The title of today's episode is ‘How to Build an Accomplished Business;’ now when I say accomplished I’m going to be very clear with you guys accomplishment is not about the accolades. It's not about the money it's not about the followers, it's not about the awards; it's not about any of that.
When I’m saying accomplished over this episode, accomplished means building a business that represents God on the earth well. Building a business that makes people want to know who the God that you serve is because of the level of excellence that you do things and the level of supernaturalness; if that is even a word right? It’s just the level of supernaturalness that you and your business operates into where you do things at such a level that people are confused. It's like “hold on, what does she got going on over there, what he got going on over there?”
It got to be something special over there because of the way that their success is just not even able to be conceived by the natural mind. The way that their success and not just one area but in every area of their life like “wow, she said she believes in God, I kind of want to know who this God is.” “Dang, maybe I need to get saved and confess that Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins if this is what life looks like as a believer.” I believe that that's what our businesses should be; an accomplished business and accomplished life means that you complete what God put you on this earth to complete and you do it in a way that is an accurate representation of him.
What's funny is the enemy has done a great job of steering people the opposite way because there are so many successful people that are doing his work and not the Lord's. I think that it's time for us as believers to build these accomplished businesses so that we could truly be the salt of the earth so that we could truly be excelling in ministry and marketplace or whatever it is that we're called to. And I want to be clear about one thing here you guys, when I talk about the grind and chasing low-hanging fruit I’m not saying that we're all called to one area.
Many of us are called to multiple areas, I don't see an issue with doing more than one thing simultaneously, but what I’m saying is, are you doing it at the expense of where it's not representing God well? Is your attention so divided that nothing is fully coming together in a way that is going to make God proud, in a way that is an accurate representation of how excellent he is? That's all I’m saying so don't take this as “oh, Tatum is saying that I can only do one thing;” that's not what I’m saying.
I’m just saying to make sure that everything that you do and even if you can't do all of those things and they be done at that high level, be okay with scaling back to make sure that what you're producing is excellent. And that's not to say that it's perfect but it's just to say that it's excellent, it's of high quality, and that you're constantly improving it and refining it to make it better.
I have four points that I want to go over on how you guys can and how we all can build an accomplished business. Now, remember to be accomplished is to be pleasing in the eyes of the Lord and not in the eyes of man. If you want a simple definition of what I’m saying when I say accomplish, I mean to be pleasing in the eyes of the Lord and not in the eyes of man.
1) Focus on effectiveness and not the accolades.
I think to a certain extent it's human nature and natural for us to feel good when we get accomplishments.
To feel good if we get an award, to feel good if we're getting a lot of accolades and things like that but I believe that it's important to note that when building an accomplished business, you have to focus on the effectiveness and not the accolades. Jesus was effective, the disciples were effective, in Acts if you read the book of Acts, it talks about the foundation of ministry. They were effective, the goal was to win souls for Christ, the goal was to spread the good news and that's what they used to measure their effectiveness.
Now as entrepreneurs, we have to measure a few types of effectiveness right; of course, we have to measure the effectiveness of our business operations which includes profitability and stuff like that because we want to build wealth. But we're not building wealth so that we could be out here flexing; we're building wealth so that we could ultimately give back to the kingdom. That we can ultimately use that wealth to enhance the kingdom of God so we have that effectiveness that we have to keep in mind with our businesses.
But we also have to be effective in the sense where we are accomplishing the things that God has set us out to accomplish. One of the things that I try to stress to those people whose podcast that I help with I’m like, “Listen, all of this stuff like the numbers, we're going to talk about the numbers.” We're going to talk about how to increase your listenership and all of those things but above all, we have a responsibility to make sure that we're spreading the good news. We have a responsibility to make sure that when we hit record on these podcasts; I’m using podcasts as an example but insert whatever your space is.
But we have a responsibility to make sure that we're being effective and the numbers and what people say and how they feel should not dictate how effective we are in communicating the things that God has placed on us to communicate. I’ll use my show, for example, I rarely look at our numbers; I’ve been looking more often lately because we have business goals where we want to get to a certain point of monthly listenership.
We've been adjusting certain things so I’ve been playing around with different strategies that you guys probably don't even notice but I’ve been playing around with different strategies to increase our listenership and it's great because it's working.
But the most important thing to me is to make sure that I’m being effective when I open my mouth and saying what God needs me to say and saying it in a way that ultimately brings glory to him. So, when it comes to this podcast what I try to stress to people is, I treat this show as if this is the last time that I will ever get to open my mouth. When I hit record and it's time to speak what God has told me to speak, I take it with such a level of seriousness as if today was my last day to go what am I leaving on this earth?
Am I waiting till next week to get excellent, am I waiting for our numbers to reach our goal for me to get excellent, am I waiting to make a million dollars for me to be excellent, or am I going to be excellent and effective right where I am? I’m not waiting for anybody to give me an award for me to do and give honor to God the way that I need to. And so for me on this platform, I try to make sure that every episode is done well in a way that's pleasing to God so when I get in front of him that he can say “Well done my good and faithful servant.”
I don't want him to say “Well, great Tatum, you did all of this stuff, congratulations, you made all this money, you were so successful but you didn't do what I called you to do.” I can't imagine that happening and the fear of that alone is enough for me to make sure that I am operating in a way that's pleasing to God. And I believe that our generation gets so hung up on accolades and it's natural, like I said it's natural for us to feel good about compliments and awards and things like that.
But if you're building an accomplished business you cannot allow that to override your ability to be effective. When we look at our businesses, it's a lot of people even if I’m going to take my space for example of anybody who's teaching others how to start a podcast. A lot of people use their accolades as a way to prove to others that they're worthy of the sale pretty much, they use their accolades to get you to invest in them so they may say “we've been listed in the top iTunes for whatever the category may be.
And that's the list; the accolades are the list of what qualifies them to teach you but that's not effective and for me, even building my business, I think what's worked for us is building a business off of effectiveness and not accolades. We've been listed in top iTunes and listed in blog posts and all of that stuff, that's cool, that's well and dandy, but I’ve never been able to pay a bill with an accolade, never. I’ve never been able to help somebody succeed based on an accolade, we're able to do that based on effectiveness.
2) Constantly ask yourself how am I multiplying.
The Bible we know says to be fruitful and multiply, I don't think that that only meant to have kids and to be fruitful as far as giving birth and things like that.
I believe that God wants us to multiply the things that he's given us. We even think about the scripture with the men with the talents and I like the translation that talks about the investments and how this is the parable. I’m not even going to go through it but everybody pretty much was given some money and Jesus came back to say “alright, what's good, did you multiply it?” That's the Tatum short version of it, but I love that because it showed the only time that he said “well done my good and faithful servant” is when they multiply.
That was so impactful for me when I first came across that and for the sake of time, I’m not going to read the whole thing but I do want to give it to you for you to go read it. It's in Matthew 25 verses 14 through 30; again, it's Matthew 25 verses 14 through 30 that tells that parable. But when I first came across this it just showed me the importance of multiplying and so when we take it back to the building and accomplish business; think about how you're multiplying.
There are so many people out there that are trying to make themselves number one but are you creating more disciples, are you spreading the good news? Are you saving souls, are you duplicating others that are going to go out into the world and be accurate representations of God? And this is something I ask myself all the time, how am I multiplying? This isn't about me, I don't like being the center of attention anyway; if y'all ever see me in real life just on a regular day, I am not the loudest person in the room, I’m not in the middle of the room talking, I don't even talk that much.
I probably talk the most on this podcast; I’m just chilling, not trying to be the center of attention so it's uncomfortable for me period to try to make myself on some type of pedestal. But I believe we're just in this world where just being self-righteous or putting ourselves on these pedestals and being self-made and self-paid and "I got me".
It's keeping us from being effective and multiplying the way that God wants us to multiply and honestly, that mentality has multiplied selfishness as opposed to multiplying grace and people that are truly living for God. So for you and your businesses, no matter if it's product-based, service-based, however, it is that you're serving people how are you multiplying?
Ask yourself this question, when we do our retreats and doing podcasts, we're doing this not just as a revenue stream but we want to multiply. I want every show that we develop or we work with to reach hundreds of thousands of people because that's multiplying. Not only that, we want to make sure that they're multiplying well so that's why so many supernatural things happen at our events. I mean people get free from bondage, I know at the last retreat we put oil on everybody's voice boxes because it's called the Find Your Voice Academy.
We want people to truly find their voice in God before they leave there so that when they do get on their platforms that they're truly allowing him to speak through them and not just them. So, in the last retreat, we like put oil on everybody's voice boxes to just activate their voice and there are a lot of prophets that God has been sending to our retreats; and that’s an honor man. I’m not going to get into that because that's just such an honor but there are so many prophets that God has sent to us as well. So, it’s us being able to multiply the success we've had through this show in other shows is ultimately to bring glory to God.
So, ask yourself the same thing like how can I multiply? We have people getting filled with the Holy Spirit, people that are now able to speak in tongues as a result of coming to these events so now when they get on that platform, they have a new level of anointing that they'll be able to send out into these airwaves. That they'll be able to go to wherever God sends them to, go to the nations that he sent them to, now they have a fresh new anointing. A fresh new warfare tactic because the enemy doesn't understand us when we speak in tongues so the fact that God can send somebody to us and we can multiply in that way, it's an honor.
It's phenomenal, it's an absolute honor so now when they're praying and going to war on behalf of their business they can speak in tongues, and that further defeats the enemy. So, these things are things that we ask ourselves because again y'all if y'all been listening to me long enough you know how serious I am about giving honor to God in everything that we do and making people understand that this is a God business. I’m very unapologetic about it and I want you guys to be the same way; ask yourself in everything that you do how am I multiplying?
How am I taking the gifts that God has given me and multiplying them in this earth? How am I taking these events where people are trusting me with their time and their money to come here? How can I use this space to multiply? When we do this podcast, we're constantly asking how can I use this space to multiply. How can I not just get on here and talk about pop culture or talk about the same five business things that everybody else is talking about? But how can I get on here and multiply in a way to where these hundreds of thousands of people can now build stronger relationships with God?
And I’m not just talking to those who have platforms or are even entrepreneurs, this stuff can be applied to every area but how can we multiply people who are just out here being the salt of the earth? How can we multiply people who now have stronger prayer lives than before they listened to the show? People who once felt like they had to shrink the things that God has given them now because of how unapologetic I am or our guest may be on this show? How can we now multiply that in people to where they're like, “well, I don't have to shrink, I don't have to hide the fact that I’m a person of faith because I’m an entrepreneur?” So again you guys ask yourself this question, how can I multiply?
3) How would your work ethic be if God was sitting right next to you? Seriously, how would your work ethic be if God was sitting right next to you? One of my favorite scriptures is in Colossians 3:23; it says, “Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men” and this is kind of a follow-up to doing things, being effective, and not looking for accolades. But whatever you do work heartily as for Lord and not for men. Think about this when it comes to how you're building your business, what would your work ethic be if God was sitting right next to you?
How excellent and thorough would you be in your business and how effective would you be in your business if God was sitting right next to you? How would your house look if he was coming over, how would you treat your husband if he was right there in your kitchen with you while y'all arguing about something? How would you go out into the world and preach his word if that's what you're called to do if he was in the front row? I think these are the type of spaces we need to put ourselves in to make sure that we are building accomplished businesses.
Because it's very easy for us to get caught up in the day-to-day, all that we have to do, getting caught up in just being tired a lot of the time because that's real sometimes. But just really asking yourselves these questions about how am I multiplying and putting yourself in a mindset of how would I do this? How would I build my business if God was sitting right here? These types of things are going to help you stay the course and then the
4) To build an accomplished business is to be decisive.
When I say be decisive make a decision that you're going to build your business God's way and also be prepared to be tested if you really about that life. If I’ve learned anything since getting saved and choosing to make God the CEO of my business, it’s the importance of being decisive. And the importance of your actions lining up with who you say you are and what you say you believe because when your bank account is on empty, you're going to have to make a decision. Am I going to just do whatever to make some money real quick or I’m going to keep doing it God's way?
When God told me to shut down all my business operations where I had no revenue streams I had to make a decision, I didn't have a job at that point; I was out of a 9-5, I had no money. So, I had to make a decision, am I going to continue, at least, am I going to be a little bit obedient, am I going to halfway do what God says? Maybe continue one part of the business just so I have a couple of dollars coming in because surely God wouldn't tell me to not have any revenue streams even though I know that's exactly what he told me.
So, am I going to sit there and make excuses for my disobedience or am I going to be who I say I am? And so, for me, that decision was, “look, I don't want no smoke with God because I fear God, I don't want no smoke; let me just be broke because surely, he’s going to provide a way. He said that he'll supply all my needs according to his riches and glory so here's an opportunity for us to see how that's going to work out because sis ain't got no coins.” But seriously, you have to be decisive; are you going to still pay your tithes because God told you to when you don't see how the rest of your bills are going to get paid?
Or are you going to make excuses and try to reword the word and try to pervert it to make it seem like the word says something that it doesn't like it's not clear when it comes to tithing? Or when nobody understands what you're doing and when everybody thinks you're crazy and when everybody's looking at you like “I don't know if God told her to do that because that doesn't make no sense.” Are you still going to do it God's way even if that means doing it by yourself, are you going to procrastinate on what God tells you to do and try to hide behind confirmation because a lot of us do that right?
We try to procrastinate like “oh God, I need confirmation;” so you need 25,000 different confirmations before you do what it is that God told you to do but you don't see that as disobedience when procrastination is very much disobedience. Are you going to procrastinate or are you going to just move but simply because he says so? All of these things are rooted in a decision you guys and the decisions that you make daily to do things God's way are what separates you from who you are and who you say you are.
And a lot of us our actions aren't lining up with what we say we are; we say that we're going to do business God's way but when things hit the fan that's when we try to negotiate. Or when he says something that we don't understand is when we try to negotiate as opposed to simply doing what God said to do. Or we allow our feelings about not being where we thought we should be or whatever to cause us to rebel against the things that God has called us to do or we leave that door open for the enemy.
I know for me, sometimes when stuff hits the fan I’ll be like “whoo” and I gotta sit for a second and tell my flesh to pipe down and ultimately just make sure that I’m making the right decision. Just be as logical as possible because for me my decision-making needs to be aligned with who I say I am despite how I feel or despite the hurt that may come from that decision. Everything that that hurts isn't the devil; God prunes us and for us to be prune you have to be stretched; you have to be hurt so sometimes the things that God has us do are painful. Sometimes making that right decision is painful but is ultimately in alignment with God and that's how you build accomplished businesses.
RECAP:
1) Focus on effectiveness and not the accolades.
2) Ask yourself how are you multiplying?
3) How would your work ethic be if God was sitting right next to you?
4) Be decisive.
So that wraps up another episode you guys of the Blessed and Bossed Up Podcast! Love you guys!