The Ups and Downs of "Social Media"

We live in a world where Technology is forever evolving.  For the business owner and ministry gift, we must learn to adapt our businesses and ministries to the world that we live in.  Can you remember how the telephone evolved?  Although I did not live in the 1700’s and 1800’s, we have pictures and old TV shows, that shows how they communicated.  I was born in 1967, so I’m going to speak from what I actually used.  We went from the phones with the rotator dials, to the push button phones, to cordless phones, pay phones on the street, big fat cell phones, flip phones, smart phones, and phone watches.

Just like our communication has evolved, so has the World Wide Web as it relates to Social Media Platforms.  Can you remember the social media platform that a lot of businesses were using in the early 2000’s?  It was MySpace.  I remember when I started by business in 2003, that people had MySpace, but I was never interested in that.  I had a website, so I thought that was all I needed.  Then in 2006, FaceBook and Twitter came out, but it wasn’t until 2009, that I joined because people in my circle really talked about social media.  In the beginning I only used it for personal stuff, although I had a business and ministry page.  I used it sparingly.  One by one I started joining different social media platforms, but was not very consistent with posting.  Sometime late 2013, early 2014, I really became consistent with posting, blogging, showcasing my work and using more interactions with my customers.  My consistency was one of the ways God used to increase my business.

I want to talk about the Ups and the Downs to Social Media.  Everything God created is good and most of the things that man creates are good; however, depending on how we use stuff, will determine if it has a negative or positive effect.

Social Media Platforms give you the ability to promote your business and/or ministry to an audience that goes way past your family and friends.  Often times, when we start something, we look to our circle of friends to support, celebrate and applaud our new adventure; only to find that many people have been disappointed by the things they experience when starting that new journey.  I have also heard people tell me they don’t like social media because they look at how other people post and get turned off, because some of the things they see is foolishness to them.  Then some people are so private, they don’t like people knowing their business.

No matter what your views are about social media; allow me to share the benefits of this platform.  Previously I stated that social media allows you to reach an audience that is outside your circle of friends.  I often teach in my business workshops that “Somebody needs what is on the inside of you.  Somebody’s answer is in you.”  Whatever God gave you to do, (write a book, start ministry, a support group, or a business); somebody is looking for you.  You may not know who they are, but once you release it through the World Wide Web of the Social Media Platform, it has the ability to reach who it needs to reach.

God knows who you are assigned to and He knows who is assigned to you.  Just like a fisherman, they put the bait on a hook and throw it into water to catch what comes.  Depending on what pool of water they go fishing, will determine the type and size of fish they could catch.  Well it is just like the World Wide Web of the Social Media Platforms, depending on what sites you are on and what bait you are using, will determine if the right people connect to you or not.

Social Media Platforms is not about constantly selling all the time.  It’s not about being that nagging sales person or the cold callers ringing your phone all day that we keep avoiding. This platform is more of a “soft sell.”  It’s about letting people know who you are, what you are about and what you bring to the table.  It’s about showcasing your field of expertise.  Those who need your services or like your spirit will begin to follow you and connect with you for your service or product.

With exposure can also come a lot of pressure to maintain a so-called status or appearance that can also be construed as false.  I remember when God birthed my first ministry that He spoke, “Karen I bought you by the way of rejection, to break that spirit off you once and for all.”  With the World Wide Web of the Social Media Platforms, not only do you showcase what you bring to the table, but you also see what others are bringing to the table.  This has the ability to start digging up old emotional wounds that has gone unchecked.

If you don’t evaluate your thought life, you will allow the negative emotions to cause you to shrink back or just stop using this platform or be on the platform and not maximize its potential.  I had to do this for myself many times and even in my workshops I speak on it, because there are many of us that have the same insecurities.  When I first got on social media, I kept replaying that same word God spoke to me about breaking the spirit of rejection off of me.  It was like He did not allow anyone to like or comment on my post, because He wanted me to know what He was doing in me and through me.  I needed to know that it was God making me and not man.  If we don’t realize who is really backing us, we will always look for man’s approval and once you get it, then you will have to keep doing to keep man’s approval.  Also you will begin to judge where you are based on others celebration of you; instead of what God has said about you.

Social Media Platforms can be the hoe that God’s uses to dig into the wounded places in us and start exposing the negative emotions and thought patterns that we didn’t know was there.  Some people will find themselves fabricating online to make themselves appear that they are something there not.  Then it can also cause people to start comparing themselves to what others are doing and try to emanate what they see other doing instead of staying in their own lane.  This is how we begin to exhaust ourselves and find ourselves going down the wrong path on our entrepreneurial and ministerial journeys.

 Allow God to begin to purge you from the old negative emotions and begin to divorce yourself from the opinion of others.  Because the flipside of people being drawn to you, you will find that some will attack you.  We have a lot of haters on social media, because we live in a dysfunctional world; therefore instead of celebrating one another, we compete with each other.  However that should not be the reason for you not to showcase what God put in your hands to do.

Again, Social Media Platforms is not bad, it is how we use it.  Begin to assess the real reason why you don’t like it.  Go deeper than just the excuses you tell yourself that justifies your actions of not using it.  God has need to get you in front of the people who you are assigned to.  People need what is in you and they are waiting for you to come forth.  It is your time to shine, so allow God to do the work IN you, so He can continue to USE you.

I'm offering a program called Metamorphosis.  It’s a 1 year coaching program geared around your need.  The biggest value in this program is the accountability because I have seen many people go to conference/ workshops and church w/ great word and go home and fall back into the same routine.  You also get monthly 30 minutes of 1-1 coaching, ½ off my workshop, one of my books for free, and 1 hr group coaching session via phone.  You get all this for 47.00 a month but the initial fee is 250.00 (this price is for a limited time).  Click here for more details and to register.  I can be reached during the day 301-782-2285.

This is your time to shift your business, ministry and/or organization to the next level.

Entrepreneurs – vs – Kingdom Entrepreneurs

Webster defines an entrepreneur as a person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so.

 

Entrepreneurs have a different kind of mindset.  They are a unique breed of people.  While some people sit and fantasize about the glamour of being their own boss, those in the thick of business understand that even though there are rewards to entrepreneurship, it can also be difficult and complicated.

To be successful at entrepreneurship you can’t start the journey by impulsively quitting your job to chase a get-rich-quick idea or because you hate your boss.  There are many articles, post and blogs that give us step-by-step insight into starting and running a business.  For the sake of this blog, I want to talk about the difference between entrepreneurship the worlds way and the kingdom way.  I once read an article that said; that there is no magic to entrepreneurship.   The super-rich entrepreneurs you read about in the news usually didn’t get there because they randomly stumbled upon a great idea.  They got there because they poured years of effort and passion into a good idea, and eventually their efforts paid off.  You can’t become an entrepreneur expecting there to be a miracle, or some kind of instant, magical rise to the top because your idea was revolutionary.

Although I agree with some of that statement, there is another perspective I’m going to share.  I call it “the Kingdom Entrepreneurship way.”  Matthew 25:15 says God has given us talents according to our ability.  That means there are gifts, talents, and an anointing that lies on the inside of us that God gave us to accomplish the assignment and dream that we were born to fulfill.  We were all born to accomplish something on the Earth that will make a difference in the lives of those we serve.  Your business answers and solves someone’s problem.  The assignment that God put on the inside of you is bigger than just you getting rich; however, your finances will increase when you obey your God-given assignment.

Kingdom Entrepreneurship is about recognizing who really is the CEO of your business.  Let me give you an example.  When you go to work, you are responsible for performing the task that is set before you.  You are responsible for getting there on time, checking in with your up line for the daily assignments etc.  What you are NOT responsible for is the running of the entire company.  You are not responsible for how all the employees will get a paycheck or how the company keeps their contract so they can stay in business.  The CEO wears that burden.  Well it is the same way with your business.  When you recognize that God, who put the business in you, is really the CEO, then you will begin to seek Him for the daily, weekly and monthly instructions.  When you have regular meetings with your CEO, then He gives you the grace to balance your business, family, church, etc. 

The world standard is work hard, grind all night, exhaust yourself with work, work, work; trying to make it happen and make it big.  Although we do want our businesses to take off; Kingdom Entrepreneurship is not about exhausting yourself with works of flesh.  It is about stepping out on what you hear in you, taking risk based on what God is telling you to do and watch the unfolding of what God wants to bring you into.  Many of us listen to more people around us and what they did and their advice instead of listening to what God put in your heart to do.  The reason why we second guess ourselves a lot of times is because of the fear of the unknown and our own inadequacy issues.

When I first started my business, Anointed Press Graphics, Inc., I started in my mother’s basement.  My business was birthed through a spoken word.  I never went to school for what I’m doing and I did not come from an entrepreneurial background.  I have been a secretary my entire life, so I was in a position where I had to lean on God, and not my own wisdom or skills, because I knew He started it.  When you recognize that God is the CEO of your business, then you will come to know that His wisdom will always supersede man’s wisdom.  People can give you advise from their perspective, but God knows where He is taking you and the route to get your there.

Let me give you an example:  When God told me to come off the job and do my business full time I was gun hoe until someone told me to save money and pay my bills off first.   That makes since, so now what that person said became my mission versus what God stated.  God then spoke two (2) more times about coming off the job, but I was paralyzed with fear because I didn’t have any money saved and I didn’t live home with my mother.  Well needless to say, God showed me I was going to be fired for something I didn’t do and I cried and said, “God I don’t want to go out like that.”  I heard God say, “I gave you 3 opportunities to leave and you would not.”  Two days later I was fired.  My business didn’t go to the next level until after I left the job.  Then after coming off the job two (2) months later God said, “Get your own place.”  I told another business friend and he stated, “all you need is a little suite, you don’t have much.”  I was like, “you right.”  But when it came to me looking, I didn’t care what I got, because in my mind I didn’t make enough to pay two (2) rents.  When God directed me to the location He had for me, it is a standalone building, approximately 1100 sq. ft.

God’s plan is bigger than what we see in front of us.  Making God your CEO will force you to deal with those things that is coming up in you as God pushes you out of the safe zone of entrepreneurship.  He knows what He put inside of you.  He knows your weaknesses, your strengths, your gifts, and everything else you are bringing to the table.  He just needs you to trust the process and trust Him as your CEO to take care of you.  The business you started or will start is not about you, but what God wants to do in the Earth.  It’s about marketplace anointing that lies in you to be the vessel He can use in the marketplace for His people.  Don’t allow the success or the frustrations of your beginning stage to cause you to lose focus of what is really taking place.

I'm offering a program called Metamorphosis.  It’s a 1 year coaching program geared around your need.  The biggest value in this program is the accountability because I have seen many people go to conference/ workshops and church w/ great word and go home and fall back into the same routine.  You also get monthly 30 minutes of 1-1 coaching, ½ off my workshop, one of my books for free, and 1 hr group coaching session via phone.  You get all this for 47.00 a month but the initial fee is 250.00 (this price is for a limited time).  Click here for more details and to register.  I can be reached during the day 301-782-2285.

This is your time to shift your business, ministry and/or organization to the next level. 

Click HERE to order this 6 CD & Manual - get great reviews

Unload Your Backpack

As we approach the end of the year, we also approach the time that we get busy with holiday, shopping and family gatherings.  For some of us, we look back over the year and say, “where did it go?”  “Did I do what I said I was going to do or accomplish?”  One more year goes by and we still have that dream locked up on the inside of us waiting to come forward.  Some of us have made some movement, but not really making momentum in the realm of the spirit.

  Let me encourage you with this blog about what it means to unload the “backpack.”  Whether you are giving birth to a new dream that’s on the inside of you, or expanding your business, or launching out into a new venture in your life; it will always require making adjustments.  Because of the type of business I operate, I have the privilege of meeting so many dream carriers that are in transition and launching into new endeavors; but sometimes it never gets off the ground because of the “backpack.”   I’m also a coach and teach business workshops, so I can hear and see what’s on the inside of a person and also some of the hindrances they face.

Our schedules in this generation are sooooo busy; however, some of us are trying to hold onto obligations of last season while we try to embark on this new season.  That is where the frustration comes in.  We don’t know how to let go of things temporarily in order to give birth.  Let me explain:  When a woman is pregnant, so begins to make adjustments in her life.  Some of these adjustments are immediately and some takes place as the baby grows in the trimester. 

The adjustment that we must make will consist of unloading our “backpack.”  What is the “backpack” and what’s in it, you may ask?   The “backpack” is the bag in our soul that carries the emotional and mental cares that we have picked up along our journey.  The majority of times we don’t know how much is on us, because we live in a place called, “familiar” and “comfortable.”  Therefore, as long as everything is familiar and comfortable we are able to handle the “backpack.”  We know how to maneuver in this place called familiar; however, when God begins to shift us into this uncomfortable place called “trust” and “new territory,” we find ourselves trying to maneuver in this new place with old behaviors.  That is when the “backpack” gets heavier.  That same weight you could carry in the last season becomes a stumbling block in the new season.

Unloading the “backpack” means beginning to confront areas that are “weights” in your life.  For example, some of us deal with being:  unorganized, procrastinators, fearful, intimidated, people pleasers, don’t know how to say no, self-rejection and rejection, insecurities, fear of failure, disappointments, fear of the unknown, self-pity, pride and negativity; just to name a few.  Remember, because we live in a place called “familiar” these same weights we knew how to carry and keep doing what we do.  But this is the season to confront the “weights,” and de-clutter our lives.  We must de-clutter our lives spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically; in order to possess the next thing that God wants you to launch into.

Luke 5:4b says, “…Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.”  The reward is not in the shallow waters of entrepreneurship, but when you are willing to take the risk and launch out into the deep waters of entrepreneurship and obedience that will bring about outwardly, what you can already see inwardly.

Let me introduce to you a program I created called, “Metamorphosis 1 Year Coaching Program.”  This program is about accountability among other things.  What I have noticed over the last 5 or 6 years of teaching these workshops is that although we take them and we hear great word; we also need that monthly accountability and someone to challenge us and push us to keep making momentum in the spirit so we don’t fall back into our routines.  This is how we will see the fullness of what’s in us and not just the little bit we are doing.

Click HERE to see details of the program.    Also click HERE to hear this recording on BlogTalkRadio as I go further into how to unload the “backpacks” in our lives. 

A great resource for helping you to unload the “backpacks” is my book: – It’s Time 2 Unmask the Real You – interactive workbook with a healing coach.  This book gets great reviews in people’s healing process. Click HERE for product

You Can Write a Book by Karen Presley

Do You Have a Book In You? If you are like most people, they have so many desires and dreams that they want to put on paper.  Your life is worth talking about.  Your experiences, your story, your expertise and your journey is waiting to be read by somebody.

Get a taste of what you will get on October 10, 2015 - Last class for this year.  11am - 3pm... REGISTER TODAY:  http://www.karenpresley.org/Calendar-of-Events

How To Recover From a Sucker Punch

Having a printing publishing company allows me the opportunity to meet so many people; ministry gifts, entrepreneurs and those who are launching into their business/ministry.  With that great joy of seeing people birth their dream; I’ve also seen people stop, shut down and go back to their familiar because the unforeseen “sucker punch” that comes into their lives.

This blog was birthed out of the pain of seeing so many people not being able to overcome the obstacles that take place after shifting into a new season.  Let me paint the picture. 

Over the years, I have had a couple of customers that came out with new businesses, became authors, created websites and branded themselves only to have a sucker punch like a divorce to come up.  Maybe they lost their job or a deaf of a loved one, after pursuing this great adventure of entrepreneurship.  So many unforeseen things can transpire after moving into a new endeavor; but God knew it was coming before they knew, but He still calls us to move forward.  Let me explain.

We live in a place called “familiar”, “comfortable” and for some of us “out of order”; yet those are the same areas that are our normal.  We know how to do life in those places.  We know how to maneuver in those places.  We know how to make things happen in those places.  However, when God shifts us into a new season and we begin to pursue the dream and purpose in us, we take those same “out of order” ways about us into that new season.

This became prevalent when I started working close with one of my customers.  He launched a book and business at the same time.  Doors were opening, things were flowing, speaking engagements were coming in and he was in hot demand.  He came out the door running into this new season hard.  I was so excited to see how many people supported him.  He even had several media coverage as it relates to what he was doing in the community with his business.  One year later from the release of his first book he was making preparations to launch a new book, blog talk radio show and we were about to develop his message when something happened in his life that through him a curve ball.

It was at that moment that God showed me how many other people started new adventures of entrepreneurship only to shut down the website after paying for it for months and never making it live and/or never going to print on their branded material that they paid for because something happened in their lives.  Although I reached out and tried to help these people, whatever was going on had their attention more than what I was imparting to them at the time.

Let me briefly share what is going on in the midst of these “sucker punch” moments we all experience.   God gave me a vision for the friend I was working with…  “I saw him on the step right in front of the door of his destiny, but the baggage he had been carrying was too much to go through the door.”  Many of you who are reading this blog is feeling the same pressure in your lives and you do not know what is going on.  The weight of emotional baggage’s, relationship baggage’s, financial stewardship baggage’s, baggage of being out-of-order in different areas in your lives are the things God is trying to deal with.  You cannot go into new endeavors that God is birthing through you with the same OLD HABITS that are not producing in your life.

The “sucker punch” moments were not orchestrated by God, but He allowed it, so you would press into Him, so He can begin to show you those things you must confront.  Many of us are so distracted by the things that are taking place in our lives that we do not see what God is trying to deal with US on.  It’s not the other person.  It’s not the boss or our spouse or the incident; it is YOU beloved that God is trying to expose areas in your life and soul that needs your immediate attention so God can catapult you into your destiny.  Your destiny is awaiting you.

 Just like a plant that has to be trimmed or pruned in order for it to grow greater and fuller; that is what we too must do.  We have to make adjustments in our lives because when we move forward into our destinies; we cannot do everything we used to do.  We have to trim our associates and maybe some of the things we used to entertain, has to be trimmed because you are in a new place, new season, new level of entrepreneurship….and everything you used to do, you can’t do anymore.  Some of the frustration in our lives is we are trying to do a new thing, and still hold on to old things and habits.

How do you recover from a “sucker punch” – seek godly wise counsel and recognize you can’t do everything yourselves.  We live in a world where so many people are isolated and live among their own counsel.  This is where the enemy plays tricks and deceives a person to thinking that the decisions they are making are OK.  Proverbs 11:14 says, “Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.”  Proverbs 15:22 says, “Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counselors they are established.”

Also we must learn how to encourage and strengthen ourselves when “sucker punch” moments occur in our lives.  1 Samuel 1-6 talks about how the enemy came in and destroyed the camp, stole their property, and took their wives and children.  To top that off, the men turned on David and wanted to stone him.  David had to encourage himself in the midst of a very bad day and it was after that, that he saw great victory.  The secret to overcoming “sucker punch” moments is to know how to encourage and strengthen yourself in the Lord.  The Lord is faithful to show you how to overcome every situation so you can win every time.

Karen Presley

Pastor | CEO | Author | Mentor

www.karenpresley.org

www.anointedpressgraphics.com