Welcome back to another episode of the show. Not just any episode though. This is the 100th episode of The Purpose Collective podcast. How did we even GET here.
Thank you for rocking with meeee!! It doesn’t matter if you are new here and this is your very first episode or if you have been with me since I dropped the first three episodes on December 1, 2020.
I am so in awe at God for where we are. 100 episodes came VERY quickly. I still feel so new to this. I still get a tiny bit nervous when I hop on the mic. I’m so grateful to still have something of value to share with you each and every week.
Quite a lot of podcasters go through what’s called podfade. Podfade is when a show gradually stops releasing new episodes, and eventually they fall off the map altogether. So the fact that I have made it past the point where most podcasters fall off is a feat in and of itself. More on that later though.
When I was thinking through what I wanted to share during the episode, I decided on sharing:
- Some of the lessons I’ve learned which I have converted into tips for you to consider after God gives you an assignment,
- My vision for the show moving forward, and
- I also have something special for you at the end, so stick with me until the end
Listen on Apple Podcast | Spotify | Google Podcast
Tips on How to Move After God Gives You An Assignment
Tip 1: Start
The first lesson I learned and my first tip for you is that you have to start. When God gives you a vision of something or an assignment to do something… just start. Even if it’s a rough start, you have to start. I would hear a lot people say this, but I had never created anything of this magnitude before, so I didn’t really know this to be true for myself. I believed it in theory because I had seen how starting something would play out for others.
I mean look at where Beyonce has gone from her start of launching the House of Dereon clothing line to now having Ivy Park with Adidas. I could see how this worked for others, but it wasn’t until I got started with the podcast and the ministry of The Purpose Collective that I knew for myself, just how necessary it is to just…start.
One of my favorite podcasts that I have been listening to since around 2017 is a show called How I Built This hosted by Guy Raz. How I Built This is a show about…
...innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists and their stories about the movements they built.
In each episode, we hear deep, intimate moments of crisis, failure and eventual triumph through the stories of the guests that he interviews. Some of those guests include the founders of Peloton, Ben & Jerry from the iconic ice cream brand Ben & Jerry’s, Jo Malone, the founders of Wayfair, Lyft and AirBnB. The show is literally a masterclass on innovation, creativity, leadership and how to navigate challenges of all kinds.
A few weeks ago, the host of the show interviewed Issa Rae, the founder of Hoorae Media and creator of the hit HBO show Insecure. During the episode, Issa Rae talked about when she first got her feet wet in television production in college. She made videos using a camcorder that she checked out from her school’s library. Then she wrote script outlines and filmed a show called The F Word, which she did for seven seasons.
This is before she did the Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl. When she was filming The F Word, Issa didn’t have any fancy equipment. She didn’t have any employees. She didn’t fully understand the longevity of the internet. She didn’t even own her own camera, she borrowed one. None of that mattered though because she was just starting. It was more important for her to start and get the experience, than focusing on all of the other stuff people convince themselves that they need to have in place before they start something.
The host of the podcast, Guy Raz, even spoke about how in the beginning of his writing career 25 years ago, he would write A LOT and couldn’t get any of his work published. He admits that so much of his writings were bad, but he needed to write that stuff in order to eventually write stuff that was good. Like you have to get all of the not so good stuff that you produce when you first start out doing something, in order to really fine tune your craft and become not just great, but exceptional.
I started this podcast without knowing much about podcasting. I was an avid listener of podcasts but I didn’t know anything about how to put one together myself. This was not anything I had ever thought to do myself. In fact, I would listen to podcasts and think dang, the production on this is so good. I know it took a lot of work to put this together, but I was never curious enough about it to research how to do it.
But once God called me to operate in this lane, I knew I needed a vehicle to get the word out about purpose to other Believers. I really wanted to do a blog because I believe that I am a much better written communicator, than I am a verbal communicator. I knew I didn’t want to start on YouTube because the barrier to entry was too high for me.
I know me, and I would have wanted to research cameras, lighting, microphones. It would have required me to dress up and not only know how to edit videos but purchase video editing software. It was expensive and time consuming. So, I decided to go with podcasting with the thought that I would incorporate video later. I knew there was an urgency to start so I didn’t want to delay it any further than I needed to.
In the beginning, I did EVERYTHING myself. When I say everything, I mean everything. I found the guests, I communicated with them directly because I didn’t have an assistant at the time. I edited every episode myself. I even designed the first cover art for the show. Was it good? NO. No it was not lol. I mean, some people thought it was, but I actually cringe when I see.
It was literally just a photo of me with words over it. No unique design elements. I mean nothing fancy. But I needed a cover, and I couldn’t afford to hire someone to design one for me. But, I was not going to let not having a cover stop me from starting this podcast. So I designed it myself and when I could afford to hire someone to design a new one, I did.
I can hear my progression over the episodes
I’m more comfortable interviewing guests. I ask better questions. I dive deeper. I organize my solo episodes better so the flow is more cohesive. I’ve added people to my team so that I can offload tasks that I’m not that great at or that I have no desire to do. The show has come so far, all because I started.
This is where a lot of people give up…at the beginning. They never start. Nate Hughes, who’s a guest on a prior episode of the show said a popular quote that’s so true which is, “you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” You’ll never know if the shot will go in if you don’t take it.
A lot of times the issue is you don’t know where to start, but to that I say just start somewhere that makes sense to you and what God has told you. And it’s okay to get in a little over your head. In fact, I encourage it, because that’s how you learn and grow.
Alright, now that I’ve laid out the first tip and lesson I learned during my podcasting journey, let’s jump into tip number 2.
Tip 2: Stick With It
If God tells you to do something, stick with it. Stick with it until God tells you to stop. I was talking to one of my students inside of Positioned for Purpose Academy, which is my signature course where I teach how to partner with God to discover your purpose. When I spoke to my student we discovered that we both started our fitness journey around the same time, which is May. We both mentioned how we are JUST now able to really see the results of the work we’ve been putting in.
It took us consistently exercising for four months, that’s over 100 days, in order for us to start seeing them. The thing is, most people would’ve quit by now if they hadn’t seen any results. But who I really want you to think about are all of the people who quit like the day before or the week before they start to see results, which brings me to an economic concept that I want to introduce you to called a trough.
A trough, in economic terms, can refer to a stage in the business cycle where activity is bottoming, or where prices are bottoming, before a rise happens. During a trough, businesses experience conditions like higher unemployment, layoffs, declining business sales and which means also declining earnings.
Let me backup a bit and explain the business cycle in general before I narrow in troughs. The business cycle in general has five phases. Those five phases are expansion, peak, contraction, trough, and recovery. Expansion is a period of steady and rapid growth and development. A peak is a high point where expansion shifts to contraction. This is the opposite of a trough. Contraction is when growth slows.
A trough is the bottoming process of moving from contraction, or declining business activity, to recovery, which is increasing business activity. Think of the phases of contraction, trough, and recovery as looking like the letter “U.” Contraction would be the left side of the U where things are declining. A trough would be the very bottom of the U. and recovery would be the right side of the U where things are increasing.
I don’t think the concept of a trough is exclusive to business though. It can apply to just about anything someone creates or is in charge of that involves other people. A trough is where a normal person would give up. I learned about what troughs look like from listening to How I Built This, the podcast I mentioned earlier that Issa Rae was a guest on.
For years, I listened to innovators and entrepreneurs talk over and over and over again about how every last one of them made it to a point in their business or ministry or brand where things bottomed out and it looked like it was the end.
- Issa had her camera and tapes stolen
- Ben & Jerry’s weren’t making a profit and discovered they weren’t going to sell enough ice cream to stay in business
Before I ever knew God would call me into the ministry of The Purpose Collective, I would listen to these stories from founders and creators of some of the world’s largest brands. Stories where they experienced moments in their business where most people would’ve given up. Moments where it legitimately made sense to stop and I would hear how they would keep going.
After I decided to start the podcast and began doing research, I read a lot of statistics about how a lot of shows would stop creating episodes pretty early in their journey. Apple’s podcast library has two million shows for listeners to choose from, but it turns out that 26% of them have just a single episode available, and 64% of them have fewer than 10 episodes available. So, I set myself up to go past that.
Since I knew all about troughs and how most podcasters gave up after ten episodes, I conditioned my thinking and positioned myself to make sure that when I noticed a decline in downloads or when I felt like I had nothing else to say, I would push past this temporary point and stick with it.
Because by this point, I knew that after the trough, recovery and expansion begin. The tricky thing about troughs though, is that they are extremely hard to spot in real time. They are almost always recognized in hindsight. The reason being is because, when you’re going through a trough, you don’t know it’s a trough, because you can’t say with certainty that expansion will follow the decline you’re experiencing. In fact, all of the evidence points to the fact that there will be no recovery or expansion. The facts and evidence say that this bottoming out that you’re experiencing is it. This is where you need to pivot away from this, into something else.
The difference with me though, is that The Purpose Collective is not my thing. It wasn’t even my idea. This is God’s thing. Because this is God’s, I can say with absolute certainty that I will experience recovery and expansion… and so can you when you’re doing God’s work, but only if you stick with it!
Alright, let’s move on to the last tip I’m covering in this episode.
Tip 3: Never forget the source
Even though I’m 100 episodes into this, I still would occasionally make the same mistake. It’s said that “a smart person learns from their mistakes. A wise person learns from the mistakes of others.” So I’m sharing this mistake with you and the lesson I learned from it so that you won’t make this same mistake. Tip number three is, never forget the source. Never forget who gave you the idea in the first place and whose job it is to provide what you need to execute the idea.
God is the source. He will provide a way for you to get what it is you need in order for you to do the thing He destined for you to do.
There are days when I sit down to outline a podcast episode and I have absolutely no idea where to start or what to even say. I come up completely blank. The reason I come up blank is because I’m trying to come up with what to say on my own, forgetting that this isn’t “my thing” to begin with. This is God’s thing that He has anointed me to do, so if I need guidance knowing what to communicate to the people He’s trusted me to serve, then I need to seek Him instead of using my brain and intellect to come up with something to say.
My Vision Forward
Those are just three lessons I’ve learned since I started podcasting, but honestly, the lessons just keep coming and they will continue to come. I’m committed to growing and improving, and taking you along the journey as well.
I will continue podcasting for as long as God remains with me here. The minute He tells me to pivot to something else, I will. But for now, you got me here and I’m so excited for what’s to come next for the show. I’ve been thinking a lot about where the show will go from here and all I can say is buckle up!
My Prayer for You
I wanted to make sure I end this episode with something for you, so if you stayed with me until the end, I want to pray for you.
Father, thank you for this platform you have given me and for this opportunity to pray over those you have called me to serve. God, I ask that you ignite a desperation in them for the things that concern their destiny. Give them a heart to serve your people. Father, thank you for the provision that will follow. Thank you for raising up people who will support them as they execute their purpose. Thank you for strengthening them and thank you for giving them the desires of their heart that align with your will.
In the precious name of Jesus, the only one who makes us right you, Amen.
Want More?
If you enjoyed this episode, then you may also enjoy the episode of the show about the fear of success and how it hinders purpose or this episode detailing what to expect when operating in your purpose.
Resources Mentioned
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