Meet The Brand Revivalist

Amy Dardis 0:09

Welcome back to the Building a Clear Authentic Brand Podcast. I'm your host, Amy Dartis, and today I am so excited to introduce you to Latricia Morris, the brand revivalist and owner of Ox and Iron. She's an expert in strategic brand development for brands looking to connect with the market in more meaningful ways. Letricia, thank you so much for joining me today. I'm so happy to have you and having this time to share your story and your expertise.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited.

Amy Dardis 0:42

All right. So I just did a little mini introduction, but I think obviously what you have to say is way more interesting. So how about you just start us off, start us off with what it is that you do?

Branding As Identity And Message

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Oh gosh, the full package. So as you said, I am the brain revivalist and owner of Ox and Iron. Ox and Iron is an agency that I launched several years back on graphic design work, where I had been doing graphic design work for, you know, years on years, decided I was going to go ahead and take it to the market, give it a go, see how things went. Fortunately, kept seeing it grow based off of just word of mouth, referrals, and things like that and repeat business. But one of the things that I took note of with clients that were coming in was how many of them were not able to answer some basic questions about their brand that I felt like, man, if we really want to get this project right, we need to understand these things. We really need to understand who we're speaking to, proper calls to action, how we're gonna actually speak a message that's gonna move that person in any capacity. And so from that point, I dove headlong into branding, went back, did Brandmaster Academy and other studies and stuff like that. And it's been a no looking back. I just love it.

Amy Dardis 1:55

So a lot of people think of branding as like graphics and logos. How would you describe like what branding is?

SPEAKER_00 2:03

Well, man, yeah. So I get a lot of people that do make that assumption that that branding is logos and typography and color palettes. And it's like that's really the last part of branding. When you're talking about branding, I think the simplest way to understand it is at its core, it's really about identity and communication systems, right? People often don't really have a lot of clarity with business where they might come to the market with the amazing thing that they sell or the amazing thing that they do and miss who it is that they really are, who their ideal customer or client truly is, not just their baseline demographics of like women who are 65 or older, right? But like who is this human being that you're trying to connect with and how do those two interact? So when we go through and we're talking brand development and brand strategy, I absolutely love being able to go in and do those deep dive conversations to unpack all of that because I've found that a lot of people when they're struggling with their marketing and and communications and all of that, is because they often don't really see the value it is that they're bringing to the market. So they struggle to communicate in a way that the person that's intended to receive it understands it too. But when you start to go through and really break all of that out, it's amazing to see how people just light up and they step back out into the market with so much clarity and conviction that really helps to start driving results.

Amy Dardis 3:29

Yeah, absolutely. I found that also like just through having our own agency, that that it's funny, that same kind of observations of like, wow, brands not seeing in themselves what makes them so great. Like they they kind of know it, but also just almost this lack of faith and like no, you really are unique. And the more you can hone in on that, the more powerful and an impactful that becomes. What's your what's your process? Like, if a brand comes to you and they are like kind of stuck, they they want to walk through this process. What process do you walk them through in order to find that clarity?

SPEAKER_00 4:11

You know, when I have people reach out and they're like, oh my gosh, my brand needs help. Generally, I start that off with a consultation to help me understand what their goals are, how much they're looking to dive into the brand project. Because, you know, some people are at a stage where maybe they're earlier on and they're not prepared to do the full commitment or investment into doing a rebrand. Maybe they're still trying to find product market fit. They're still trying to really figure out what they're bringing to the market. And it's like brand discussions are important at that stage, but sometimes they're not necessarily ready to do the full-on deep dive into that project. I would say the sweet spot is when they've been in business at least a couple years. So they've started to get their footing. They have a better idea of who it is that they're serving. They're hearing the commonly asked questions and frustrations of the market, and they have a lot more data to pull from. But I feel like at that point they've also put enough of themselves into it that their commitment to the process is different, which makes it a really good point for collaboration where it's like, all right, they already have all of this stuff going on. Now let's help them to reach to that next level. And that's where I like taking the time to sit down with them. I generally start off by doing my own market research and bringing that to the table as we sit down and we do a brand interview. It's usually about three to four hours of us just going through and unpacking a series of questions that help me to more so unearth a lot of the things that people don't always know to share. And so sometimes it's sometimes they're standard questions, sometimes they're like, why on earth is she asking me that? There's always a point to why I'm asking it because it's usually a way to work around getting, you know, getting the answers that I need to help uh to help that brand. And so I take all of that back home and with my notes and everything like that. And then I do more research. We usually at that point go into the development of the brand guidelines that helps us to lay out the structural side of it, right? So we're discovering not just who their ideal client or customer is, but breaking down who that brand is, who their competitors are, their points of differentiation. Like you mentioned, there are a lot of ways that they're unique. They often don't realize that they're unique. We unpack their language and their personas and all these other things, lay it out clearly so it's packaged in one place. That way they have that tool to readily share with their team. The if there is another marketing agency that's gonna pick the ball up and run with Google Ads or something like that, like it goes to them. But then we move from that phase into developing the brand assets so that we can help them to clearly articulate everything that we came up with in that development stage. So short story long, you know.

unknown 6:43

Right.

Amy Dardis 6:43

Yeah. How long on average would you say that that process takes from like start to finish?

SPEAKER_00 6:49

Going through the if you're saying a full rebrand, going through doing brand guideline development and then turning that into renewed assets, going through updating logos, websites, printing digital media, things like that. You're usually looking up about a three-month process, but some of that depends on client responsiveness. It can also depend upon the size of the company. You know, when you have a company that is much larger with possibly multiple locations involved, things like that, then that can elongate the time frame only because it's a much larger scope of work. Whereas a smaller company, maybe a solopreneur or just, you know, 10, 20 employees or something like that, you may not have to be quite as extensive or on deck quite as long. And so it can sometimes be a little bit more expedited based off of that. So usually though, it comes down to you know how quickly we can go back and forth re with revisions or questions and answers, just because entrepreneurs are busy, right? So if you're working with the you're working with board members, you're working with leadership, you're working with maybe the owner of the business themselves directly, like how much of a workload they have aside from that project can also impact how long the project takes. But as far as my side of it, I usually try to keep it keep it nice and tight, but not rushed.

Why Businesses Stay Reactive

Amy Dardis 8:04

Why do you why do you think brands struggle so much with this foundational clarity piece? Like when it's our their own story, their own business, like they're in it. Why do you think they have such a hard time being able to really hone in on it and then communicate it in a meaningful way?

SPEAKER_00 8:25

I think one of the things that I see is that they a lot of times people have a hard time committing to the process, particularly when businesses are operating from a place of reactivity, right? So when a business is in a position of, you know, there's there was a saying I read once it was like marketing is always most almost always done from a state of crisis, which is terrible, right? That's a like that's a very sad reality to live in for, but for a lot of businesses that can hold true, even with some that are truly, truly amazing businesses or ones that have even been top players for decades, right? Is it really depends on kind of like where they're at, the state of mind that they're in as they're making those decisions. I think one of the bigger roadblocks is that when they're looking at branding, it tends to be one of the latter things that they circle around to because they're in a stage of like, well, maybe if we market this way, maybe if we run these ads, maybe if we push these campaigns and they're needing to meet a short run need, right? Like we need revenue now. And a full rebrand is not necessarily a revenue now strategy, as not that it won't produce as a soon result, right? But branding and rebranding, it's something that produces more fruit over time. And so I think one of the challenges that a lot of businesses run into is where they're looking so much for immediacy that they overlook the importance of the strategies that are going to support longevity and help to compound over time. So when you're talking about branding, rebranding efforts, it is an effort that should compound over time. But if they're in a state of being reactive, they're not necessarily processing that or seeing that. And instead, what ends up happening is I see them shift into uh trying to mimic what other people are doing, copycatting other companies, or at least trying to somewhat imitate them as much as possible and resorting to tactics that they hope give them those quick wins. And it's like, okay, sometimes you do need that quick win, go for the quick win when you need it. If it's if it's still on brand, right? If it doesn't hurt your brand. But then also, what are we doing to invest in the long-term term success of the business? That's where we go back to branding.

Amy Dardis 10:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:37

I have been guilty of all of those things.

Amy Dardis 10:39

Like, I mean, and I've I've I've been guilty of it so often, so much that I've come to the point where it is so painful where I'm like, okay, I cannot keep doing this because I find myself in this cycle. And then that that pain and that discomfort is what forced me to be like, okay, I really have to think long term and I have to, you know, I have to go through this process because what I'm doing, I'm I'm tired of it like just biting me in the butt every time.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

Yeah. Well, and one of the things that I did, I mean, when I when I first started my agency, this is, you know, there's a lot of this that I've I've had to learn myself the hard way, right? Because when I first started my agency, I started it thinking that I was just launching a side gig to get me through a season. And that I was definitely awakened very quickly to the fact that I needed to really be thinking about it in terms of not just a side gig, but actually running a business, a profitable business, and then also building a business that I would actually want to run. And I think that's part of the of the hurdles that people have to get over, especially when they they maybe launch the business because they would, you know, maybe they worked as a painter for so many years for so many other companies and then they went out on their own. There's a learning curve that happens when you're going into running your own business, doing the thing that you're so exceptional at. And when we're in that startup phase, I know like for me, it was like, oh, okay, well, I just need work. I just need projects, right? And at some point I had to realize, like, okay, uh if I keep trying to take on projects at any cost, like, oh no, I'll do it for that much. That's fine. And I'm not really making what I need to make, then for one, not making what I need to make in that moment only sabotages my overall capacity to continue to stay in the game as long as possible and be of the best service to the people that I'm here to serve. But it was also a trap, right? Because you keep taking, you keep saying yes to bad fit clients, you keep saying yes to projects that don't pay you what you actually need to make and what it comes with a cost. We're often thinking, well, I need that check now. But I hit a point where I'm like, okay, saying no to that, like I may already be uncomfortable and I know I need to take on these projects. I know I need more clients coming in, I know I need more revenue coming in. But if I keep doing that, taking on clients that are bad fits and that aren't paying as well, or they're just a pain in my butt and they're zapping my freaking time and energy, I'm gonna stay stuck in that rut. And I'd rather be a little bit more uncomfortable for a time and hold my ground so that I can establish stronger positioning than to stay in that trap. And when I made that shift, I shifted and said, okay, firmer boundaries, you know, better setting rates that were where they probably should have been to begin with, right? But but changing my rates, not for the sake of overcharging, but for the sake of of charging them out that makes, you know, keeps me in the game while also helping clients respect what I was doing for them. Like it was a win-win all around that was it was a temporary discomfort that allowed me to shift into setting my business up and my clients up for better success. So it's not it's not fun in that process, right? But it is worth it. No.

Amy Dardis 13:52

Did you find that going through your own branding process, what was that experience like for you?

SPEAKER_00 14:00

You know what? Like I the first the first time I went through a rebrand process was with myself and I didn't even realize that's what I was doing. So, you know, if you if you take me back on a timeline, when I originally started learning graphic design work to begin with, what I started my agency with, I actually started learning it because I was going through my own health journey and I was a young mom, stay-at-home mom. I wrote a series of kids' books. And I'm like, I want to help families to live healthier lifestyles, right? And I thought at that time that writing those books was gonna be enough and they were gonna take off, and that was gonna do the dang deal, right? So I wrote these books, I did all the illustrations, everything, everything's figure outable. I DIY the design work, the in-design work, you know, doing uh getting the book layout, send it off to publishing. And then I was like, all right, need a website, did all that stuff, and got it off the ground. And people love them, but then I hit a point where I realized I was like, you know what, in order for me to help the people that I'm trying to help, I actually need to pivot and speak more to the moms that are feeding the kids and help them make, you know, work through their own transformation. So at that point, I started changing my marketing and my messaging and all of this other stuff, made my own pivot and really walked through a process of learning to rebrand before I was into branding and had my own firsthand experience with it there, but then continued to stack on like the the business education and the marketing education until I came full circle around to brand work. And and then even as I came in and I and I launched the agency ox and iron, again, a side gig. I just need to get this thing off the ground and then hit a point where I'm like, crap, I need to go back and do my own branding. And so it, you know, I think sometimes too when you're in it, you when you do it, but you're in the middle of it, that in itself can be its own challenge because sometimes you're trying to read the you're trying to read the label from the inside of the bottle and it doesn't always work. But you you do what you can.

Amy Dardis 15:58

Like, yeah, there was something you wrote on your website that I thought was so good. So you said root, and this is slightly paraphrased, but not a lot. Rooted in strategy, refined by experience. I found my edge in the trenches. I didn't have investors, mentors, or a safety net. I had work ethic, raw skill, and zero intention of staying stuck. That launch served as the catalyst to me finding my stride in the work I do now and genuinely love. And I love that. Especially what you said about like this, like just this willingness to not stay stuck and finding your edge in the trenches. Like, tell me more about that.

SPEAKER_00 16:40

Girl, that was loaded. So when I say finding my edge in the trenches, even if you look at when I started my agency, I launched my agency off of less than$400 and a crap ton of desperation. I was in a position where at that particular season, I was working in real estate, market went freaking nosedive. Nobody's making money in that market. Well, except for maybe a handful, right, of your top producers, which I was not one of those at that time. I was, you know, definitely still in my younger years in the in the market. And, you know, I came into it saying, okay, like I didn't have the resources to hire out a full team. I didn't have, you know, have all of the connections expressly, but I did have grit and I did have tenacity and I did have a determination to do whatever I could to help my family and to help my clients. And so with that, you know, it meant working through the process and being willing to make the mistakes that we make, being willing to learn the hard way, right? And just keep showing up. And I think that's one of the things that, like, man, when I when I come into the work that I do, I would say that the season fortified a lot of different things in me beyond teaching me about brand. It also taught me a lot about the potential that people carry and the difference that you actually can make when you help to call that out of them. So when I look at different entrepreneurs, I don't just see, oh, okay, this is a person with a suit that's coming in and flexing their, you know, services in front of me. Like, I see people who are still human beings. And, you know, uh for me, it is heartbreaking and challenging to think of the number of people that are where I was sleepless at night, just anxiety, like freaking choking the heck out of them because, like, where am I gonna get more work? Where am I gonna find clients? How am I gonna find customers feeling like you're in over your head or imposter syndrome or all the other things that we work through when it comes to building a business that I think gets talked about too little, right? Because we're not allowed to talk about those things. We're supposed to be successful from day one and we're supposed to put on the face and we're supposed to show up like that. I mean, I look back and I remember, you know, coming through town and I was like just praying and stressing, and I'm like, God, like I'm looking at a freaking McDonald's over here thinking that freaking 15-year-old working the drive-thru window is making more than I made this month. What is that? You know what I mean? And you're like, you know, so you go through all of these things emotionally, mentally, sometimes, you know, physically and financially and then relationally, and you it just it's so dynamic, the number of things that people go through in getting a business off the ground. Now, that's not everybody. Some people have that nice, you know, it was handed down to them or somebody paved a way, and that's great. I'm very, very happy for those people. But I think my positioning, my voice is more for the people who God is helping to carry in this journey of crossing the chasm that wherever it is that they were does not define where they're going, where he can take them. And so it's like, okay, God, how can I walk in such a way as to go be willing to go through that process too of saying it's not gonna be, it may not be easy. Sometimes it feels like an outright freaking dogfight. Sometimes it's like all you can do, like all you can do to keep your sense about you, put freaking wipe the tears off, but you know, straight, straight yourself up and walk into that networking meeting like everything's good. You know what I mean? Like there's so much that people go through behind the scenes. And so when I work with a client, I love being able to step into a position of like, let's take all these freaking pretenses and burn it. I don't want to hear any of that, I don't want to see any of that. Like you, you don't have to prove anything to me. You don't have to carry yourself or or put on a front in front of me, anything like that. Like real talk at the table. I like creating that space because I feel like people open up in a different way. And it allows for communication where I'm able to say, ah, okay, this is what I see in you. And then when we start to work to pull that out, now like imagine the the power in, and I'm not trying to be too lengthy on this, but but I get excitable, right? When you see somebody who goes from struggling, stressing, maybe they're having trouble with with even connecting with their kids or their spouses because they they can't figure this one thing out. To now you walk through a process, they're like, wow, this is the value that I actually bring. I actually do have something really great to offer. They come out with more clarity, they come out with more confidence. Business starts coming in. Now, instead of stressing about how they're gonna get from this month to the next, it's like, man, we got to figure out how we're gonna expand our team. We've got all these people coming in. We need to, you know, like it's it's a different, much better problem to me on that side of things. You know what I mean? But like when it just it shifts things. There's so many things that shifts when you get when you get to go through that process that I think me going through my own journey with it helped me to appreciate it better and become more passionate about helping other people to cross that chasm too. So I I it's been my little personal obsession.

Faith Identity And Marketplace Calling

Amy Dardis 21:38

Yeah, mine honestly mine too, which I love. Do you do you feel like people's personal identities are intertwined with the business identity?

SPEAKER_00 21:52

Very much so. And I say very much so because I I know sometimes people like I know sometimes people will take a job to uh To make ends meet, right? Or they'll take a job because it's like sometimes people find their purpose expressly in their work or in their business. Sometimes people do the business but find their purpose maybe just in how they carry themselves there and then what they do outside of it. I would not say that what they do in business defines their core identity. I think it's the ideally the other way around. Where when I talk when I to when I look at business, one of the things that I absolutely love about it is how I see God use it to create a time and a place for relationships. It gives a context to conversations and interactions between human beings. We miss things when we forget that. Like who is God? And then who has He made me to be as a reflection of Him? How am I carrying that out into the workplace or any other place, right? And how does that affect maybe how I interact with people? But then stacking on top of that, I do believe that God has given each person special giftings. And that's one of the things I love about what you do in in terms of helping with the internal brand component, especially, is helping people to get into the proper position where their giftings are able to come out and flourish. Like they're able to bring what they've been gifted with to serve others out into the world. And everybody wins when that happens. So when you look at identity, it's like, okay, who is it that God made me to be? Now, with that, what is He also gifted me to do or to bring? And then how can that be expressed in the marketplace? And when you see that happen, I think that's where people shift out of being so darn transactional and reactive to markets to being very mission-minded in a way that makes them virtually unstoppable.

Amy Dardis 23:50

Yeah. Do you feel like the process of you being able to call out that greatness and kind of make that safe space for talking about more vulnerable, like identity, like authentic authentic type topics? Is that something that God had to develop in you in order for you to now be comfortable and bold even in doing that?

SPEAKER_00 24:17

1000%.

Amy Dardis 24:21

And I say that.

SPEAKER_00 24:25

You know what? I have learned to be uncomfortable with being vulnerable and not in a way, you know. I think sometimes people have a hard time walking that line, like professionally. There, I've seen people that are too walled up and closed off and don't realize how sometimes their unwillingness to just relax and be human with people can serve as a barrier to communications and authentic relationships. But then at the same time, I've also seen the other end of the spectrum where sometimes people want to divulge way too much. And it can also be problematic. And like, okay, at what point are you like dumping things on people? I one of the things that I remember hearing a while back ago was the importance of learning how to tell story, but also in a way where you intentionally omit details in a way that allows them to process their own story. Because sometimes we think that, oh, I need to share my my whole story and all these details and da-da-da-da. And when we start doing that, we there's there's a concept called neurocoupling that happens with story, right? So when we're sharing about ourselves or where we're at or anything like that, or we're helping to have that conversation with somebody else, neurocoupling happens, but when we start going into too many details and we start getting too deep into like us, us, us, then it actually breaks that because it reminds the person that we're talking about you and not them. And by the way, you're still talking. And you know, it's like so when it comes to that vulnerability component, like I try to use it only so far as it's needed to open the door for them to know that they have permission to shoot straight, right? I try not to come in and carry this air of like, no, you have to be super rigid and da-da-da-da. Like, I it might even it might not even be my story, right? Like it might even be just joking with people or you know, like, oh my gosh, you know, like a goofy little thing I did tripping coming in the door from the parking lot. Like it's a reminder, we are human and remembering that and being okay with that is a beautiful door to some of the richest conversations. I don't know if I answered your question very well, but but we'll edit it out if not.

Amy Dardis 26:41

No, I'm glad you mentioned that because like the the power of story, especially I know for me, like as an entrepreneur, like I there has been this pressure and this expectation to have it all together, to be that expert, to to teach. And in doing that, I disconnected from the human element of that. And I always felt tension and friction with that. I felt that imposter syndrome because I was, because I did feel God saying, No, your story is very much ingrained in how I want you to share and connect with people. And I was afraid to do that. And so walking through a season of really having to embrace my own story and then find how do I how do I share that in the business context and finding this balance of being professional but still being authentic? And that can be a scary place to be for a lot of entrepreneurs because man, like there's just that pressure of like, oh, but if anyone sees that weakness or if anyone sees that failure, no one's gonna listen to you or wanna work with you.

SPEAKER_00 27:49

Yeah. Well, and you know, going back to, and and this is again, sorry, I know I was kind of long way around. Well, you were asking about the identity component. It's like there's so much of it that I've seen that, you know, when it comes to knowledge, it's out there. When it comes to resources, they're out there. Yeah, when we look at where people are struggling and where we get to come in when we're helping them with brand, right? Is that it actually, to me, it opens the door for a conversation to really get back to, again, that identity and communication component, because that is more often than not where the hangup is. Like you need good strategy. Sometimes it's, you know, some cool tactics that you can put in your tool bag that really help to give you an added edge or drive results. But I find that the bigger hang up can be identity. And I know that I had to learn that myself with it, my own walk, where, you know, being a business owner has repeatedly forced me into situations of recognizing that the challenges or the hangups that I was facing in this season to the next season to the next season, it was where God was actually having to having to deliver me from false identity systems and patterns and behaviors that were tied to those things so that I could actually step in as who he crafted me to be, to walk confidently in what he'd entrusted me with, right? And I think that's where, you know, we we get so caught up in not realizing how much we're operating in the old identity patterns, and it's shaping the decisions that we're making, how we're interacting with employees or contractors, how we're having that conversation about the proposal that we're putting together or the thing that we're selling. A lot of it, the how we approach that is often shaped not by the sales training that we had. That can play a role, but it's more often than not the energy that we bring to those conversations is shaped by the identity that we're walking in in that moment. And until we learn to walk in our God-given identity, we're gonna have like stumbling block after stumbling block that's gonna come up in front of us. Not because he's not helping us, not because he's not with us, but because we're not seeing who it is that we've actually been made to be and walking in it.

Amy Dardis 29:55

Do you feel like that process for you of coming to this awareness of what the struggle and the obstacles were, that it was your own sense of like believing lies or believing false sense of identity to getting to a point where you were actually like, okay, I'm gonna step into this fully. I'm gonna embrace that this is who I am. How long do you feel like that process is taken? Not to say that it's done. I feel like we're always on a journey of that, but just like that, that real big shift.

SPEAKER_00 30:30

You know what? I've been on I've been on the journey for several years. And again, a lot of it goes back to when I was really kicking off my own journey with health and wellness, because there was a lot of stuff that was tied to like I had a lot of disordered eating patterns, but then it was like him helping me to understand that it was like there were a lot of of tie-ins to childhood, adolescence, things like that that I needed to work through. But I would say especially, especially over the last few years, he's done a lot. I mean, a lot of that. And, you know, when we look at the process of walking in a renewed identity, it's, you know, the Christ's finished work is a finished work, right? His it's his not like on this, like he's still trying to figure it out over the course of time. But we tend to need time to walk through the process and to go through the layers. Like we're not, we're generally not ready to go through it all at once. And so I've found that in his grace and his mercy, it goes season by season. And sometimes it's, you know, it might be just something called out in prayer. Sometimes it's something that we discover through failure, what we thought was a failure. Sometimes it's something that we hit a moment, we're like, oh, I didn't get that right. And it's like, okay, but what actually happened here, right? So I know for me, based off of the way I grew up, lack was something that I struggled with, right? Like we, I grew up, we were poor on welfare. My mom was sick. It was on disability and all this other stuff. And and there was no such thing as making ends meet. If they could wave at each other, we were we were doing good that month. You know what I mean? And I went from that to being out on my own early and then ended up homeless by the time I was 19. And I went through this whole like thing of it, right? And I say that only to give context. So when I say I struggled with a sense of lack and a broken poverty mindset, that was a major hang-up for me. And it affected how I was willing to bill and charge, you know, for my services, what my proposals looked like, what you know, the even the nature of the packages that I was willing to offer. You know, I'm over here, like, well, I guess I'll just do these little jobs over here. When it's like, no, like if you really want to help these businesses, you really want to help these clients, like you got to get over that and you have to step out, learn the things, do the things, get the experience. Yes, but also understand that you have value to bring and you got to break away from all that crap. Like a to to like try to take it all and like condense it down is that there's so much stuff that we don't realize is infiltrating how we're engaging in relationships just based off of stuff like that. And some of it was it, you know, getting to a place of repeatedly reminding myself, no, like my Abba Father is the King of Kings, Lord of Lords. He owns all of like he he spoke, and all of this came to be. He is my provider, I am well provided for. I, you know, there's not a there's not a lack of of provision around me, his provision is abundant, right? So am I stepping myself out of alignment with that and staking some claim to like this broke mindset stuff that I was holding on to, or am I actually trusting in that? And there's a lot of stuff that we do, especially when it comes to identity stuff, where we identify ourselves. It it could be socioeconomic classes, it could be in terms of where we belong in a company, leadership, not leadership, relationships, you name it. But when we don't learn to recognize those things, it becomes really hard to break away from the cycles that we absolutely hate, even when we don't know how to articulate it, because it typically ends up resulting us in us being caught in a pattern that we don't even realize we can escape because we don't even know what's keeping us stuck there. But then, like when we're when we allow ourselves to go through that process, then it's like recognizing it, but then we still have the process of renewing the neural pathways that are reinforcing the thinking, and that in itself is part of the healing. That's not an overnight process, it's months on months on months. And so where God takes us through those seasons, it's like in his goodness and his grace. All right, we're rerouting this. Okay, now that that's been rerouted, now we're rerouted this. But no, I have not arrived. I'm still very much in process.

Amy Dardis 34:43

I've I've just been honing in more and more on this idea that the decisions we make and the behaviors that we have are all based on what we believe. And it's like, what do we believe about ourselves? What do we believe about our calling, our value, what God is calling us to, or even his place and his sovereignty and his lordship in our life? Are we going to operate out of a place of fear, or are we going to operate out of a place of faith? And that significantly impacts that next step that we choose to make. And having to come face to face with, like, okay, I have acted this way because I have not believed that I brought value has kept me in so many of these patterns, versus realizing that, okay, God wired me uniquely this way. And it is an act of worship to surrender that and and step into that and be like, okay, God, you created me wonderfully and uniquely. And I'm I'm gonna believe that and I'm gonna let you work through me instead of hiding and being stuck in this. And man, that that journey is really uncomfortable to be like, step out and be like, yes, this is what I'm good at. Yes, this is how God created me. And it's and it's a confidence, but I would say that like it's a holy confidence recognizing that is it is from the creator and it is for the creator that we do these things, not for our own selfish ambition. So finding that right heart attitude, too, is I mean, that I think that can be a slippery slope as well, because I think it's easy for us. I know I certainly have struggled with wanting things for the wrong reasons.

SPEAKER_00 36:33

Well, you know what though? I think you you really hit on so many different things there, where you know, we don't like there's a difference between confidence and pride or confidence and ego being in the way, right? And I think we have a hard time. That is, I know when I say we, I mean I have historically had a very hard time in finding that balance where for the longest time I could not discern well, and I'm not gonna say I've figured it out, right? But I feel like I'm getting a little bit better with it, between humility and self-deprecation. And part of that goes back to a fear thing. So I had to realize that, like, as far as the confidence component, why was it that I was so quick to shift into being self-deprecating? Oh, because in my mind it was safer to consider myself less than to accidentally consider myself too much, right? But why? Because and it we not that I would say, like, not that I'm for being prideful, right? But there is a difference, like you said, in that holy confidence and in saying I'm not going to use my words or my thoughts to diminish what God has created. He said that he said I am wonderfully and masterfully made. So I come into agreement with that that I am wonderfully and masterfully made. I'm not helping anybody or serving anybody by acting like I don't have the gifts that he placed within me to go out and serve the people that he's called me to. But I think when you back it up, you go back to that fear component that you were talking about. There's a, you know, part of the word it says that there is no fear in love because perfect love casts out fear. And what is it that we're ultimately struggling with much of the time? It's our definition of God or how we view God and how we understand the love of God and the fact that we are actually loved, right? Like there's not a single thing that I'm gonna do today or tomorrow or 10 years from now that's gonna make me more or less loved than what I am now. Now, how does that affect how I view God as Abba Father, right? I believe it gives us a much greater freedom to be his children, to go out to try a thing, maybe make a mistake and know that he's bigger than our mistakes. It's not, you know, we don't have to go out into our field saying, oh my god, what I don't know, what if I don't get it perfect, right? Is he gonna take this away from me? Is he gonna clobber me over the head? Am I gonna no? His grace is more than enough. And he he's not looking for you to get all the things right. It's a journey with him. So when we go through, there are some of the things he's like, he'll let us try out, knowing good and dang well it ain't gonna work. So then we grow through the process and ultimately what do we do? What is the ideal situation there? We go through, we do the things, some things we get right, some things we get wrong, the things we get wrong. Oh, but why did I not get that right? Right? I'm not less loved in that moment. He's still happy to be of help, right? And I think it changes how we step into the work that we do. We always come in with excellence, right? We're not blase and flipping about errors, but we know that we have the love and the grace to grow. And that in itself helps us to flourish in ways that we don't when fear keeps us from really stepping out and confidently being who we've been called to be.

Amy Dardis 39:49

Yeah. And I think we can only do that being utterly dependent on him versus being like, okay, God, I know you're there, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna do this on my own, and then I'm gonna come to you when I mess up, versus being like, okay, God, I cannot do this without you. This idea of, you know, daily bread, daily dependence, like you are the one who is working in and through me. And I think as humans, we're drawn to this, like we want to do it in our own strength versus realizing that we are weak, but his power is made perfect in our weakness and that idea of grace. And I know experiencing grace this last year for me has been the first time that I've really, because I've always struggled with the idea of grace, honestly. Like I've always felt like I need to earn love and I need to do this right because you know, God expects this of me. And if I'm not living up to these expectations, then I'm failing versus coming into this, like like you said, there's nothing I can do today that makes me more loved than I was last year or five years ago, or even in my darkest, deepest, most broken moments of like experiencing like that is true love. And it's like if God loves us, part of it is also us learning to love ourselves. And it's like, how many of us do that? Like, how many of us actually truly love who we are? We I I I don't I think that's a struggle. I I really do.

SPEAKER_00 41:22

Yeah, I I agree. And that's something I know that I struggled with a lot over the years because I felt very unlovable. And I've I've for the for many years, I was so tied up on performance. And if I did good enough, then I was worthy of being loved and affection, right? Like if I was performing well, then I'm lovable. And when I'm not, then I'm a disappointment, I'm a failure, I'm all of these things. And that that was what was happening in my head. None of that's true, right? I had to get to a place of recognizing that none of that really is true. It was just the narrative that I was allowing to continue on in my own head. And it served as a barrier because what becomes very easy when we operate that way is we often shift into overperformance, right? Where we go, yeah, we got to do way, way too much, take on too much to the point of burnout, right? Or we get analysis, analysis paralysis. And I see this a lot with with people in business, especially Christian business owners, is that fear of making the wrong decision pauses them to a point of them making no decision or being delayed on decisions. And I kind of joke sometimes that being in step with the Holy Spirit to me these days feels more like parkour, like that like we ain't got time to pause. You hesitate, you're gonna short the jump, just go, right? And some might see me as a little reckless in that sense. But there's a you know, there's pros and cons, balance to be had there. I'm not saying I'm right or wrong. I'm just saying, like, as far as stepping out, I think I've shifted more into this, like, I don't want to be so frozen in place because I'm just fearful, right? Because that's not necessarily helpful. And like when you were talking about the self-reliance, is that I have seen that. Uh on the other side of it, I've also seen people freeze up. Like, if God doesn't tell me exactly what it is that I'm supposed to do on this next click, then I'm not gonna make a move until he does. And I think that also it like misses the accountability that we have, right? As well as, you know, the opportunity to let our decisions be worship, to be an affirmation of our allegiance. Like God is big enough to recognize the heart that we're making those decisions from. And when we go home to be with him, it's not going to be did you make every correct sales and strategy decision? Did you do all the right marketing strategies? It's gonna be what was the heart posture that you had when you were making the decisions about your company or anything else in life? What was it that was really compelling that? Was it because you were operating. You look at like the parable of the talents. What what was it that got the one the one with the least in trouble? He mischaracterized the master and operated from a place of fear. He said, Oh, you're you're you know, we know you're harsh. He was afraid of being punished if he accidentally made the wrong decision, rather than saying, you know what, I'm gonna bring my best, trusting that he is a good master that's gonna recognize that.

Amy Dardis 44:20

I've been reading through the Old Testament and I've been reading through first and second kings, and one of the revelations I'd never even picked up on before was how when he goes through each king, basically you see like God assesses the king on whether or not their heart was fully devoted to him or not. And it didn't matter about all the, you know, political accomplishments or economical d accomplishments. It was just like, did he, one, did he do evil or right in the eyes of the Lord? And then two, how like was he fully devoted like David was? Or did he follow in the steps of his father and still allow some of the things that shouldn't have been allowed? And it was just like king after king after king. And it's like that's how God is looking at their kingship was how did they posture themselves like in worship to God? And I'm like, for the same thing for a business owner, same, well, for anyone, but for an entrepreneur, like it's not about all of the right or wrong decisions that you make within your business or whether it succeeds or fails, or you know, how much money you make. It's was your heart fully surrendered to God? And did you obey that? That's when we get to the end, like that's what he's gonna look at. And having to, I we you mentioned this earlier about like this intersection of identity. When I first started out, my business was my identity. You know, it's like that instead of it being like, okay, my my business is affected by my identity, it's intertwined that way. But before it was like what I thought about myself was 100% dictated by how well or not well things were going in my business.

SPEAKER_00 46:11

I have seen that and lived that so many times over. And I don't think when we when we're in the thick of it, we're doing that. I think that's something that's very hard for us to see. I think it it can be hard for us to recognize when we're frustrated about something not going right because we are really taking a blow to the ego versus just being frustrated because of maybe the consequence of it not going right, right? Like that that marketing plan didn't go as planned and we lost this much on that campaign, right? That's one thing. Okay, what do we need to do to reroute or fix that or not make the same mistake again? It's another thing when it is an ego blow in, and I say ego, not as in like everybody's just cocky and like not, you know, some people might be, but I think even for the person who's really not a prideful person, those those things can still affect us where we're going about it and it's like if we're doing well in business, then we take it as an affirmation of who we are. And if business is having its challenges or its struggles, then it's like I must not be enough and I must not be who I thought I was, or I must not, whatever. And it's like sometimes the challenges that we go through, I mean, you I've seen people and I've been there too, where it's like it's not even that they're expressly doing anything wrong for whatever reason, you're just in part of your journey, like maybe the market is doing a different thing, or it could there are any number of things that can come up. But I think when we we really look at the journey of it, that it's easy to miss, but a blessing to see, where God allows us to go through the challenges as a way of forging us, as a way of making us stronger. And one of the things that I've learned to appreciate all the more so, and is of more recent challenges, even is the opportunities it gives, they give the opportunities that those things give to affirm my allegiance. Not that he needs to see it, he knows what's in me, way beyond what I know what's in me, but for me to be reminded of what matters most.

Amy Dardis 48:15

And the idea that if things go bad, we're doing something wrong, like that connection of, and like I think God shows us over and over in the Bible that that's not the case at all. We go through hard things no matter what. And a lot of the times it's those really hard things that end up fundamentally shaping who we are called to be, because without that discipline, without that discomfort, we're not going to force ourselves into that growth that we need. And he does it because he loves us, because he has a plan, and it is for our good. And it doesn't mean that just because we're going through what is good doesn't mean that it just is this huge blessing. Like God called me to build this business, and I was like, okay, you called me to this, therefore, all these doors are gonna just open up right away. And that's not at all what happened. But it was through the process of doors not opening that he called me into a wilderness season, where it's like, oh, that's also biblical, too, that there is purpose in the wilderness season, and that's not punishment. And it was actually the your your friend Matt, who you connected me to, who I he wrote this beautiful article on what it's like to be in the wilderness season and about it being formation, you know. And I thought that was so insightful and so good of like, oh man, and like Jesus went to the wilderness before he started his public ministry, you know, the the Egyptians, the sorry, the Israelites had to leave Egypt and to they had to let go of Egypt, they had to get Egypt out of them before they were ready to enter into the promised land. And so it's like realizing that the wilderness isn't a punishment, it's preparation. And it's it's easy to forget that.

SPEAKER_00 50:09

Yeah, well, and I think that's something that I've I've tried to find that I think that sense of balance in of and and I I I even hate using that word balance because I think we use it and it's like who even knows what that means? There's no such thing, right? It's like staying on your feet and not falling over. It's not really doesn't mean everything's stable, it just means that you're you're off your you're on your feet. Uh, but no, like there's there's a concept of extreme ownership, right? Which I do think is important if from the perspective of saying, okay, what could I do differently? What should I do differently? You know, not from a place of saying, I'm a terrible person if something goes wrong, but extreme ownership in a sense that's empowering to say, I'm not a victim of life, I'm not a victim of circumstances and situations. Like God has given me uh an ability to take this and learn from it and grow, right? But when it comes to that sense of like, oh, well, you know, it's easy for us to feel that way. I think that like if God's called me to it, then doors are just gonna open. And it's great when that happens that way, but it doesn't always. And some people would say it doesn't often, that we we do often go into places of challenges. And I think that it's important for us, especially in business, to remember that, you know, God's presence or blessing upon a thing is not measured by the same metrics that we would measure a business, right? So his hand being upon a business is not confirmed or denied based off of revenue, based off of how many clients are on your books or how many people are on your team. You can have people that are out there that maybe in that given season, in that moment that you're talking to them, maybe they're really struggling with revenue, but the generational impact they are making through what it is that he is their hand set to is astronomical. Maybe he has them, like you said, in that wilderness season for a reason. And I have found that when he takes me into those wilderness seasons, like I've had several times over where business is going good, good, good, good. And then all of a sudden I'm like, okay, things slow down. Maybe not necessarily like, okay, I have no clients, you know, but to where I'm like, okay, I'm looking at the numbers going out and the numbers I'm expecting coming in. God, what's going on here? Sometimes he uses it to show up and show out, like he likes to do. Like, don't forget who your provision actually comes from, right? His timing is impeccable. But I've also seen him use it to create the space for innovation. And when I say innovation, one of the things I truly believe is like your greatest source of innovation. It's revelation. And that revelation you only get when you take the time to step aside and walk with him. And sometimes it is in that wilderness season where it is just you and the Holy Spirit. That's it. You know, and you're like, God, I don't know what is going on here. You know, there have been times when I'm like, God, I don't even know what's going, what's going on? I need direction. I why is this not working? That not, but then see that it's like, ah, when you shift your thinking, and this is where it's important to to watch the thoughts, right? Because we can easily go into this downward spiral of, oh, there's not enough revenue, there's not this coming, and there's not that, and we're just and we could have provision and opportunities surrounding us, and we don't see it. Why? Because we're here as opposed to okay, what opportunities are you calling me to, or what are you calling me to use this time for? It was years back, I remember going into one of those seasons where it was so wild because I had in mind to start a book project and just didn't have time to do it. I had so much client work, I was busy, busy, busy. And then it was like here, I had a trip to California planned, and it just so happened that pretty much everything that I had going on for clients like rounded out right before that. And it created this pocket for me to enjoy family and also work on another project that I wasn't getting time for while I was entrenched in client projects. I've seen him do it with even since then, where it's like sometimes there's like a bit of it's like a break that you get, and it might feel like, oh, okay, but I need revenue coming in. But then he's also putting things in place that generate substantially more revenue once it's locked in, right? Us being so busy with what we think we need in the moment is actually the barrier keeping us from going up to the next level that he's looking to carry us to. But we have to trust him well enough long enough to go through that wilderness process in order to realize that. And even when we're in it, not be like, oh God, you're taking everything away. There's no opportunity. No, God, what is it you're looking to do in this time?

Amy Dardis 54:49

Yeah. And him always being big picture, so I mean, big picture, so much bigger than we could even imagine. And you have a really good analogy with your garden and vineyard analogy. Can you share like explain that? Because I I think that is so good.

SPEAKER_00 55:07

That was something I actually caught myself saying years ago. And I didn't realize how true it would be to my journey when I said it. Oh gosh. But even, I mean, this even being back when I was like working more in like the health and wellness and stuff like that, was that I didn't set out to plant a garden, I set out to plant a vineyard. And that being that a lot of people, when it comes to business and vocation, and both are necessary. It's not that that one's bad and one's good or one's right, one's wrong. It's not that, right? Just different journeys. You have a lot of people that will set out to plant a garden, which is a quick turnaround. You sow seeds in a garden, you plant it in the spring, you start pulling fruit from that in the summer, in the fall. When you go out to plant a vineyard or an orchard, you establish it years before you see fruit. And over the course of those years, everything that you're doing, tending to it, is in faith that it is going to come to fruition. You're constantly going through, you're making sure that you're keeping the weeds out, you're making sure that you're pruning, you're shaping, you're nurturing the soil, taking care of the soil, the foundation of that vineyard. But there are a lot of years there where you see no fruit. And I think when we're talking about business, especially a legacy business, we can miss that side of it when we're in those early stages. Because, like, I'm just not seeing, I'm working my tail off here. Can you not see the calluses on my hands? And there is no fruit in them. If only there was just a little bit of something. God, I'm hungry. I need, I need, I want, I want what is going on here? Why am I not seeing fruit? Right. But then you hit this point where it starts to bear fruit. And at that early onset, it's exciting, but it's still not the fullness of where it's going, right? If you keep tending to that vineyard, you end up with something that can, I think they say with grapevines, they can produce, once they start producing, they can produce for over a hundred years, right? Can you imagine the power of going in and establishing you look at Proverbs, what does it say? It says, out of her earnings she plants what? Proverbs 31, out of her earnings she plants a vineyard. So here she goes out, this Proverbs 31 woman, she is resourceful, she brings her goods, her values. It says that she sees that her trading is profitable and her lamp does not go out at night. This is a woman who sees that she brings value, she is diligent, and then out of what she is earning in the moment, she doesn't get locked up locked into just that transactional. She goes out and she plants something that's going to produce fruit for generations. And so I looked at that like with my own life story, my own business, with saying, okay, it's not necessarily the easy route, it's not necessarily the quick route, but it will reap a harvest. Or it says, You will reap a harvest if you do not give up. And so I think that's something that man, if more people could take hold of that, that sometimes God has you on a journey where you're not seeing fruit because what it is that He's looking to bring, the type of fruit that he's looking to bring forth in your life, is not overnight fruit. It's not one season fruit, it is generational fruit, it is long-lasting. That once it does start bearing fruit, it will be good, it will be abundant, but there's work to be done to get it established. And so there's patience that's involved, and there's a heck of a lot of faith that comes through it. But just imagine a lot, a lot. But I look at like what does it mean for the generations to come when we in faith continue to set our hands to the task.

Amy Dardis 58:52

That just that reminds me of Abraham, too, and the covenant that God made with him, you know, and how he promised him, you know, more descendants than he could, you know, count. And and here he just started with one son. And he and he started with one son when he was, you know, a hundred years old, but one, like one child. And then that turned in, like, you know, he didn't give him 10 sons, he gave him one, and then the way that generation to generation to generation that, and he kept his promise and he kept his covenant, and then God counted him as righteous because of his faith, you know, and just how powerful that is, just everything coming back to this idea of like what do we believe, you know, and how's that gonna dictate how we show up for you or not for you, but also what would you tell someone who is like struggle? Like, we talked a lot about identity and gifting and stuff. What do you think the process even looks like of someone like finding me, like, okay, how do I find my gifting? How do I call out or recognize what are the things that I'm actually good at? Like, whether, you know, what did that look like for you? Or what would you tell someone who is starting out on that journey?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:10

I would say there's not, I wouldn't say that there's a hard and fast formula, but personal experience, I have seen in myself and for a lot of other people how God tends to use the journey to cultivate the giftings, right? So a lot of people, if they look back at maybe some of the life experiences they've had, maybe some of the areas of challenges or hardships and what they've learned through that. There are a lot of times that you will find the gifts fortified through that. And some of it too can be like maybe you're artistic and he, you know, he called you to create and just create, just allow yourself to go through the process. But as far as locking in on that identity, you know, it's just willing to be. I think for any of us, figuring out who we are starts with us seeking to know who he is. Because when you look at what does the word say that we have been crafted in his image. So if we don't even know who he is, his character, his nature, any of that, it's not possible for us to know who we are, right? It'd be like trying to do, you know, it'd be like trying to describe ourselves while standing facing the opposite direction of a mirror. You know what I mean? We got our back to a mirror saying, Well, I look like you don't know. Can't see the smudge on your face and the broccoli in your teeth from there. Turn around. No, no, it's stupid. But but no, I mean, I think really it starts with seeking to know who he is. You know, I know for me on my own journey, one of the studies I absolutely loved going through a couple times over was on the names of God. There's a book by Nathan Stone that I thought was really great. Uh, I know there are a couple of them out there, but that one in particular was my own favorite. It's a short read, but very, very powerful and impactful, where he looks at he it it's cool because he goes and he looks at the names of God in the context of where they were first revealed and what that name actually means, how it tied into that when it was revealed in the Old Testament, and how we see it realized in Jesus in the New Testament. And I'm like, man, how many times over does God use life situations to reveal more of the story that he's telling in our lives, right? Help us to understand more of who he is. And then by consequence of that, we start to learn more about who we are. And I think even, you know, even when it comes to where we when we get misaligned, as we draw closer to him, I think those things have a way of surfacing. And it might be in discomfort or something feeling kind of off. But it allows the opportunity for him to shape, mold, and redirect by virtue of us just being in a position to see.

Amy Dardis 1:02:48

That's so good. I am so glad you I never it makes perfect sense. And I didn't even think about that, about how we're made in the image of God and how it's us understanding ourselves start starts with us understanding him. I mean, I that's the solid biblical truth right there. I love it. So what I mean, I guess what what do you feel like? What's the season you're in right now, or like what do you feel like you at least have a vision for God is calling you to just right right now? And then I mean, not to say like where do you see yourself in the next five years, but like just um, you know, what do you what do you feel like is is coming next, or what are you working towards?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:30

Oh, there's been a lot that's been in the making. So I just wrapped my manuscript for one of the books that I had already had in mind. I really felt like he was impressed upon me to to get that one wrapped up. That one is called Brand Power Moves. And that one is more of a, I would say a secular book, right? Like anybody can pick it up and run with it in their business and use it to leverage the the tools and the strategies that are used by the big multi-million, even billion dollar players in the market, right? On just simple brand strategies that they can put into action in their own businesses. So that would be something that I is in the the near future that I'm working to get that into print. And then I want to go through and get the audible and stuff like that so people can listen to it in a car because my target market is not typically sitting down with a book. Um, so there's that part of it. Along with that, I've actually been in the process of developing resources for the Freedom Foundry. It's a portal that'll be online, bringing resources to other entrepreneurs who may need help with setting up landing pages, templates, and stuff like that for those sort of things, other toolkits that they can grab from that, as well as serving as a hub to just really help them to get the support that they need, whether they're looking to do deeper brand work with me or not. So I've seen a lot of that as far as like the back-end stuff. I've been really trying to dedicate more resources and energy into getting that built out because I love working one-on-one with companies, but I only have so many hours in a day. There's only so much that I can do doing one-to-one consultations and things like that. So I'm working on getting those tools in place. Another thing I've seen repeatedly come up, and I'm just kind of leaning into it, is working to hone speaking skills for being able to go out and speak more to Christian entrepreneurs in particular. This past January, I had the honor of hosting a Christian leadership summit, got a lot of really great feedback, but what blew me away was seeing how God used it in so many other people's stories. Like, I know like I felt like I was just on freaking blast where there were like, I cannot even tell you the chaos and the calamity that was going on around that, like before that event, and then even after it. Like, I think I've I freaking sw like smacked a hornet's nest or something like that in terms of the spirit realm. Like, I'm like, stuff was just coming at me from everywhere. But that event itself, everything went so smooth, so good, and I'm still Still, like literally having people that are like, oh my gosh, at that event, da-da-da-da-da-da. And the stories, the testimonies that are coming out of it. And I'm like, God, I want to be available for more of that. Like, you know, not just helping in a business context, but you know, I I love marketplace ministry. It is something I'm so passionate about. I get so hype about it, so excited about it, because I truly do believe that when you're talking about entrepreneurship, you're talking about God entrusting somebody in a position of leadership within a business, that is a position of leverage. And that leadership gives us a position to be able to go out and really make an amazing, huge impact on culture. I think when we think about being a Christian in business, I tell people a lot that there's a difference between being a Christian-owned business and being a Christian business. And I say that because we can put our Jesus sticker on the door and pay tithes, but those are table stakes, right? Like paying our tithes out of, you know, out of income. We're all supposed to do that, whether we own a business or we work for another one. Okay, so if God has given me this company, he's given me this business, these connections, these these opportunities, what for? Because it's not just to make money, right? Making money's good. I love making money. I'm sure we all love making money, right? But it's also a position of leverage that we get to utilize to drive culture. And I feel like more of my own life journey and work is it's not just about helping people with better branding. It's actually almost for lack of a better way to put it, calling soldiers back into battle. It's helping to call people out of these stuck places where I see so many people that are walking in broken identity systems, they're walking in defeat, they're shrinking back when God has called them to step out. And I want to see them rise and shine. I want to see them realize like what is actually at stake, what is going on around them, and to boldly, confidently step out and leverage what's been entrusted to them to freaking make waves in the kingdom. And I'll tell you, even till I like some people think, oh, she's a little aggressive. I do not care. I'm like, I've hit a point in my own life, especially after all that stuff with the summit. I came out of I came out of all this the stuff, the onslaught that I felt that like I was in, saying, God, what is the most kick the enemy in the teeth thing I can do with my business right now? Like, how can I go out and spread such radical generosity and love and you know help people in such a way to move so move so much for the kingdom that is just straight wreckage to darkness? That the you know, like any enemy at that point is just like she's freaking relentless. We don't like her, you know, like mow down anybody. I get I get a little hype on that kind of stuff, but I'm just like I I get tired of seeing people live run over. I get tired of seeing Christians live like they're less. And I know for my own walk, I'm like, you know, if God says no to a thing, that's okay. But I don't want to settle for a less that's life than I could be that I could I don't want to settle for a life that is less than I could be living because I didn't have the courage or the faith to believe him for more. And I want to see more people able to step into that. So as far as like the again, short story long, what is she moving into? That's the kind of stuff I'm leaning into. And that's all the more why I'm I'm working to get the one-to-many stuff out as far as like Freedom Foundry and stuff like that, is to free up more of my time for that, for being able to step into the places of being able to bring that message to other people and help to call people into that. Because I believe that God is looking to just take, especially this coming generation, I believe He's looking to do amazing things, huge things. And I want to see more people confidently stepping up in that and just being all out, all out, all in. They're like, let's go.

Amy Dardis 1:10:01

Yes, I love that. I love that. I love the power and the conviction and the purpose and the calling. And I feel like that is an attribute of God, right? It's like that God wants He is the a passionate God, and and it's this fight for identity, right? It's this fight for purpose and calling. And and you know, your brand revivalist, like you are a revivalist, and it's like this this revival of just like purpose and calling and passion. And it is, it is a war, it is a battlefield. And I think it's to our detriment that we downplay that, you know, that we downplay what is truly at stake when we settle, when we get stuck in these ruts, knowing that God created us for more, he calls us two more and four more. And we're missing out when we don't step into that. And it's so cool to see the way that he uses, you know, how he wires you, how he uses your business, but then also how he uses this calling, and it's all connected. And I feel like that is just that is the coolest thing that the way God orchestrates all of those things instead of living in this world where we think business and identity and faith are all separate. They are not at all. No, they are not. So, where where can people find you? Where can they follow you and get connected? Get on this, get on this revival.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:30

So, you know, I'm on the I'm on the usual channels, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram. The easiest place to start would be to go to my website, thebrandrevivalist.com. And of course, there are all sorts of links and resources and things like that that they're welcome to connect with, connect with me there. And uh, and then yeah, subscribe to my YouTube channel. And that one is just at Brand Revivalist.

Amy Dardis 1:11:55

Okay, perfect. And I will make sure that those are linked in the show notes. But yeah, that's all for today. Thank you so much for joining me and for this conversation. I know I feel excited and pumped up, so I hope our listeners do too. Likewise, thank you so much for having me.