay, founded by a hero of his in entrepreneurial endeavors and following the way of Jesus.
- As a young Jesus follower, it can be challenging to navigate the Western Evangelical Church and find our place, but we must remember the importance of prioritizing God's house first.
- Being a follower of Jesus means being a representative of his on this planet and building a business with a talented group of people can be a form of ministry.
- God is the guiding force behind every product and decision made by the speaker's company.
17:54 🙏 Inviting God into your work can lead to a scalable and easy-to-understand business, as seen in the speaker's own journey of serving churches and non-profits.
- Inviting God into your work can lead to a scalable and easy-to-understand product or service, as seen in the speaker's own business.
- The speaker discusses a unique business focused on serving churches and non-profits, and shares their journey of deciding to make the company explicitly for God's kingdom.
- Find an underserved niche market, develop a simple solution, market it well, get client feedback, and keep going.
- Identify one niche market that is underserved and focus on serving them directly to be more successful in business.
- Focusing on niche markets can provide value and spiritual fulfillment, even for churches with limited budgets.
- Focus on your passion and finding a viable solution to a problem rather than worrying about market fit or potential barriers when starting a business.
27:08 🙏 Churches are a big market in the US, but to succeed as a business, focus on a specific niche and ideal customer profile.
- There are a large number of Evangelical churches in the United States, with an estimated 250,000 churches, and some are expanding to other countries like England and Australia.
- To be a viable business, you only need a small percentage of the market and should focus on identifying your ideal customer profile.
- DPS aims to serve high-end churches with top-tier platform and white-glove treatment, and is not the best fit for churches with below 400 average monthly volume, but plans to develop a better price point in the future.
- You only need a small percentage of resources to have a successful business.
- Understand your market beyond your own perspective and focus on a specific niche to reach your intended audience.
31:51 👥 Building a strong team culture is more important than strategy in business leadership.
- The speaker is an unconventional business leader who prioritizes building a strong team culture and believes that culture is more important than strategy.
- Christian entrepreneurs often struggle with marketing themselves and making sales, but it's important to approach it in a spirit-led and organic way.
- Choosing a vocation is a significant decision that takes up a large part of your life, especially if you decide to be an entrepreneur.
- Mental and physical health are interconnected, and self-limiting beliefs can be caused by everyday behaviors such as diet, exercise, and sleep.
- Prioritize your own well-being before trying to change the world.
36:55 🚀 Believe in your mission, market yourself, and don't be afraid to fail while daring greatly as an entrepreneur.
- Prioritize your mission above all else, whether it's recruiting, sales, or overcoming challenges in your business.
- Believing in the mission and caring about who they serve is what enables the speaker to market themselves and their business effectively.
- Take care of your mental health, improve your diet, sleep well, get sunlight, drink enough water, eat lean protein, believe in your mission and don't limit yourself.
- Believe in your mission, market yourself, and don't be afraid to fail while daring greatly as an entrepreneur.
- Sometimes God may tell you to be in obscurity and trust that he will provide, but in business, it's important to market and sell your product or service.
41:31 🧘♀️ Take care of your mental and physical health to be a successful and loving entrepreneur, and prioritize rest, worship, and self-discipline.
- The speaker discusses the importance of taking care of one's mental health and operating from a place of rest in order to be an effective entrepreneur and fulfill the mission given by God.
- Focus on building a great culture and treating yourself well in order to do your best work and be a loving and caring person.
- To become a better person, one must take inventory of their health, diet, exercise, and emotions, and practice meditative and breathing techniques to achieve wholeness and peace, which is more important than success or wealth in entrepreneurship.
- Rest is important for mental health and productivity, as shown by the absence of work in the Ten Commandments and the need to care for ourselves as a foundation for caring for anything else.
- Worship is a vital spiritual discipline that allows for a recalibrating experience of existing in the moment to glorify God, and praying in the spirit can provide a direct connection with the Lord for wisdom and guidance.
- The speaker emphasizes the importance of physical health and clean diet, and encourages listeners to ask the Holy Spirit to guide them in choosing one area of discipline for their physical health.
52:56 🙏 Holistic health and prayerful contemplation of the Psalms can bring emotional, physical, and spiritual healing.
- The guest on the show shared his story and was asked to pray for the audience.
- Holistic health is important for emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being, and prayerful contemplation of the Psalms can be healing.
- The speaker thanks Jesus for the opportunity to be there and prays for comfort and strength for those trying to start a business or career, asking for divine persuasion and bringing peace to weary souls.
